In Summary
•Eastleigh residents, many of whom are Somalis, are trying to organise the area they have called home for years
The actual number of people of Somali origin in Kenya – both Kenyan Somalis and those from Somalia – has become a bone of contention since the release of the 2009 census results last month.
The results finally released on August 31 that put the number of ethnic Somali Kenyans at 2.4 million have been discredited as being too large because of enumeration errors in parts of North Eastern Province, and a new count has been ordered.
The disputed numbers rank Somalis sixth by size, of the country’s 42 tribes.
Some analysts see a relation between the violence and instability in neighbouring Somalia and the growing number of Somalis in Kenya.
Earlier this year, some analysts suggested that Sh164 billion in unclaimed foreign exchange discovered at the Central Bank of Kenya was ransom received by Somali pirates.
The Somali issue, especially regarding non-Kenyan Somalis, just won’t go away.
Nairobi’s Eastleigh and environs with 348,778 inhabitants has become an extension of what was the Republic of Somalia before it crumbled into anarchy in 1991. The population figure covers Eastleigh North, Air Base, Eastleigh South, California and Kiambiu.
Undetermined number
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there are about 400,000 Somali refugees registered in Kenya, most of them in camps in the northeastern part of the country. But an undetermined number have not registered, and many of them are believed to be in Eastleigh.
Daily prayers from numerous mosques pierce the air in Eastleigh, a neighbourhood that never sleeps on the eastern side of Nairobi’s central business district.
In the past decade, there has been serious construction of settlements, booming retail businesses and telecommunications operations in the area.
Eastleigh is well networked to the rest of the world via satellite, and informal services called hawala facilitate the rapid dispatch of cash to the Somali diaspora throughout the world.
Eastleigh originally was open savannah where wild animals roamed before Somalis and other Africans were pushed east by the European settlers. The gradual entry of Somalia into Nairobi happened earlier on under the patronage of the British.
The first batch of Somalis came to Nairobi as escorts and guards for British Empire builders like Lord Delamere and Lord Lugard. A few others came to work on the Kenya-Uganda railway.
Those with Lord Delamere ensured that the hunter was well guarded, and when he faced danger, the Somalis saved his life. This cemented their relationship, and years later in Nairobi, Delamere and other settlers fought to secure the interest of Somalis in Nairobi whenever they were threatened.
Somalis went about their businesses in Nairobi with their heads held high. Because of their service to the British, many considered themselves in a higher class than other Africans.
Somalis lived in Kileleshwa very close to the Europeans, near what today is Museum Hill. But when trouble broke out in Nairobi when the city was still forming, many of the Somalis were pushed to Eastleigh.
Plague broke out in the Indian Bazaar, following which the famous 1914 Simpson report recommended drastic measures that would segregate the races that had congregated in Nairobi on different missions.
Asians were held in higher racial regard than Africans. In their quest for status in Nairobi, Somalis wanted to remain with the Asians, arguing that they were aliens in Kenya and had lived in Asia before moving to Kenya.
The Somali villages within the projected European leasehold area consisted of 126 houses – 64 owned by 57 people.
Source: Daily Nation
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