KIBERA: The History of the Nairobi Slum

The Kibera settlement started way back in 1912 when the British colonial government settled Nubian (Sudanese) soldiers who had been part of the King's African Rifles on an area of land that came to be known as Kibera, which means forest in a Nubian language.
For more information refer to the folowing link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_African_Rifles
The British Government surveyed Kibera as a military reserve and formerly established it as a resettlement for the Nubian soldiers and their families in 1918. By then Kibera was a bushy place of 4,000 hectares with only 600 Nubians living there.

In 1928 the British Army transferred the administration of Kibera to the Municipal Council. All existing permits were cancelled and inhabitants of Kibera were required to go through a process in which they had to prove their Nubian history.
The Nubians were declared "Tenants of the Crown", meaning the commissioner of Lands could terminate their tenancy at any time, in other words all structures built in Kibera had to be temporary because the Government still retained the right to demolish any structure and use the land for any governmental project.

In 1948 there was the first demand to remove Kibera because of health problems in the area. Despite its bad environment and health conditions, Kibera continued growing and during the 1970s it started booming with a population increasing from estimated 6,000 inhabitants in 1965 to 62.000 in 1980, 248.360 in 1992, and 500.000 in 1998, with an estimated growth ratio of 17% per year. The density leads to the current estimate of 700.000 to 1.000.000 people, with a density of over 2,000 per hectare, and an average of 3.2 to 4.6 people per room, which makes ofKibera the largest slum in Africa.
The density in Kibera reaches 200.000 people per square meter. To give you a better idea, Monaco is the nation with the highest density with 23.660 inhabitants per sqare km. The city with highest density is Male', in Maldives, with 48.007 inhabitants per square km.

The rural to urban migration quickened the rapid growth of Kibera’s population. This is because people from rural areas have perception that Nairobi being the capital city, has more job opportunities.  Furthermore, overall decline in agricultural productivity combined with a growing population.