Destination Guidebook for Nairobi, Kenya
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Nairobi Kenya is already bustling with traffic, streams of pedestrians and people pushing carts as the sun rises each morning in equatorial East Africa. In Nairobi's markets, the floors are washed, and fresh produce is artfully arranged; the tea sellers unlock their stalls and light their fires; merchants raise the iron screens from their store windows. Flowers are everywhere, and it is particularly attractive in some of the city's main avenues and along Uhuru Park around December when the jacaranda trees are in bloom. Nairobi is a place of contrasts combining all the trappings of the developed world (high-rise office blocks and upscale shops) with the third world, evident in the slums and townships that ring the city.
Travelers will find that Nairobi is more cosmopolitan and less stressful than most capitals in developing countries. But you should still be prepared for frustration and inconvenience. Nairobi's infrastructure has deteriorated, and because of high unemployment, travelers should always be alert to the possibility of robbery. Because of this high incidence of crime, the city is often dubbed "Nairobbery." Recently, petty crime and mugging have been reduced in the city center, but carjacking remains a threat.
However, there have been new efforts to improve Nairobi's appearance and security, and donors recently gave the government money to improve the roads. Street families and hawkers have been moved away from the city center, roundabouts and islands along the main thoroughfares are being relandscaped, and strict safety regulations on all public vehicles are being enforced.
Most travelers to Kenya spend only one or two nights in Nairobi, before or after a safari. This is time enough to do some curio shopping or perhaps visit the National Museum or the Karen Blixen Museum. Other Nairobi tourist attractions include the Giraffe Centre, where you can feed a giraffe, and the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage, where each morning visitors can watch the baby elephants at bath time.
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Sights—Rhinos, hippos, lions and giraffes at Nairobi National Park; the up-close experience of Rothschild giraffes at the Giraffe Centre; baby elephants and rhinos at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust; a garden of butterflies at the Butterfly Centre; the African Heritage House on Mombasa Road.
Museums—Leakey family discoveries at the National Museum, as well as Kenyan artifacts and art; nostalgic displays and locomotives at the Kenya Railway Museum; the restored coffee estate and home of author Karen Blixen.
Memorable Meals—Nyama choma at Carnivore; superb seafood at Tamarind; spicy Indian cuisine at Haandi.
Late Night—African music, jazz or soul at Carnivore's Simba Saloon; dancing at the Pavement; and for the courageous, a cabaret performance at Florida 2000. Especially for Kids—The snake park at the National Museum; Splash, the waterslide at the Carnivore restaurant; also at Carnivores, face painting and games on a Saturday afternoon; Panari Center on Mombasa Road for skating, at the only ice rink in the country.
In one of the most diverse and beautiful countries in Africa, Nairobi sits just 90 mi/145 km south of the equator, at approximately 5,500 ft/1,700 m above sea level. The city center is densely packed, a roughly rectangular area 12 blocks long and six blocks wide. Boundaries are University Way on the north end, Haile Selassie Avenue on the south, Uhuru Highway to the west and Moi Avenue to the east.
Upscale, fast-growing Westlands, a neighborhood northwest of the city center, is teeming with hotels, shopping centers and restaurants. Karen and Langata in the south and Gigiri in the north are well-kept areas with enough shops and attractions to make them noteworthy. Ngong Road to the south of the city has also followed this trend; shopping and other recreational activities are now thriving there. To the east is a vast industrial area that stretches almost to the Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Nairobi's traffic is at times severely congested and the pollution palpable, but it is fairly easy to get oriented.
The Maasai called the swampy plain along the river enkare nyarobi (the place of cool waters), as it was originally a watering place for the Maasai and their cattle. It wasn't until the Mombasa-Uganda railway arrived in May 1899 that modern-day Nairobi was born. By 1907, it became large enough to take over from Mombasa as the capital of the British colony. The climate was considered to be better than at the coast for the British officials. By the 1920s, the city had prospered, as European immigrants farmed the surrounding lands. Nairobi also became home to communities of Indians, Arabs and Somalis, who came to trade. By the time of its independence from British rule in 1963, Nairobi was a glorious city, noted for well-kept streets, stunning gardens and a cosmopolitan population.
The government that took power after independence kept the capital in Nairobi. Rapid urbanization followed, turning the city into one of Africa's largest commercial centers. Since the early 1980s, the city has been dealing with an increasing population, rising unemployment and student- and civil-society-led demonstrations, which were especially frequent in the 1990s. Keeping up the maintenance of basic infrastructures has also been a struggle.
However, since the election of the country's third president, Mwai Kibaki, in December 2002, things appear to be steadily improving. These days, local citizens are beginning to address some of Nairobi's problems, and there are positive signs that the current government is taking on the issues of burgeoning slums, corruption and crime. Recent measures have been taken to cut down on bribery by police and civil servants, to crack down on traffic offenses, to prevent overcrowding in vehicles, and to arrest anyone carrying a firearm. Thirty new police-information centers have been installed in downtown Nairobi, making the police more accessible to the city's residents, and taxi drivers, private security guards and traders at the City Market have joined hands with the police to help stamp out petty theft. During the day and early evening, the upper part of the city center, west of Moi Avenue, is considered generally safe. Beyond that you have to be extremely alert.
Despite these initiatives, Kenya has witnessed terrorist activity. The 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi by anti-American Middle Eastern terrorists killed 219 Kenyans, and the suicide bombing of an Israeli hotel in Mombasa killed 15. In the wake of these security issues, the Kenyan government passed a Suppression of Terrorism Bill in 2003 that allows security forces to work closely with U.S. and U.K. authorities to ensure incidents such as these do not happen again. Tourist destinations, ports and airports have been put on high-security surveillance. To date, these initiatives have been successful, and no further security incidents involving tourists have occurred.
In December 2005, Kenyans voted for sweeping constitutional changes in a first-ever national referendum. Minor changes have been effected since. Nairobi National Park is reputed to be one of the few national parks of its size in the world that is contained within the borders of a major city. Kenya's largest airport, Jomo Kenyatta, is also unique in that it borders the game park. Thus, at certain times of the year, you can look out while your plane taxis into Nairobi and see giraffes and impala grazing.
The country's first ice-skating rink, at Panari Center off Mombasa Road, is said to be the only one on the continent outside of Southern and West Africa.
Outside of Nigeria, Kenya boasts the most winners and nominees of the Caine Prize for African Writing, arguably the continent's greatest short fiction prize, also known as the African Booker, for the annual British prize. You can meet one or two of the winners and other local Kenyan contemporary writers at monthly readings held at Kengele's Lavington or Clubb Sound in the City Centre.
Kibera in Nairobi, one of the largest slums in sub-Saharan Africa, has key links and information exchanges with several international organizations, serving as an informative fishbowl on urban-related research. One of these, the locally based Carolina for Kibera, has been named a Time magazine and Gates Foundation Hero of Global Health.
Diamond Plaza, near Westlands, is Kenya's "little Bombay," resplendent with complete Indian malls and all sorts of Indian restaurants.
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Editor's Choice of Luxury, Deluxe, and Value priced hotels in Nairobi, Kenya:
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