From its highly placed estates to the numerous scattered informal settlements, Nairobi estates derived their names from either the white settlers and through the corruption of various Maasai names just before the onset of colonialism.
Here is how Kibera slums derived its name.
Kibera is a local word from the Nubian tribe that simply means ‘forest’. The residential area acquired the present name by virtue of its initial proximity to the expansive Ngong Forest.
Towards the end of the World War One, the British government opted to gazette the over four thousand acres of land in the area to belong to a military reserve for the decommissioned Nubian soldiers who served in the colonial government.
The first Nubians to settle in the area came at around 1904. Kibera Nubians are among the earliest African residents to inhabit Nairobi City.
Apart from serving as soldiers in the famous King’s African Rifles, the Nubians were part of the first ever employees of the Kenya Bus Service (KBS) in the early 1930’s and later in the Kenya Police.
After Independence in 1963, Yunus Ali who was among the most prominent Nubians in the area became the first Nubian official in the then Legislative Council. Interestingly, there has never been another Nubian to occupy such a highly elated position ever since.
To date, there still exist some names in the slum area that date back to the time when the Nubian society who formed the majority of Kibera. Laini Saba, for instance, means ‘firing range’. It refers to the location of a shooting range as referred by the King’s African Rifles way back during the two World Wars.
Toi, where the present Toi market is located, means an open space.