Land Holds Key to Kenyan Rivalries

 Zoe Flood

In a small office across the street from Kibera's main mosque, as the muezzin issues the call to prayer, Fatuma Abdulrahman unfurls a copy of a hand-drawn map showing a large area west of what is now the city centre of Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Dating back to 1932, the map shows "Kibra" - as it was named by Nubian soldiers from Sudan who were settled there - with Nubian homesteads and shambas, or allotments, neatly demarcated.

"This was all Nubian land," Abdulrahman said, pointing out areas on the map that are now well-heeled Nairobi suburbs. "The British gazetted over 4,197 acres in 1918 as a military reserve. But over time, the colonial power took land back, then post-independence chiefs allocated land to their people. And finally we saw politicians bringing their supporters in to Kibra to boost their electoral base."

Abdulrahman, a forceful and articulate human rights activist who was born and raised in Kibra, asked one of the few audience questions in Kenya's second televised presidential debate, inquiring what guarantees candidates would offer to minority communities like the Nubians.

Kenya's Nubian population is small, numbering 100,000 countrywide. Twenty-four thousand of them are estimated to live in an informal settlement in Kibera. But the Nubians' unsuccessful struggle for title deeds for land they have occupied for more than a century is a clue to the centrality of the issue to the country's politics.

In a small office across the street from Kibera's main mosque, as the muezzin issues the call to prayer, Fatuma Abdulrahman unfurls a copy of a hand-drawn map showing a large area west of what is now the city centre of Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Dating back to 1932, the map shows "Kibra" - as it was named by Nubian soldiers from Sudan who were settled there - with Nubian homesteads and shambas, or allotments, neatly demarcated.

"This was all Nubian land," Abdulrahman said, pointing out areas on the map that are now well-heeled Nairobi suburbs. "The British gazetted over 4,197 acres in 1918 as a military reserve. But over time, the colonial power took land back, then post-independence chiefs allocated land to their people. And finally we saw politicians bringing their supporters in to Kibra to boost their electoral base."

Abdulrahman, a forceful and articulate human rights activist who was born and raised in Kibra, asked one of the few audience questions in Kenya's second televised presidential debate, inquiring what guarantees candidates would offer to minority communities like the Nubians.

Kenya's Nubian population is small, numbering 100,000 countrywide. Twenty-four thousand of them are estimated to live in an informal settlement in Kibera. But the Nubians' unsuccessful struggle for title deeds for land they have occupied for more than a century is a clue to the centrality of the issue to the country's politics.


Source: Aljazeera.com