Author, Greg Constantine, over the years compiled a photographic essay to highlight human rights violations against the Nubians in Kenya. Photography posses a lot of strength in documenting, preserving and expressing evidence. This provides a new platform for Nubian voices.
The book’s foreword was done by Yash Pal Ghai and introduction was done by Korir Sing’Oei.
Dominance of one or two tribes. Of all the minorities none has suffered more from the discrimination and neglect than the Nubians;
Nubians were conscripted from Sudan by the British and brought to Kenya and Uganda at the end of the 19th Century to serve under the King’s African Rifles to help its imperial mission of the annexation of Kenya and Uganda and to fight the major world wars on its behalf. The Nubians were first brought to Kenya in the 1890s.
The British rejected the request of the Nubians return to Sudan which was under the British Control and never made any suitable arrangement for their continued stay in Kenya.
The Nubians occupied land outside Nairobi where they had no security of Land tenure. In Kibra they built mud huts which belonged to them but not the land underneath.
Even after independence the Nubians did not fare well in Kenya because they were not issued with citizenship. Hence, they are treated as foreigners by most Kenyans. They are stateless persons.
The Nubians find it hard to have access to Identification cards as well as passports. According to Prof. Yash Pal Ghai, they are in many cases worse off than refugees. This is because in most cases they are discriminated in terms of accessing government and private sector jobs. Further, they do not have access to educational institutions.
Not one of them holds a high public post. Due to their lack of documentation the Nubians easily fall prey of corrupt bureaucrats as well as the police. They easily become victims of forced bribes, a common occurrence in Kenya.
Nubians have been squatters on the land that they have called home for over a century. Greg Constantine held an exhibition in Nairobi in 2010 highlighting the plight of the Nubians. There is need to document the history of other ethnic minorities in Kenya to show how they have been neglected by the government and the society.
At the time of independence in 1963, Nubians should have automatically acquired citizenship by “operation of law.” This never happened.
In 2006, the Nubians sued the Kenyan state at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights for violation of various rights protected by the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. That is right to property, freedom from discrimination, freedom of movement and various economic, social and cultural rights.
At the same time, the Nubians also filed a complaint at the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) the body that monitors the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which Kenya ratified on 25 July, 2000. A complaint on behalf of the Nubian children was filed.
On 25 March 2011, the ACRWC found Kenya in violation of the rights of the Nubian children to nationality, non-discrimination and protection against statelessness.
Timelines of the Nubian Community
19th Century
Nubian soldiers are introduced to Arabic language as well as to Islam.
1883
Mahdist rebellion leads to cutting off from the rest of the country a province of Sudan known as Equatoria. Emin Pasha, the Governor of Equatoria increasingly Islamized and Arabized the province.
1890
Captain Fredrick Lugard of Imperial British East Africa sought Nubian Soldiers from Emin Pasha’s army to work in Uganda. The troops and their dependents, 10,000 people in total help the British to have a grip on power in Uganda.
1895
The British Foreign Office regularizes the Sudanese Soldiers as the Uganda Rifles and forms the East Africa Rifles.
1896
Construction of Uganda railway begins in Mombasa. The Sudanese soldiers were responsible for protecting it throughout the process.
1897
During Uganda Mutiny, the Sudanese soldiers protest their living conditions, low and irregular pay as well as separation from their families. The British discovered through the mutiny how dependent they are on the Sudanese soldiers.
1902
The Uganda railway is completed. The East Africa Rifles merges with the Uganda Rifles to form the King African Rifles (KAR) and for the first time recognized as regular troops of the Queen of England.
1904
Dependents of Sudanese soldiers start to settle throughout Uganda and Kenya. Kenya’s biggest settlement of Nubians was at Kibra in the soon to be Nairobi. In the Nubi language, Kibra means forest. Before the settlement of the Nubians, the Maasai had been using the land for limited grazing. The land was signed over to the British under the 1904 Maasai Agreements.
1912
The British military consent to the settlement at Kibra.
1915
The 1915 Crown Land Ordinance establishes Native Reserves and all Africans are relegated to their ethnic group’s Reserve. Those Africans without a research, and have developed an urban lifestyle are considered “detribalized natives”. The Sudanese soldiers and their families fell under this category.
