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ABSTRACT
Most published histories of airport planning relate to decisions taken autonomously by national or local authorities on continents such as North America and Europe. Elsewhere, such as Africa, colonial governments had a large role in airport planning and provision. Using official government records at archives in Nairobi and London, this paper traces the layered and convoluted decision-making processes behind Britain's planning of airports in Kenya's capital city. Government ministries in London, and the British national airline, wanted new facilities in East Africa for post-War civil aircraft, but were unable to agree on which agency would bear what share of the cost. Kenya's own colonial authorities contested the need for and affordability of the colonial project. Disputes proceeded in a fog of engineering and financial assumptions and estimates. In 1953, approval of Nairobi's third – and current – international airport ended eight years of British-mediated surveys, negotiation and indecision about land and infrastructure on the urban edge.
Acknowledgements
Appreciation is due libraries, archives at Nairobi and Kew, and two referees whose comments helped to improve the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See, for example, Barrett, “Cities and their Airports”; Bednarek, “City Planning and Municipal Airports”; Karsner, “Aviation and Airports”; Myerscough, “Airport Provision”; Bednarek, “Layer upon Layer”; Partidário and Coutinho, “The Lisbon New International Airport.”
2 Chandu, “The World's First Purpose-built Airport City.”
3 Russell, “Land and Identity in Mexico”; Dewey and Davis, “Planning, Politics, and Urban Mega-projects”; Lassen and Galland, “The Dark Side of Aeromobilities”; Magembe-Mushi, “Displacement by the Displacees.”
4 Pirie, “China and Aviation in Africa.”
5 Murray, “City Doubles.”
6 Pirie, Air Empire.
7 See, for example, Anderson, “Corruption at City Hall”; Harris and Hay, “New Plans for Housing”; Kingoriah, “The Causes of Nairobi's City Structure”; Martin and Bezemer, “Concept and Planning.”
8 Walmsley, Nairobi.
9 See Njoh, “Urban Planning.”
10 For leads, see Aaltola, “The International Airport”; Larkin, “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure.”
11 Kenya National Archives, Nairobi (KNA), BN/56/1: Town Council Minutes, 16 April 1926.
12 See aerial oblique photograph (no. 307) from 1937–38 in Light and Light, Focus.
13 British National Archives, Kew (BNA), CO 533/436/1: Memorandum and Notes of Meeting at Government House, Nairobi, 8 January 1933; J. Byrne to Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister, Colonial Office, 22 March, 4 April 1933.
14 On RAF activities in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1930s, see Killingray, “A Swift Agent of Government.”
15 BNA, AIR 2/2425: J.A. Webster to Treasury Secretary, 2 September 1937; Director of Works to Director of Public Works, 22 October 1937; R.V. Naird Stephenson (Treasury) to Secretary, Air Ministry, 17 December 1937.
16 BNA, AIR 2/2425: C.G. Caines to G.E. Grey, Treasury, 23 February 1939; C. Evans to Treasury, 31 December 1939; J.L. Rampton, Treasury, to H.W. Walsh, Air Ministry, 17 March 1942.
17 Nairobi Municipality, Annual Report (1943–44), pp. 8–9.
18 BNA, BT 217/61: Report on the Results of the Survey and Design of Proposals to Extend the Runways at RAF Station, Eastleigh, 30 September 1944.
19 BNA, BT 217/148: W.W. Burkett, Overseas Civil Aviation Division, UK Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA), to W.J. Bigg, Colonial Office, 6 March 1945.
20 BNA, BT 217/148: L.J. Dunnett memo, 8 March 1945.
21 BNA, BT 217/148: Note of a Meeting held in Government House, Nairobi, 3 April 1945; Bigg to Secretary, MCA, 12 June 1945.
22 BNA, BT 217/61: Report on Civil Airport for Nairobi, 6 April 1945; KNA, AE/5/86: Nairobi Civil Airport report.
23 BNA, BT 217/148: Bigg to Secretary, MCA, 12 June 1945.
24 BNA, BT 217/61: Report on the Measures Necessary to Meet a Reduced Civil Airport Specification for the Interim Operation of a York Service at RAF Station, Eastleigh, Kenya, 22 June 1945.
25 BNA, 217/61: A.E.G. Collins to Chief Engineer, RAF Middle East HQ, 29 October 1945; BNA, BT 217/148: C.R. Lockhart to Bigg, 5 March 1946.
26 BNA, BT 217/61: Memo from R.G. Bloodworth, MCA, 4 July 1945; Bloodworth to B.F. Trend (Treasury), 13 July 1945; RAF Middle East HQ, cables to Air Ministry, 27 June, 12 July 1945.
