The Population Density Gradient and the Spatial Structure of a Third World City: Nairobi, A Case Study

Abstract

A generalized Newling function to the fourth degree is used as a regionalizing technique to analyze population density data from the 1969 national census of Kenya in order to identify the spatial structure of Nairobi, Kenya's primate city. On the premise that the colonial origins of Nairobi encouraged residential segregation, first, by race during the colonial period and, second, by socio-economic class during the period of political independence, it is hypothesized: (1) that the density gradient applies to Nairobi for reasons that are traditionally unexpected; (2) that Nairobi's spatial structure is sectoral; (3) that Nairobi's different racial and socio-economic communities relate, due to differences in occupation, to different geographical centres (defined as the centres of the central business district and the industrial area); (4) that autonomous urban villages during the founding of the city influence the basic sectoral pattern towards a multicentred pattern; (5) that the city boundary changes influenced the density gradient. All the hypotheses are confirmed with the qualification that the influence of the autonomous villages on the overall sectoral pattern is relatively minimal. Regarding the second hypothesis, the European and/or upper income sector relates to the central business district while the African, Asian and/or middle-low income sector relates to the industrial area.