BY SAADA IBRAHIM
We either solve this problem now or
never—this was the clear message given to the Nubian community of Nairobi’s
Kibera informal settlement by the National Land Commission.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum convened
to seek a permanent solution to the decades-long quest for rights over land
ownership in Kibera, Commissioner Abdulkadir Khalif from the National Land
Commission called upon the Nubian community to get out of their “comfort zones”
and start thinking progressively about the land question in Kibra.
“The National Land Commission is a new
institution. It has a wide mandate to deal with land issues across the country,
but it also has its limitations. For the Nubian people to solve their problem
about land, they must be well prepared and willing to work with the Commission
within the available legal structures,” Commissioner Khalif said.
For a community whose forefathers settled
in Kibra as early as 1918, the Nubians of Kibra are arguably the only ethnic
group to have Nairobi as their “shags”—the Kenyan slang for ancestral home.
In this regard, Mr Khalif called upon the
forum to elect a trusted and all-inclusive committee that would work with the
Commission towards finding a lasting solution to the dispute surrounding the
Nubian land of Kibra.
“I want you to establish a committee that
will be working together with us. The Commission does not have an instant or
ready-made solution to your problem—the work of the Commission is to look for a
solution, and the solution will only come from you the people of Kibra,” he
emphasized.
The size of the land the Nubians of Kibra
are claiming rights of ownership is a very controversial issue. Many Nubians of
Kibra, citing unconfirmed colonial records, say that their forefathers were
allocated 4000 acres of land way back in 1918, but that size has kept on
shrinking over the years due to encroachment by people from other communities.
As a result of the encroachment, Nubians
are currently squeezed on approximately 300 acres in Kibra, thus posing a huge
crisis for the community as their population continues to grow yet, unlike
other Kenyan communities, they don’t have any other land to fall back to.
“If nothing is done to secure and safeguard
the remaining 300 acres of land in Kibra for the Nubian community, then we face
extinction in Nairobi because we don’t know where our future generation will
stay,” said Jamaaldin Yahya, a prominent defender of Nubian land rights in
Kibra.
Indeed, the threat of extinction is very
real for the Nubians of Nairobi. Because of the uncertainties occasioned by
deprivation of land ownership rights which leads to socio-economic
marginalization, many young Nubian men
are scared of venturing into marriage and starting families.
“The situation we live in makes it very
difficult for young Nubian men of Kibra to venture into family life. Young
Nubian women also prefer to get married to men from other communities where
they think their future would be secured. At this rate, the Nubian gene of
Kibra is threatened with extinction,” says Yusuf.
“Surely, how can a young Nubian man of
Kibra convince a woman to get married to him if he himself is not guaranteed of
a home? Our future as Nubian youth of Kibra is very precarious because we are
not sure whether the land we live on will still be ours in the next ten years.
So, until we are guaranteed of our lands rights, many of us will not risk going
into marriage and having children,” says Abubakaar.
It is in view of their precarious situation
that Kibra Nubians have called for an urgent and sustainable answer to the land
question in this area.
Going forward, the community wants the
National Land Commission to start by surveying and demarcating the 300 acres of
land on which they live today. After that, they want the Commission to
establish the legal position of this land and then proceed to secure its title
in favour of the Nubian community. Thereafter, a serious urban development plan
can be agreed upon to see how the land can be used utilized for the benefit of
the community.
The community also wants the Commission to
establish how Nubians lost most of the 4000 acres given to their forefathers,
and thereafter establish a mechanism of compensation.
Source - The New Dawn.
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