27 KNA, AE/5/86: Nairobi Civil Airport report, 1945.
28 Thornton White et al., Nairobi, Master Plan, 67.
29 BNA, BT 217/148: Mitchell to G. Creasy, 13 June 1945.
30 BNA, BT 217/61: A.E.G. Collins to Director of Works, 26 September 1945.
31 BNA, BT 217/61: Collins to J.W. Moncur, 2 October 1945; Collins letter, 3 October 1945.
32 BNA, BT 217/61: Creer to Chief Engineer, RAF Middle East HQ, 12 October 1945.
33 BNA, BT 217/61: Collins memo, 28 September 1945.
34 BNA, BT 217/148: Ratcliffe Cousins, Minute No. 114, 18 January 1946.
35 BNA, BT 217/148: W.C.G. Cribbett's Minute No. 4, Folder of Notes on Khartoum and Nairobi aerodromes, 13 March 1945.
36 BNA, CO 937/18/5: Lockhart to A.B. Cohen, Colonial Office, 18 June 1946.
37 East African Standard, 27 April 1946; BNA, CO 937/18/5: C.W. Phillips to W.J. Bigg, 1 May 1946.
38 BNA, BT 217/61: Minute by A.E.G Collins, No. 140, 5 June 1946.
39 BNA, BT 217/744: Minutes of MCA Meeting, 1 August 1946 [CIV.3994], p. 3.
40 BNA, FO 371/54619 (W11310): Report on the Suitability of Airfield on the Springbok Route for the Tudor II and its Replacement (November 1946).
41 BNA, CO 937/81/7: H.G. Vincent, ‘Aerodromes on the Springbok Route and at Singapore’, 12 February 1947.
42 Anderson, “Corruption at City Hall.”
43 BNA, BT 217/1548: Colonial Secretary's telegram to East African Governors’ Conference (Sir P. Mitchell), 4 January 1947.
44 Nathan “World Aviation,” 1.
45 KNA, RY/1/6/18: Notes of Nairobi meeting to discuss MCA proposals, 15 April 1948.
46 KNA, RY/1/6/18: Kenya Director of Civil Aviation to Administrator, East African High Commission, 13 April 1948.
47 KNA, RY/1/6/18: Officer Administering the Government of Kenya to Colonial Secretary, 12 May 1948.
48 BNA, BT 245/24: MCA Springbok Mission: Report on East Africa, 1948 [Appendix A, CIV.25517].
49 BNA, BT 248/216: MCA Springbok Mission: Report on East Africa: Economic Appreciation, 1948. [CIV.19873], p. 12.
50 BNA, BT 271/1478: Notes of MCA Nairobi meeting [CIV.19677], 11 June 1948, p. 3.
51 KNA, RY 1/6/18: Minutes of Nairobi meeting to discuss Eastleigh aerodrome extension, 24 June 1948.
52 KNA, RY/1/6/18: Mitchell to Colonial Secretary, 18 November 1948.
53 McDougall, African Turmoil, 12–15; Walmsley, Nairobi, 28–30, maps 25 & 26; Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, 184–90; Anderson, “Corruption at City Hall.”
54 BNA, BT 248/216: Clippings and extracts.
55 Author's compilation from BOAC passenger load statistics in BNA, BT 248/209.
56 Daily Mail (London), 3 September 1948, p. 2.
57 KNA, AE/5/14: Draft notes of meeting in Colonial Office, London, 6 January 1949.
58 Rader, “A History of Nairobi,” 117.
59 KNA, AE/5/14: Memorandum on Eastleigh Aerodrome, Secretariat, Nairobi, 15 December 1949.
60 BNA, CO 937/185/4: Notes of meeting, 19 April 1950; Colonial Secretary to Commissioner for Transport, East Africa, 16 September 1950.
61 KNA, AE/5/14: R.W.E. Craddock statement, 2 March 1950; valuation by A.B. Tannahill, 22 March 1950.
62 KNA, AE/5/14: Mitchell to Baker, 29 March 1950; C.H. Thornley to Baker, 17 April 1950.
63 BNA, CO 937/185/4: Mitchell to Griffiths, 14 April 1950.
64 BNA, CO 937/185/4: Bigg, Minute No. 29, 9 May 1950.
65 KNA, AE/5/14: Memo by H.L. Adams, 31 January 1951.
66 East African Standard, 22 September 1950.
67 BNA, BT 248/219: Straight to Mitchell, 5 February 1951.
68 Farson, Last Chance, 44–6.
69 BNA, BT 248/219: Sir Alfred Vincent to Straight, 9 February 1951.
70 KNA, AE/5/14: Mitchell to Straight, 9 February 1951.
71 BNA, BT 248/219: Minute No. 4, 27 March 1951.
72 KNA, AE/5/14: Mitchell to J. Griffiths, 5 February 1951; BNA, BT 248/219: Mitchell to Griffiths, 14 March 1951.
73 BNA, BT 248/219: Precis of T. Paris’ letter during his visit to Nairobi, 26 February 1951. On the early history of Eastleigh township, see Murunga, “The Cosmopolitan Tradition.”