1917
Kibra is surveyed and found to be 4,197.9 acres in size.
1918
Kibra is gazetted as a military reserve by the colonial government. Ex-soldiers of more than 12 years of service and their dependents are allowed to live on a plot in the area, they were allowed to build structures and graze a limited number of cattle on the land. They were also allowed to grow food as long as they have a ‘shamba’ pass.
1914 – 1918
King African Rifles (KAR) fight for the British in British Germany East Africa, Zambia (then known as North Rhodesia) and Mozambique during World War I.
1928
The colonial government on many occasion attempts to evict Nubians from Kibra. This is the time other Africans started living in Kibra as tenants and workers for the Sudanese.
1933
The Kenya Land Commission rules that the colonial authorities must find a settlement for the Nubians if they wish to move from Kibra. Such a settlement is never found.
1939 – 1944
The KAR fight for the British in Madagascar, Burma, Somalia and Northern Kenya during the World War II.
1939
Sudanese are permitted to live in Kibra because no other settlement was found.
1946 – 1948
The Uganda Railway is realigned to pass through Kibra and subsequently many Sudanese had their property destroyed and insufficient compensation was issued.
1948
The population of Kibra was 3,000 and half of them were Sudanese.
1954
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons came into effect and Kenya was not a signatory of this Convention.
1950s
Some Sudanese groups, out of fear of what will happen to them when Kenya becomes independent, declare their loyalty to the British and request for repatriation to Sudan. The request is rejected on numerous occasions. This was because the Nubians had lost all their connection to Sudan.
1962
The Nubian village of Salama is bulldozed to create the middle class estate of Karanja. This was the only estate where Nubian families were given preference during the allocation of houses. Those Nubian families still live there today.
1963
Kenya becomes independent on December 12. Sec 87 of the 1963 Constitution states that “every person who is born in Kenya, and who has a parent born in Kenya, is automatically a Kenyan citizen, as are all the British Protected persons in Kenya. The Nubians fall into the two categories.
As at this moment, Kibra’s land had reduced to 1,150 acres only. Most of the land was lost to European Housing estates and European sporting clubs.
1969
Yunus Ali is elected M.P.for Langata for one term on the KANU ticket. He was the first and only Nubian to be a Member of Parliament. Kibra is declared state land, in disregard of Nubian claims.
The National Census is conducted, only 42 tribes were recognized and Nubians were not part of them instead they were classified as “others”.
1970
Kibera land area further reduces to 550 acres.
1974 – 1979
A huge influx of non-Nubians into Kibera is witnessed under the MP Mwangi Mathai. This was because of sub-letting by Nubians and irregular allocation of land by the local administration.
1995
The second-generation of IDs cards are introduced in Kenya and a wide suspicion of Muslim and other communities thought to be non-indigenous in Kenya. This is the time the Nubians started experiencing discrimination in their access to ID cards.
1990s
Sporadic rent riots are experienced in Kibera and deaths and injuries reported.
2000
Nubians around Nairobi organize themselves into registered organizations to lobby for access to ID cards and land title in Kibra.
2001
Mounting tensions between Nubian and other residents in the lead up to the Njonjo Land Commission visit to Kibera. President Moi and Raila Odinga make careless comments which incite residents to refuse to pay rent. Hence, Nubians lose their livelihoods.
2003
The Center for Minority Rights and Development (CEMIRIDE) takes the Kenya State to the High Court to seek redress for the Nubians exclusion from citizenship. The case stalls.
2007-2008
Kibera is rocked by post-election violence. It is not targeted at the Nubians.
2009
The Nubians are given a code in the National Census.
2010
Kenya votes for the new Constitution. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provides for redress of historical injustices and affirmative action for marginalized communities.
2011
The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child finds Kenya in violation of the Right of the Nubian children.
Greg Constantine has been documenting the struggle of stateless minority groups around the world. His work has received awards such as NPPA best of Photojournalism and Human Rights Press Awards among others. Exhibitions of his photographs have been held in Nairobi, New York City, Washington DC, Dhaka, Geneva, London, Hong Kong and Los Angeles among other world capitals.
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