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-