Nobody can wish away Nubian land question

Updated Monday, June 7 2010 at 00:00 GMT+3
By Ismail Ramadhan


Over the years, The Standard has positively highlighted different aspects of the plight and cultural heritage of the Nubians (September 5, 1968; October, 1995; April 18, 1996) and your latest contribution in your issue of, May 27.
One issue the feature Endless agitation for land by Nubians exposed, is the perennial insincere, dishonest, and manipulative posturing that has characterised the relationship between this community on the one hand and the political class and bureaucrats on the other.
Hopes and promises given for security of tenure for a piece of land in Kibera to be allocated to the Nubian community have been rising and falling in tandem with the country’s electoral cycle driven by the political elite and perfected by their bureaucrats.
Any time these three parties meet, particularly around election times, Nubians’ views would be patiently and studiously heard and appropriate positive responses given to their genuine complaints, thereby raising their hopes.
But when points arising from such sittings are followed up with the bureaucrats, no tangible or conclusive results are ever forthcoming.
You quote what Deputy Lands Commissioner, Peter Kahuho, had to say, when the reported presidential directive and outcome of another meeting between the Nubians and the PM (and Minister of Lands and officials) at his office about two months ago were being followed up.
This was typical of how this community is being taken round in circles with different players at different times since their forefathers first settled in Kibera over a century ago.

Merry-go-round
 Statements by Kahuho are unfortunate. It is on record that Physical Planning officials working under their then Director from the Ministry of Lands undertook the exercise of demarcation and data collection Kahuro referred to, in conjunction with the Provincial Administration and officials from Kibra Land Committee between December 2000 and May, 2002.
Data was collected on the structures and people in the area earmarked for issuance of Community Land Trust for the Nubian community by surveyors, clerks, and security provided by provincial administration. The exercise was guided by the "Existing Kibra Nubian Village" plan produced by the Ministry of Lands. On July 5, 2002, the then Minister for Lands and Settlement, Noah Katana Ngala signed a Certificate of Incorporation under The Trustee (Perpetual Succession) Act registering 13 Nubian trustees of "The Kibra Land Committee Community Trust."
All these documents and information should be available at the Ministry of Lands. Furthermore, the cost associated with the land demarcation and data collection was shared between the Government and the Nubian community through Kibra Land Committee.
Is Kahuho suggesting that all these efforts and incurred costs were in vain? How could the community contribution be written off without accountability and expected benefits realised? How many times should claims of others be met before even considering those of the Nubians? Is this not the merry-go-round Nubians have been subjected to over the years?

And it is not just during the post-Independence period that this kind of drama is being played out on the Nubians. On September 22, 1960, the colonial government, through the then Ministry of Housing, issued ‘The Legal Position of The Land At Kibera’ following the Carter Land Commission Report of 1953. Item 7 of the legal position stated that:- "...Government recognises that it has a moral obligation to the residents of long standing at Kibera, especially those ex-askaris of the King’s African Rifles (Nubians) who were issued with permits to live there by the military authorities, and it has no intention or desire to move them from Kibera."
The idea of upgrading the Kibera settlement to a modern standard sprang from this position but the manner in which projects to translate this idea into reality were carried out, through inhibitive allocation criteria and favouritism, left the Nubians exposed to the manipulation of those with vested economic and political interest in Kibera.
The projects came in the form of several biased government-sponsored pilot housing schemes (Salama, Jamhuri, Fort Jesus, Olympic, Ngei, Ayany estates, etc) that hived a good portion of the original 4,197 acres Nubians occupied and ended up marginalising and concentrating them into the present Kibera Slum, ignored their agitation for security of tenure for Kibera land, and never achieved the expected roll-out phase that would have avoided the slum status that Kibera has now assumed.

The Government has the moral, social and legal obligation and responsibility to be sincere in its dealings with the Nubian leadership and community to avoid speculation and possible misrepresentation of issues.