74 KNA, AE/5/14: Proceedings of Seventh Meeting of East Africa High Commission, 13 & 14 March 1951.
75 KNA, AH/17/1: DCA to A. Hope-Jones, Member for Commerce and Industry, Kenya Legislative Council, 20 March 1951; note by V.A. Maddison, 28 March 1951.
76 East African Standard, 21 March 1951; KNA, AE/5/14: Erskine to Mitchell, 2 April 1951; R.W.E. Craddock memo, 19 April 1951.
77 KNA, AE/5/14: Pankhurst to RAF Middle East HQ, 18 April 1951.
78 KNA, AE/5/15: Hope-Jones to Acting-Governor, Kenya, 2 September 1952.
79 East African Standard, 6 April 1951.
80 KNA, AE/5/14: Minutes of meeting, 1 May 1951 [CIV.38744]; Thornley's record of London meetings, 8 May 1951.
81 KNA, AE/5/14: Colonial Secretary to Officer Administering the Government of Kenya, 30 May 1951.
82 KNA, RY/6/22: Hope-Jones to Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, 19 June 1951.
83 BNA, BT 248/165: Proposed New Airport at Embakasi, Nairobi: Preliminary Project Report, January 1952.
84 The Aeroplane, 22 May 1952, pp. 634–5.
85 KNA, AE/5/15: Adams to Hope-Jones, 30 May 1952.
86 KNA, AE/5/15: Acting-Governor, Kenya, to Colonial Secretary, 27 June 1952; Ministry of Civil Aviation Comments [CIV.45678].
87 KNA, RY/6/22: Taylor to Hope-Jones, 6 May 1952.
88 Maclaren, “The Reconciliation of Civil Engineering Problems.”
89 Tignor, “Race, Nationality, and Industrialization,” 33–4.
90 KNA, AE/5/15: Notes of London meetings to discuss the Embakasi airport project, 14 August, 1, 15 September 1952 [C.O./6209/52 & C.O./6365/52].
91 BNA, CO 937/357: Minute, 20 December 1952.
92 Chappell, “Air Power”; Edgerton, Mau Mau.
93 Flight, 17 October 1952, p. 518; 14 November 1952, pp. 606–7.
94 KNA, AE/5/15: Thomas to Baring, 1 January 1953.
95 KNA, RY/6/22: Record of Nairobi meeting to discuss acquisition of land at Embakasi, 2 February 1953.
96 KNA, RY/6/22: Commissioner for Transport to DCA, 28 January 1952.
97 KNA, RY/6/22: Colls to Commissioner for Transport, 10 April 1953.
98 KNA, RY/6/22: Director, Public Works, to Hope-Jones, 4 April 1953; Colls to Director, Public Works Department, 13 April 1953.
99 KNA, AE/5/14: Vasey to Adams,17 April 1953.
100 KNA, AE/5/14: Director of Civil Aviation to Hope-Jones, 9 April 1953.
101 KNA, AE/5/15: Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Legislative Council, Draft Sessional Paper, 1953: Embakasi Airport.
102 Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Legislative Council Debates, 13 May 1953, pp. 107–23.
103 Murphy, “Legitimation and Paternalism,” 61.
104 BNA, BT 248/200: Minute no. 37, 13 September 1951.
105 Kenya Weekly News, 26 August 1955, p. 40; Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, 181–2.
106 The Aeroplane, 14 March 1958, pp. 344–5; 347; Flight, 14 March 1958, pp. 327, 348, 356.
107 KNA, AE/5/16: G.B. Weale, Aerodrome Advisory Committee Memo, 23 April 1954; AE/5/17: J.L. Brown, Director of Public Works, to J.M. Buckeridge, MTCA, London, 16 August 1954; Duffy, “Legacies of British Colonial Violence,” 508, 522.
108 Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, 187–8.
109 KNA, AE/5/16: Public Works Director to Gibb and Partners, 30 May 1953.
110 For leads on these dimensions see, for example, Cosgrove, “Airport/landscape”; Pascoe, Airspaces; Windsor-Liscombe, “Grounding the New Perspectives of Modernism"; Roseau, “Airports as Urban Narratives”; Johnson, “Visuality as Infrastructure"; Anand et al., The Promise of Infrastructure.
111 Johnston, “Nairobi Airport Construction.”
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Gordon Pirie
Gordon Pirie is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town's African Centre for Cities. His publications include papers on South African city pasts, two research monographs on British imperial aviation history, and two recent papers on Britain's low-cost ‘colonial coach’ airlines in 1950s Africa.