Nairobi, Kenya

Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, plays an important role in connecting East Africa with the rest of the modern world. Nairobi is a modern metropolis with hotels, restaurants, and shops as well as vibrant industry, education, and government. Nairobi is a noted stop for tourists on safari, and is one of Africa’s largest cities.

Landscape

Nairobi is the largest city in Kenya, covering a metropolitan area of 684 square kilometers (264 square miles). It is situated at an elevation of nearly 1,660 meters (5,450 feet) in the highlands of the southwestern part of Kenya.

Along with most of the country, Nairobi experiences a long rainy season from March to May and a shorter rainy season from October to December. Because of its location along the equator, Nairobi experiences its hottest period of the year in February through April (with monthly average temperatures of about 19 degrees Celsius, or 66.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and its coolest in July and August (with monthly averages of about 16 degrees Celsius, or 60 degrees Fahrenheit).

Nairobi is located in the middle of a large region of grasslands, farmland, and mountains. The city is situated along the Great Rift Valley with Ngong Hills to the west of the city, Mount Kenya to the north, and Mount Kilimanjaro to the southeast. The Nairobi River runs along the north side of the city’s center.

Nairobi is divided into a number of suburbs. The Langata and Karen suburbs both lie along the southwest side of Nairobi and are inhabited primarily by British Europeans. Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, is also located on the southwest side of Nairobi. This suburb has an estimated population of 250,000 people living on just 2.5 square kilometers (600 acres) of land.

People

With an estimated population of 5.325 million people in 2023, Nairobi is one of the most populous cities in East Africa. Kenya’s urban population growth rate was about 4.1 percent in 2023, while the national average growth rate was 2.1 for the same time period. It is estimated that nearly 60 percent of the population of Nairobi live in “informal settlements,” or urban slums.

While the majority of tribal groups adhere to indigenous faiths and the majority of the Muslim population lives along the coastal region, Nairobi is predominantly Christian, with a small minority of other faiths practiced. Most of the population of Nairobi is Black African, with Asians, Arabs, and Europeans accounting for about one percent of the population.

English and Swahili (or Kiswahili, as it is formally known) are both official languages of Kenya. Most Kenyans also speak a third, tribal language. This language takes on the name of the tribe in the same form as Kiswahili. For instance, members of the Kamba tribe speak Kikamba.

Although Nairobi is a modern city with modern Western clothing available, most women in Nairobi wear a simple knit shirt and a skirt called a kanga. A kanga is a brightly-colored square of fabric wrapped and tucked to be used as a skirt or folded across a woman’s back to carry a baby or groceries.

A common food found in small restaurants in Nairobi is the samosa. Samosas are small, triangle-shaped pastry shells stuffed with spiced meat, potatoes, onions, and vegetables. Common foods like the samosa are the result of the East Indian influence in Nairobi.

Like many African nations, Kenya struggles against the threat of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but the statistics are better in Kenya than in other nearby countries. In 2021, an estimated 4.2 percent of the adult population of Kenya was infected with the HIV virus.

Economy

Nairobi’s key industries include tourism, retail and wholesale trade, services, construction, technology, and transportation. Known as the safari capital of Africa, Nairobi is an attractive destination for many international tourists. According to the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, in 2022 the country saw an estimated 1.4 million international tourist arrivals, generating hundreds of millions in revenue. In 2017, an estimated 47.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) was attributed to service industries. Agriculture accounted for an estimated 34.5 percent that same year.

Supported by Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi is easily accessible for travel and business. Within the city, the most common forms of transportation are the matatu, or minibus, and the boda boda motorcycle. Matatus and boda boda motorcycles are plentiful through the city and generally quicker and cheaper than taxis.

Rapid urbanization in the early twenty-first century, along with the presence of multinational corporations and international organizations, fueled rapid growth in motor-vehicle transportation and a real estate and road building boom. Nairobi also gained a new railroad connecting it with Mombasa, thanks to Chinese investment.

Landmarks

The city’s most popular landmark is Nairobi National Park. The 117 square kilometer (44.5 square mile) park is the only wild game reserve within the city limits of a major metropolitan city. The park is home to more than eighty species of mammals, including lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, hippos, and zebras, and over 500 species of birds, all of which roam free throughout the reserve.

Large skyscrapers and museums also attract visitors to Nairobi. The Kenyatta International Conference Center is a thirty-story skyscraper named after Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya. The center is equipped with facilities for over 5,000 guests and is often used for international meetings, exhibits and balls.

Popular museums in Nairobi include the National Museum of Kenya, the Nairobi Railway Museum, and the Karen Blixen Museum, named for Danish author and former Kenyan plantation owner Karen Blixen.

The Carnivore Restaurant, one of the top restaurants of the world, is also located in Nairobi and is a popular attraction for tourists on safari. The restaurant is known for its menu of exotic meats including zebra, hartebeest, ostrich, and crocodile. Since wild gaming is illegal in Kenya, all meats sold at the restaurant are farmed.

History

Nairobi began as a railway camp for the Imperial British East Africa Company’s Uganda Railway. The railway was constructed to link Uganda and Kenya to the Indian Ocean at the city of Mombassa. The line began in Mombassa in 1896. Nairobi was established as a supply depot for the railway and originally called “Mile 327.” It was later renamed Nairobi after the Maasai phrase “Ewaso Nyirobi,” meaning “the place of cool water.”

In 1905, Nairobi became the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate. The area was settled by British farmers and became a vacation destination for British colonists enjoying big game hunting. As British farmers took over land belonging to the local Kikuyu people, the colonial government imposed tax laws that forced the native population to become dependent on farm jobs. In 1920, this territory of East Africa was officially colonized by the British government and renamed the Kenyan Colony.

From 1920 to 1963, conflicts arose between the oppressed African majority and the ruling British minority. Although black Kenyans and white Kenyans fought side by side in both world wars, the nation was still divided and all land privileges were reserved for the white minority. Eventually, members of the oppressed Kikuyu tribe organized under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta. The Kenyan African Union (KAU) was formed by Kenyatta, against colonial wishes, to unite the various Kenyan political factions. In the early 1950s, a small subset of the KAU formed the Mau Mau organization, dedicated to violent resistance to British rule.

From 1952 to 1956, more than 10,000 people died during the Mau Mau Uprising. Although Kenyatta was jailed for his association with this revolt, the accusation was unfounded. For the next ten years, local Kenyan political parties grew and the number of white settlers diminished. In 1963, Kenyatta was elected the first president of the independent nation of Kenya. Kenyatta remained president until his death in 1978. He was succeeded by Vice-President Daniel arap Moi, who was re-elected without contest in every election since his appointment to office. Moi served until 2003, when he was required to step down as president according to the constitution. His political opponent, Mwai Kibaki, of the National Rainbow Coalition, defeated Uhuru Kenyatta, Moi’s chosen successor and a son of Jomo Kenyatta, in the 2002 election and served as president until 2013. Uhuru Kenyatta was elected president in 2013 and gained reelection in 2017.

Nairobi continues to serve as Kenya’s capital, and has grown in economic and political prestige. Since the nation’s independence, the greatest threats against stability in Nairobi have been poverty, disease, and political unrest. In 1998, the economy was severely impacted by the terrorist bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi. It took several years for the tourist industry to bounce back from this incident. In the 2010s, a Somali militant group known as al-Shabaab also launched terror attacks, dampening tourism once more. The militant group continued to launch attacks in Kenya into the 2020s. In January 2019, the militants claimed responsibility for an attack at a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi that left at least fourteen people dead.

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