Members of the Nubian community have blocked the planned slum
upgrading and road construction projects in Kibera. They say the
projects if allowed to go on will infringe on their constitutional
rights on land ownership, adding that the community is faced with the
danger losing its land in Kibera. In suit papers filed in a Nairobi
court, the Nubians say despite the fact that they have inhabited Kibera
for over 150 years, the government has failed to recognise their
rights and issue them with title deeds.
They
discrimination against the Nubian community has denied them the right
to own private property and other benefits. They said their right to
own land, which is enshrined in the constitution has been and continues
to be violated by government, which has failed to issue them with
titles. The consequences of these massive violations of the constitution
have led to the community’s disenfranchisement, exclusion and extreme
poverty, it is argued.
Shafi Ali Hussein, Khadija Yunis
Ali and Fatuma Abdulrahman, who filed the case on behalf of the
community says lack of land ownership has caused them to be displaced
from their homes without compensation since independence. The
government, they said, has always treated squatters on the land and
forcibly evicted at will for other developments.
Kenyan Nubians
descended from the Nuba Mountains in what is now central Sudan. They
were 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 throughout
various parts of the then British East African including Kenya.
In
1904 British colonial authorities assigned Kibera to the Nubians to
serve as their home. And in their suit papers the Nubians are saying by
virtue of their culture and origin they are a marginalised group in
Kenya. The government discriminates against them by refusing to provide
them with any utilities or public service to Kibera because they are
squatters, it is argued. This has left them to live in abject poverty
and with little life prospects.
Tuesday, 15 May 2012 23:48
BY JILLO KADIDA
SOURCE - http://www.the-star.co.ke/national/national/75865-nubians-move-to-halt-kibera-slum-upgrading
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