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Kaloleni Library

The Kaloleni Library is the smallest branch of the three and caters to a much younger audiences, mostly children.
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Kaloleni Library is the smallest branch of the three and caters to younger audiences, mostly children. The restoration of this library was completed in June 2020, and public programming is focused on children. The library was opened in 1969, and is adjacent to Kaloleni Social Hall, which holds a significant place in Kenya’s independence history. In the 1960s, leading figures including Tom Mboya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Jomo Kenyatta and Milton Obote addressed large meetings attended by up to 6,000 people. The building also served as Kenya’s unofficial parliament in the early 1950s and was where Kenya’s first parliamentary election results were announced in 1963.

The Kaloleni neighbourhood consists of approximately 500 housing structures built by Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s. The design of Kaloleni was influenced by the Garden City concept of Sir Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City Movement, which attempted to provide citizens with an alternative to crowded and unhealthy cities. As such, Kaloleni is built in a concentric pattern with open spaces between the homes and six radial boulevards extending from the centre. These homes were occupied by soldiers from the King’s African Rifles upon their return to Kenya after WW1. They were built for single occupation with the rooms measuring ten by ten feet. As the soldiers’ families expanded, they added extensions to the original houses.

 

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