Umoja Estate’s identity crisis

Businesses and residential flats side by side in Umoja, Nairobi. [Photo: Wilberforce Okwiri /Standard]

By Allan Olingo

Built by the Nairobi City Commission in the 1970s mainly to provide housing for the growing urban population, Umoja Estate has grown to be one of Nairobi’s densely populated residential areas.

Just like other housing projects by the City Council, the original occupants had to pay a given amount of money based on the type of house provided for.

However with time, the council could not construct the houses due to dwindling finance and thus allowed people to construct their own houses on an arrangement where they would pay annual land rates.

This led to the mushrooming of blocks of flats that with time, changed the face of the estate, giving the image of an estate at war with its own being, a mishmash of structures and fast approaching squalor.

Located within the Embakasi Constituency, houses within Umoja Estate, or Umo as popularly referred, consists of a standard four-bedroom bungalow design and four storey apartments in various courts.

Many of the houses were at the beginning owner-occupied, but this has shifted as most resorted to letting them out. Others demolished the houses and built flats.

The average asking rental price is about Sh20,000 per month for the standalone houses. The servant’s quarters go for about Sh5,000. One bedroom apartments are about Sh10,000 and Sh15,000 for two bedroom apartments.

Interestingly, there are almost no offers for land for sale within this neighbourhood.

Access

Umoja can be accessed from the Nairobi Central Business District either through Jogoo Road and Outer Ring Road, or through Buruburu and the newly constructed Mutindwa Road.

The estate is served by matatus number 19, 35 and 60. Taxis from the city centre will charge you Sh1,500, but from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, you will part with about Sh2,500.

Umoja is also within the reach of several large supermarkets in Buruburu and Donholm.

Major hospitals serving Umoja residents include Gertrude’s Garden Children’s Hospital at Donholm, the Wentworth Hospital, the Aga Khan Medical Centre and Mater Hospital in Buruburu. It’s also closer to a public hospital, the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Kayole.

The security situation within Umoja is wanting, especially because of its proximity to the crime-prone Kayole and Kariobangi areas. The Buruburu Police Station and the Kayole Police Post serve this estate.