Kibera was the Nubian community’s first major settlement in Kenya. Indeed, the name Kibera is itself a corruption of Kibra, the Nubian term for "wilderness or bush." 

Prior to the Nubian's occupying it, Kibera formed part of the dry-season grazing zone for the Maasai. But this changed when Nubian soldiers from the 3rd and 4th battalions of the King's African Rifles (KAR) were allowed to live in the area by the British colonial government.

Later, in the early 1900s, the colonial government declared the area a military reserve which paved way for the first survey in 1917 and gazettement in 1918 to comprise 4,197.9 acres to the south of Ngong Road. 

The first lot of retired Nubian soldiers was allowed to settle in Kibera in 1912. Initially, these retirees were required to have a special pass that said they had been in the army for at least 12 years in order to be allowed to settle there. But when the administration of Kibera was handed over to civilian authorities in 1948, there was unprecedented growth in the population. 

Systematic hiving off of the original land began between 1950 and 1953, when Woodley Estate was built. Around the same period, part of the land was converted into the Royal Nairobi Golf Course while the Royal Agricultural Society was relocated to its present site in Jamhuri Park.

The movement of other communities into Kibera started in 1928 when a few Kikuyus from the neighbouring areas of Dagoretti, Riruta and Kabete, settled there. Later, large numbers of Kikuyus were to seek shelter with the Nubians at the height of the Mau Mau uprising and Emergency in the 1950s. However, it was only in the year 1966 that a major influx into the area by members of other ethnic communities in Kenya began. 

By 1970, the original 4,197.9 acres had been reduced markedly to make room for the construction of residential estates. These estates replaced the Nubian settlements of Saran’gombe, Langata, Toi, Salama, Lomle and Laini Shaba. This happened over the years as is shown below:

Between 1962 and 1988, 10 major residential estates – Jamhuri, Otiende, Ngei, Onyonka, Fort Jesus, Salama, Soko Mjinga, Olympic, Ayany and Kibera High Rise – were constructed on the land originally settled by the Nubians. Although almost all of these estates replaced the original Nubian villages, most Nubians, according to the Kibera Land Committee, "never benefited."

By 1971, Kibera had dwindled to a mere 550 acres. But the shrinking area continued to attract streams of economic migrants who were evidently unwelcome in other parts of the city. 

The influx of other communities into the area has always had political dimensions. The Kikuyu, for instance, sought refuge in Kibera during the Emergency while there was a large-scale migration of members of the Luo community from such neighbouring areas as Dagoretti following the assassination of Tom Mboya in July 1969. It is said that the Luos fled these Kikuyu-dominated areas following threats to their lives and outbreaks of anti-Luo violence. 

Of course, other communities were only able to settle and construct dwellings in the area because the Nubians did not hold titles to the land. However, they were also "encouraged" by the fact that the city authorities never took any initiative to guide and control land use there, even after the slum became part of the city in 1963. 

Over the years, land allocation and "planning" has been left to the provincial administration who have not only engaged in selective allocation of the land (by favouring other communities and neglecting the Nubians), but have also systematically encouraged and benefited from land-related corruption.

"This reflects a belief, (which is in some cases unconscious among officials in the Kenya government) that the Nubians are not true Kenyans and so do not warrant land allocation," says a member of the Kibera Land Committee. 

In essence, the Nubians still live in Kibera as squatters with no legal entitlement to the land. The committee feels this is unjustified since Nubians were the original inhabitants of the land whose villages were demolished to create room for the estates.

Open spaces left behind after the demolitions of the villages were later occupied by migrants who constructed shanties, making Kibera the huge slum it is today, with no physical development plan, sewerage services or access roads. Kibera is home of the "flying toilet" phenomenon – until Oxfam led a recent campaign to build toilets in the area, many residents had resorted to defecating in polythene bags and then hurling them as far away from their own dwellings as possible.

Today, the remaining land in Kibera proper, on which the slum is constructed, is a mere 300 acres. The Nubians are largely settled in Toi, Makina, Lindi, Kambi Lendu, Kambu Aluru, Kambi Muru, Mashimoni and Makongeni and have been claiming entitlement to these areas.

Nubians are to be found in almost all the major towns of Kenya. In Kisumu, they have settled in Kibos, Kibigori and Kendu Bay. And just as in Kibera, a characteristic phenomenon in most of these areas has been the constant disruption of the Nubians’ livelihoods and their almost incessant relocation to other areas.

For instance, the Nubians living near Kibos Railway Station in Kisumu had earlier been settled in old Kisumu town, in the area where the Kisumu airport is located today. When the colonial government wanted to expand the airport, it moved the Nubians to the area now called Nubian Estate in Kisumu town, where it constructed some 40 housing units. Each of the units was designed to be inhabited by two Nubian families. But owing to cultural considerations, many refused to take up the offer, claiming that the houses were not sufficient for their needs. 

However, 15 families agreed to move to the area. The rest were given the option of settling in the area next to the Kibos Railway Station where they were required to construct their own houses. This is the original community that settled on 14 acres at Kibos in 1937. 

But, again, the Nubian community in Kibos was never officially allocated the land and has been living as squatters under constant threat of being evicted. According to the community, this threat resurfaced in 1996 when officials from the Kisumu District Survey office attempted to parcel out an industrial plot and a 40-metre road from an area where the community had constructed dwellings and a mosque. The EastAfrican is in the possession of a Part Development Plan Reference Number N6/96/26 that bears this out. According to the chairman of the Kibos Nubian Community, Saidi Juma Baballa, the Nubians have been threatened with eviction from the area on a number of occasions as well. 

On its part, the community in the Nubian Estate of Kisumu had been living in peace with its neighbours until landgrabbing became a nationwide sport in Kenya in the late 1980s. Members of the community told The EastAfrican that, last year, an army officer "invaded" the estate, claiming that all the colonial-era houses had been condemned by the government and the whole area allocated to him by the president. The man, whose name we cannot publish for legal reasons, managed to demolish four of the houses before he was stopped by the provincial administration. 

The community today lives on a number of plots covering less than three acres. In a letter signed by its leaders, Yussuf Hussein Farjalla, Idris Hussein Farjalla and Ajib Mohammed, dated January 9, the community urged the government to "issue us with letters of allotment and thereafter lease for the plots."