3. A complicated history
Kibera's history stems back to Nairobi's colonial days, when many native Kenyans were forced out of the residential areas of the city – at that point a minor railroad depot – by the Imperial British East Africa Company in the late 1800s. This action paved the way for longstanding conflicts over land rights.
Kibera itself was formed when Nubian mercenaries from Sudan, who were conscripted into the King's African Rifles during World War I, were allowed to squat in a wooded hillside area outside Nairobi after the war. The former soldiers built homes in what they called kibra, meaning "forest" or "jungle." They were never given title to the land. Thus, Kibera was born.
No formal recognition
Location of Kibera relative to city center (OpenStreet)
Over the subsequent years, rural Kenyans from across all of the country's thirty to forty tribes moved to Nairobi seeking work, and over the course of time multitudes became tenants to the Nubians who were now their landlords. The slum grew to over 6,000 people by the 1960s; yet, the area was never included in any of the City's infrastructure plans. In 1963, Nairobi City Council implemented "slum clearance" policies that further complicated the things.
Rapid growth
In a subtle shift of policy in 1974, Nairobi removed certain building restrictions, allowing essentially anyone to come to Kibera to build structures to rent to tenants. When combined with the ongoing trend of urbanization, this action propelled Kibera's population growth rate significantly. Assuming a current population of around 700,000 to 900,000, Kibera has grown on average 11%-12% per year since the 1960s.
In the mid-1980s, Nairobi implemented Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) to stimulate economic growth, with the side-effect of pulling health and civil services out of the city's slums. To this day, Kibera is not an official part of the city's Master Plan, and Nairobi does not provide ambulance or police support to the slum.
Today's Kibera
The slum today includes people from nearly all of Kenya's tribes, including people from the Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kamba, Kalenjin, and Kisii tribes. Many tenants from various tribes congregate together in one or more of Kibera's villages:
|
1. Makina 2. Mashimoni 3. Laini Saba 4. Silanga 5. Kambi Muru |
6. Gatwekera 7. Kianda 8. Lindi 9. Kisumu Ndogo |
10. Kicchinjio 11. Raila 12. Soweto East 13. Soweto West |
Terrain challenges: many parts of Kibera are built on unstable mounds of dirt and trash
