This study focuses on poor people's lived experience with poverty. Despite Kenya being a lower middle-income country, it has a poverty prevalence of 36%. In addition, Kenya is rapidly urbanizing with about 40% of the population living in cities and towns. High rural poverty prevalence with reduced investments in agriculture pushes the youthful population to urban and peri-urban areas straining the limited infrastructure. To address this problem, the government and development partners have come up with policies and programmes, which aim at spurring economic growth. However, studies have shown that the benefits of economic growth do not always trickle down to the poor. In addition, poverty alleviation programmes which aim to improve the outcomes in the various dimensions of wellbeing adopt top-down approaches; hence are far removed from the realities of the people. Using Ethnographic design, this study seeks to answer the question; how does poor peoples’ everyday survival tactics influence the sustainability of poverty alleviation programmes?