HISTORY IS INEVITABLE

When the Uganda Railway reached Nairobi, the British noted that there were already a number of Kenyan Somali living in Nairobi.

By 1914 the number had grown to 300. The largest Somali urban settlement was therefore found in Nairobi .

 After 1927, Isiolo town became the second most important centre for Somalis. The British also envisioned the town as somewhere they could settle Somalis who had fought in the war.

One trait the British noted from the Somali was their defiance. Colonial administrator Henry Johnstone wrote in 1913, "they (Somali) have shown themselves inimical from the start."

The Governor of Kenya noted in 1928, " Somali tribesmen have always adopted an independent and truculent attitude ... they defy our laws and pay no taxes."

But they also gave them credit where it was due. J. W. Gregory remarked, " Scratch the Somali" and you will find someone with great "devotion and discipline, and latent powers of organisation."

Similarly Charles Eliot commissioner for East Africa Protectorate between 1900-1904, commented, "there can be no doubt that they are the most intelligent race in the protectorate."

At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Nairobi was divided into seven distinct areas:

 The railway centre, the Indian bazaar, the European business and administrative centre, the railway quarters, the Dhobi quarter, the European residential suburb (Parklands), and the military barracks outside of the town.

Non Europeans lived either in the Indian bazaar, or in various African villages.  

These included the unplanned African estates of Kileleshwa, Mji wa Mombasa, Masikini, and Pangani, as well as the four Somali villages, which were all located in heart of the European business and administrative centre, bounded by Muranga rd.

By 1910, colonial officials recognised the need to relocate African villages to other parts of Nairobi because of their unsanitary conditions.

There had been outbreaks of the plague in 1901–2 and 1904, and then again in 1911, 1912, and 1913.

As was elsewhere in Africa , the combination of economic policy and sanitary science was used as an excuse to expel Africans from European towns, and for the development of segregationist policies.

On 26 August 1916, all Somali headmen living in Nairobi were informed of the government’s decision to relocate them to Mbagathi. 

The decision was taken following the expansion of Swamp Road in January 1915, to create a thoroughfare between the European residential area of Parklands and the centre of Nairobi.

During the extension work, the medical authorities had discovered nearly twenty cases of Smallpox in the village of Hassan Hersi.

Consequently, the Europeans living nearby, submitted a request for the removal of the Somali.

Upon receiving the notice of their removal the Somali called a meeting on the N’gara Plains on 15, 16 and 17 September 1916. 

Five men, Hussein Ali, Hassan Hersi, Abu Bakar Sugale, Hassan Yusuf, and Aden Jama, were chosen to represent about 300 village residents. 

They employed the legal services of solicitors, Shapely and Schwartz to draft their complaints, and to present their case to the protectorate authorities and the British government. 

They also employed architects Tate, Smith, and Henderson to construct plans for an alternative new model village.

In rejecting their relocation to Mbagathi Somali families emphasized the longevity of their residence in Nairobi, having lived their for about 17 years.  

They also pointed out that most of the inhabitants of the villages were working for the government and military as askaris and interpreters, and that it would be impossible for them to carry out their business in Nairobi, if they were living in Mbagathi.

Although the Somali later agreed in principle to relocate , even if not to Mbagathi, they sought security of tenure.  

They requested their lawyers Shapely and Schwartz, to recommend the construction of houses made of stone or cement, with ceilings ten feet high, bathrooms with drainage, and crucially, a 99-year lease.

The architectural plans for the model village produced by their architects Tate, Smith, and Henderson showed a central 100-foot wide boulevard lined with eucalyptus trees for keeping away mosquitoes.

 Secondary streets with plots for housing, run parallel to the main boulevard and were 60 feet wide. 20-foot wide back streets for drainage ran between each two rows of houses. 

However, the relocation never took place because of financial constraints caused by world war l.

The question of the creation of a native location nonetheless resurfaced again 1919, when the new Nairobi Town Council considered plans for the layout of an area where Africans could live decently.

This led to the establishment of Pumwani estate in 1921. All African estates of Mombasa , Masikini and the four Somali villages were relocated there. 

By 1931 the population of Pumwani had swelled to 7,173, three thousand more than was originally conceived.In 1938, the village of Pangani was also demolished and moved to Pumwani, so that by 1939, there were well over 8,000 people residing there.

Overcrowding became a problem, and what was meant by the colonialists to be a planned African housing estate, soon turned into an uncontrolled settlement. 

They realised they had done a big mistake by setting up an African estate on the outskirts of Nairobi. Africans from up country who couldn't find a house,set-up their own informal structures, and crime was on the rise.

The fate of Somali semi-permanent dwellings in Pumwani was therefore revisited at the end of the Second World War.  

A memorandum on demolition was written in 1946, though it was not implemented, and the estate continued to expand towards the neighbouring estate of Eastleigh.

Like Pumwani, Eastleigh was also established in 1921, as a place where Indians could settle when the Indian bazaar was closed. However, the poor infrastructure at Eastleigh deterred many wealthier Indians from settling there.

A number of Isaq Somalis also bought a share of over 3,000 plots in Eastleigh. Isaq connections to kinsmen in other urban centres in Kenya, as well as to other Somali clans, meant that many other Somalis also visited and settled.

 By the 1930s and 1940s, Eastleigh was the biggest settlement of Somalis in Nairobi.