Eastleigh: the Somali trading hub of Nairobi

The short version

Eastleigh is an estate in eastern Nairobi. Somalis have lived there since Nairobi's early years, but its rise as a market came after 1991, when refugees with trading experience from Mogadishu arrived (Neil Carrier, Little Mogadishu: Eastleigh, Nairobi's Global Somali Hub, Oxford University Press 2017, University of Bristol record). One account says Mogadishu's looted market was "reborn" in Eastleigh a few years later (The New Humanitarian / Refugees Deeply, January 2017).

How the malls grew

Carrier's book describes the "malling" of Eastleigh: shopping centres built and filled by Somali traders whose networks reached China, India, Thailand and the Gulf (Boston University African Studies, review of Carrier, 2018). A typical mall is a large building divided into hundreds of small stalls, each run by its own shopkeeper (LSE review, 15 September 2017). Investment from Somalis abroad is a key part of what Carrier calls the Eastleigh formula of big malls filled with small shops (Refugees Deeply, January 2017).

Named centres include:

• Garissa Lodge, a lodging house whose rooms became shops in the early 1990s, the start of the mall model (Carrier, Little Mogadishu, 2017; Eastleigh Voice).
• Amal Shopping Plaza, with more than 500 shops (Bloomsbury, Global Sociology student resources).
• Business Bay Square, about 130,000 square metres, one of the largest malls in East Africa (People Daily).

Size

• Carrier gave "40-odd" shopping malls in 2017 (Refugees Deeply, January 2017).
• The local paper Eastleigh Voice counts at least 72 malls and more than 25,000 shops (Eastleigh Voice).
• About 200,000 people come each day, and buyers travel from Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia (People Daily).

Money transfer firms

The Central Bank of Kenya's register of licensed money remittance providers lists several Somali firms at Eastleigh addresses, including Taaj Money Transfer (Shariff Centre, licensed 2 October 2015) and Kaah Express (Kaah Building, licensed 22 October 2014), with Juba Express licensed on 10 July 2014 (Central Bank of Kenya, directory, 2016; directory, November 2020). The register dated 30 September 2026 lists Amal Express, Dahabshill Money, Iftin Express, Juba Express, Kaah Express and Tawakal Money; Taaj Money Transfer does not appear on it (Central Bank of Kenya). See Tawakal Express and Iftin, Juba Express and Taaj.

Sources disagree

• Number of malls. About 40 in Carrier's 2017 count; at least 72 in Eastleigh Voice (sources above).
• What drove the growth. Carrier stresses trade networks and diaspora investment; a 2017 Refugees Deeply essay argues the "success story" is often told without the refugees who work for low pay in the malls (Refugees Deeply, The misrepresentation of a migrant success story).

For the Somali community in Kenya, see Somalis in Kenya. For a Somali-founded Kenyan company, see Hass Petroleum.