Umoja is a residential suburb in the city of

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

. Located within the larger sub-county of

Embakasi Embakasi is a neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. It is approximately , southeast of the central business district. Embakasi is considered part of Nairobi's Eastlands area, lying to the south-east of Nairobi County. The Embakasi proper cover ...

and the Eastlands area of Nairobi. It is approximately east of Nairobi's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

. Umoja consists of three smaller neighbourhoods: Umoja I, Umoja II and Umoja Innercore.

Location

Umoja is located approximately east of Nairobi's

, within the Eastlands area in

. It neighbours other low middle-income to low-income suburbs such as Buruburu,

Donholm Doonholm or Donholm is a commercial and residential neighbourhood in Nairobi. A legacy of what was a dairy farm with the same name, Doonholm is a suburb in the Eastlands area of Nairobi. It is located east of the Nairobi central business distric ...

, Kariobangi and Tena.

Overview

Umoja was commission by Nairobi City Commission to provide housing to the growing urban population. However, with the scarcity of funds, the council allowed residents to put up their own houses provided they are pay annual land rates. This saw Umoja and other neighbourhoods in Nairobi defying the initial

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

, building on open spaces, a consequence of the corruption and impunity within the city council. Umoja is now a high-density housing, low-income to lower middle-income neighbourhood in Nairobi. It is divided into three phases: South of Kangundo Road and East of Outer Ring Road, Umoja I covers the north and westerly parts, Umoja II to the east, with Umoja Innercore as some sort of enclave of the two. As per the 2019 census, Umoja had a population of 140,216, with 64,256 in Umoja I and 75,960 in Umoja II. The neighbourhood had a population density of 44,547/km² in a land area of 3.1km².

References

{{Nairobi, state=collapsed Suburbs of Nairobi Nairobi