Kaloleni is a residential neighbourhood in the city of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. It is approximately southeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Nairobi. It is one of the oldest estates in Nairobi, having been completed in the 1940s.

Location

Kaloleni is located approximately southeast of Nairobi's

. It is straddled by Jogoo Road to the south. It borders other neighbourhoods such as

Makongeni Makongeni is in Nairobi. Makongeni has been built for rail workers in the mid-20th century. The County Rep for Makongeni ward in Nairobi County is Peter Imwatok of ODM party. A Makongeni Primary School exists in ''Makongeni'' and a Makongeni Second ...

and Industrial Area.

Overview

Following recommendations by Sir Charles Mortimer, who chaired the African Housing Committee (AHC), conception of Kaloleni began as early as 1927. Its initial stages of the estate's design was greatly influenced by Garden City Concept, although the final blueprint was informed by the template created by American urban planner

Clarence Perry Clarence Arthur Perry (1872 – September 6, 1944) was an American urban planner, sociologist, author, and educator. Perry devised the neighbourhood unit plan, a residential community scheme disseminated through the Regional Plan of New York and I ...

based on his concept, the

Neighbourhood Unit Generally the concept of the neighborhood unit, crystallised from the prevailing social and intellectual attitudes of the early 1900s by Clarence Perry, is an early diagrammatic planning model for residential development in metropolitan areas. It w ...

. The estate was built in the 1940s by the Italian prisoners of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. The

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a bu ...

were built of stone, roofed with Mangalore tiles, and floors finished with cement screed. Kaloleni Social Hall was completed with the same design as the bungalows but was bigger. It is at Kaloleni Social Hall that social and political meetings were convened in an effort to push for

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

. Kaloleni was completed in the 1948 and gifted to World War II veterans, the

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions withi ...

. The neighbourhood has remained relatively unchanged but the houses have become dilapidated and in need of renovation. Kaloleni residents have put up informal extensions, and rented them out for extra income.

References

{{Nairobi, state=collapsed Suburbs of Nairobi