Ofafa | |
|---|---|
Suburb | |
  Ofafa Location in Kenya | |
| Coordinates: 1°17′38″S36°51′39″E / 1.29389°S 36.86083°E Coordinates: 1°17′38″S36°51′39″E / 1.29389°S 36.86083°E | |
| Country |  |
| Region | Nairobi region |
| County | Nairobi County |
Ofafa is a southeastern neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya in a low income, high-density area generally known as the Eastlands. [1] Politically it belongs to Makadara Constituency. In the mid-1950s the Quakers erected a building in Ofafa to act as a hub for individual craftspeople making and selling furniture. [2] It is also known for its Jericho school.
Nairobi is the capital and the largest city of Kenya. The name comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to "cool water", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had a population of 3,138,369 in the 2009 census, while the metropolitan area has a population of 6,547,547. The city is popularly referred to as the Green City in the Sun.
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa with 47 semiautonomous counties governed by elected governors. At 580,367 square kilometres (224,081 sq mi), Kenya is the world's 48th largest country by total area. With a population of more than 52.2 million people, Kenya is the 27th most populous country. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi while its oldest city and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu City is the third largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria. Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret.
Makadara Constituency is an electoral constituency in Nairobi County, Kenya. It is one of seventeen constituencies in the county. It was created for the 1997 elections, but was also known as Doonholm constituency for the 1963 and 1969 elections, then as Bahati Constituency. It consists of central and southern of central areas of Nairobi County. The entire constituency is located within Nairobi county, and has an area of 13 km².
Early housing estates there were part of Erica Mann's planning work in the 1940s and 1950s. [3] The Ofafa Jerusalem scheme created two-storey blocks of maisonettes that were connected to the electrical supply, had an internal water supply and sanitation, and were surrounded by ample open space. [4] The 1950s Ofafa Jericho estate was built in a similar style but now houses about 50,000 people: five times more than it was intended for. [1] People are living in poor quality iron sheet extensions and water and waste management are inadequate. [1]
A housing estate is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance. A housing development is "often erected on a tract of land by one builder and controlled by one management." In the British Isles, the term is quite broad, and can include anything from high rise government-subsidised housing, right through to more upmarket, developer-led suburban tract housing.
Erica Mann was an architect and town planner and later in her life an NGO head who lived and worked in Kenya for almost all her adult life after fleeing her home in Romania during the Second World War. She made a significant contribution to the 1948 master plan for Nairobi and also took a leading role in planning Mombasa and other parts of Kenya. She became interested in development projects seeking to improve living standards and was director of the Women in Kibwezi project, which was recognised at the United Nations Habitat II conference in 1996. The "Woman in Kibwezi" project was but one of several NGO's she headed across Kenya, many of them engaged in fostering women's cooperatives. In 2003 she was honoured with the title of Architect Laureate for Kenya.
Ofafa was named after Ambrose Ofafa, a prominent politician who received a Colonial Service award on the 1953 Coronation Honours list, and was murdered in November of the same year. [5]
The 1953 Coronation Honours were appointments by Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours on the occasion of her coronation on 2 June 1953. The honours were published in The London Gazette on 1 June 1953.
