KARIBU KENYA - UNON - the United Nations Office at Nairobi

CHAPTER 2: NAIROBI
The ‘Green City in the Sun’
In just 100 years, Nairobi has grown from a murky swamp and unlikely
railhead for the Mombasa-Kampala railway to a booming city of 4 million
people and the economic capital of much of eastern and central Africa.As well
as Kenya’s commercial heart and a transit point for thousands of African
tourists, Nairobi serves as the regional headquarters of dozens of multinational
companies and major aid organisations, and the global headquarters of the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations
Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
Nairobi is blessed with one of the most pleasant climates in the world,
and – in its residential suburbs at least – retains a remarkably green, pollution-free
environment.The city’s status as regional capital has also helped to
create one of Africa’s most cosmopolitan leisure spots, with some of the
continent’s finest hotels, restaurants, and modern and cultural entertainments
(see Chapter 9). And, of course, Nairobi remains the centre of Africa’s very
first ‘safari business’, with a range of wildlife, cultural and sporting adventures
that is second to none.
Nairobi came into being in 1899, when Mile 327 of the East African
Railway was established on a patch of papyrus bog known as Uaso Nyrobi
(Maasai for ‘place of cold waters’) – the last area of flat land where the engineers
camped to figure out their ascent up the eastern shoulder of the Great
Rift Valley. In a few short years, this small supply depot was transformed, first
into a campsite for thousands of Indian labourers, and then into the thriving
capital of British East Africa. Encouraged by financial incentives and cheap
land, Europeans soon began to move into the fertile highlands north and
south of Nairobi, leading to friction with the local Maasai and Kikuyu. Mixed
agricultural farms were set up, with coffee plantations established by new
arrivals including the Danish author Karen Blixen. The number of white
settlers rose to 9,000 by 1920, and by the 1950s stood at 80,000. Alienated
from their land, many Kikuyu people also migrated to Nairobi, became part
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