SOURCE http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000011020&pageNo=2

AG, Orengo summoned to court over Nubians land

Updated Wednesday, May 16 2012 at 00:00 GMT+3
By Isaiah Lucheli
The High Court has summoned the Attorney General (AG), Lands commissioner and Minister for Lands to appear before it over a petition by Nubian Rights Forum.
Justice Isaac Lenaola wants the three or their representatives to appear in court tomorrow to explain the ongoing slum upgrading programme in Kibera and how the AG’s office had handled concerns by Nubian community over imminent eviction from a place they have regarded as home for decades.

Justice Lenaola certified the application filed by Shafi Ali Hussein, chairman Nubian Rights Forum and members Hadija Yunis and Fatuma Abdulrahaman as urgent and directed that the matter be heard tomorrow.
In their application through lawyer Onsando Osiemo, Nubians have expressed concern over the slum upgrading programme and construction of roads, which they claim was appropriating their land and forcefully displacing them.
The community is demanding to be given legal recognition on all land they occupy and be issued with title deeds, noting that they initially owned 4,197 acres in Kibera but they had remained with 780 acres.
poverty and stigma
They also claimed that they are discriminated by Government since they have been denied public utilities. They added they are regarded as squatters, which has made them to live in poverty and stigma.
Nubians originally occupied Nuba Mountains in central part of Republic of Sudan until British invasion of their territory and their subsequent conscription into the colonial British Kings Africa Rifles in the early 1900s.
Their population stands at over 100,000 and the majority of them live in the expansive Kibera slum, while the remaining ones live in settlements in towns like Bondo, Kisumu, Kibos, Mumias, Meru, Isiolo, Mazeras, Eldama Ravine, Sondu, Kapsabet, Migori and Kisii.

SOURCE http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000058242&story_title=AG%2C-Orengo-summoned-to-court-over-Nubians-land

Kibera Nubians divided over 300-acre land

 Tuesday, 31 July 2012 00:06 BY STEPHENE SANGIRA 

A section of the Nubian community in the city is against the planned regularisation of their historical piece of land. The group, led by Abdul Majid Ramandan of the Community Rights Forum for Kibera, yesterday presented a memorandum to the Ministry of Lands against the Part Development Plan that is step towards issuing the Nubians with a title deed.
The government has proposed to issue the Nubians with 300 acres trust land, but the group allied to Majid want a total of 4000 acres they claim historically belongs to them. Area councillor Gore Mohammed, who also serves as the secretary of Kibera Land Committee that has been liaising with the provincial administration, City Hall and the Ministry of Lands, however accuses the Majid group as ‘self seekers.’
Gore dismissed the memorandum, which is allegedly against the 300 acres being offered, saying the talks have been long and winding and that the community should accept the offer as negotiations go on. “Moi Girls, Ligi Ndogo and the Harlequins Grounds along Ngong Road have all been built on land which previously belonged to the Nubian community, but we cannot ask that they be abolished as the negotiations currently going on are on give and take basis,” Gore said.
His sentiments were shared by Yahya Seby of the CRF for Kibera, who blamed lack of  information over the floating of the PDP. “We have agreed that we take the 300 acres the government is willing to process the title as at now. The other issues being raised will be handled at the right time constitutionally,” Yahya said. The Nubian community live in Kibera descended from the Nuba Mountains in what is now central Sudan.
They were allegedly forcibly conscripted into the colonial British army in the early 1900s when Sudan was under British rule. As part of the King’s African Rifles, a British colonial regiment, they were deployed to various parts of the then British East African. In 1904 British colonial authorities assigned Kibera to the Nubians as their home.
In their suit papers the Nubians are claiming they are a marginalised group by virtue of their culture and origin. They claim that the government discriminates against them by not providing them with utilities or public service in Kibera because they are squatters.

SOURCE http://www.the-star.co.ke/national/national/87391-nubians-divided-over-kibera-trust-land-