The future is shining in Kenya. By many measures, life is better than it has ever been. A decade of steady economic growth has made Kenya a rising middle-income country. Reports on the health and education of the population show indicators are marching upwards. On the streets, a sense of hope and hustle prevails. This is progress.

Kennedy Odede is the co-founder of Shofco, a grassroots movement for urban slum transformation. Photograph: Atieno Muyuyi/The Guardian

However, there is a rebellion brewing. As rural to urban migration continues to push more young people into slums, only to be met with despair, an uprising looms. I say this not as an alarmist, but as an activist.

In the cities, a growing majority of Kenyans are struggling to realise the promise of urban life. The World Bank estimates that 56% of Kenya’s urban population live in slums, amounting to more than 4 million people. As urbanisation pushes the economy upwards, the growing slum problem cannot be overlooked.

Too many poor families are leaving their village for the city, only to find their dream of urban life was an illusion. This is how my life began three decades ago. I was born in rural Kenya during a long drought. It drove my family to the city, drawn by the “bright lights of opportunity”. Arriving in Nairobi, uneducated and unskilled, my family struggled to survive. From the age of two, I grew up in Kibera slum, the largest in Africa.

Q&A Why are we reporting on Kibera? Show More than 60% of all African city dwellers live in slums. As the climate crisis continues to drive people away from rural areas and into cities, urbanisation has become a growing issue across the globe. The Guardian's Global development team travelled to Africa's biggest slum, Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya, in an effort to look beyond the stereotypes and myths of life in a slum. Many people living in Kibera work hard, long days. They pay high rents for flimsy shacks on land owned by the government and effectively squatted on by landlords. They have no services and the only taxation comes in the form of protection money demanded by police and gangs. Each day is a struggle to scrape together enough money and food to reach the next. Electricity, clean water, toilets, healthcare and schools are either non-existent or not available to all residents. At any one time, 50% of Kibera's 15- to 25-year-old women are pregnant. Abortion is illegal and contraception scarce. Rape and child sex abuse is endemic. Abuse of drink and drugs is rife. Food is cheap but unhealthy – fizzy drinks are easier to get than clean water.

Life in Kibera is a harsh and grinding reality. Growing up as a disempowered young person makes it so easy to be angry. I saw many organisations parachute into my community with grand plans. I watched as each of their programmes somehow went astray. I’ll always remember one aid group that came in and built a public latrine. After they left, a neighbour shacked up inside the structure and declared it his home. I’m sure they never returned to discover that their grand plan had turned out to be one man’s home makeover.

‘I spent 21 years of my life enraged by the lack of access to basic services like running water’. Photograph: Kate Holt/The Guardian

I spent 21 years of my life angry, enraged by the lack of access to basic services like running water, electricity, healthcare, or any kind of opportunity. Unable to afford school fees, I had to teach myself to read by studying newspapers from the garbage. Eventually, against all odds, I found a better path.

I taught myself to read by studying newspapers from the garbage. Eventually, I found a better path

Whilst urbanisation is not a new trend, it is one that is accelerating. According to UN statistics, two-thirds of the world will live in cities by 2030. Africa is the fastest urbanising continent on the planet. If our society fails to create dignity and opportunity in growing slum communities, urbanisation will push slum dwellers to the brink.

Most young people in the slums never get an opportunity to overcome their circumstances. We must transform urban slums so that young leaders can chart a new course for their communities, and for our increasingly urban world.

My organisation, Shining hope for communities (Shofco), is leading a grassroots movement for urban slum transformation across Kenya. We work hand in hand with community leaders through a programme called Shofco Urban Network (Sun), which puts community leaders in charge of the agenda for slum development. Sun provides an organising mechanism to help slum dwellers hold charitable organisations and government officials to account. This gives power back to the people.

To tackle the challenges of slum development, it matters who sets the agenda, and who does the work. Truly grassroots or indigenous organisations are still on the fringe. But anyone who lives in a slum will tell you that our problems cannot be solved in isolation. We need to break the system that keeps people in poverty. The community knows best how to achieve this.

Sun is active in nine urban slums across Kenya’s major cities: Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware and Mukuru kwa Njenga in Nairobi, Bangladesh, Maweni and Mashimoni in Mombasa, and Obunga and Nyalenda in Kisumu.

Kennedy Odede next to the water tower built by Shofco, which runs an aerial water pipe across the slum, bringing clean water to people living nearby. Kibera, Nairobi. Photograph: Atieno Muyuyi/The Guardian

Our leaders act like community councils, promoting peace and social cohesion across ethnic/tribal lines and organising community clean-ups, education and cultural awareness through the arts. We also engage with local politicians to push for accountability around campaign promises.

Anyone can become a Sun member and gain access to basic economic resources. We have trained community members to form savings and loans groups. Last year, our 8,347 savings group members made the equivalent of $223,000 (£179,000) in peer-to-peer loans. Our network demonstrates that it is possible to restore dignity and empowerment without relying on aid. Our self-empowerment model focuses on inspiring a new wave of grassroots leaders who want to shape a better future for their communities.

It is time for funders and policymakers to recognise the legitimacy and revolutionary power of community-based leadership. Only when we empower slum communities to design their own large-scale projects and policies, will we stand a chance at solving the slum problem for good. Only then can we unlock the hope that makes all people shine.