Nairobi is Kenya’s capital city. In addition to its urban core, the city has Nairobi National Park, a large game reserve known for breeding endangered black rhinos and home to giraffes, zebras and lions. Next to it is a well-regarded elephant orphanage operated by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Nairobi is also often used as a jumping-off point for safari trips elsewhere in Kenya. Located in between Kampala and Mombasa, Nairobi stretches itself across 684 square kilometers of land. It lies adjacent to the eastern edge of the rift valley and is situated 5450 ft (1661 metres) above the sea level. The Ngong hills occupy the western part of the city.
Historical, Cultural facts & Religion
Nairobi was founded in 1899 by the colonial authorities in British East Africa, as a rail depot on the Uganda Railway. The town quickly grew to replace Mombasa as the capital of Kenya in 1907. After independence in 1963, Nairobi became the capital of the Republic of Kenya. The majority of Kenyans belong to ‘Bantu’ tribes such as the Kikuyu, Luhya and Kamba. There are also the ‘Nilotic’ tribes such as the Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai and Turkana. The ‘Hamitic’ people include the Turkana, Rendille and Samburu. Around 13% of the population are of non-African descent. The predominant religion in Kenya is Christianity, which is adhered to by an estimated 84.8% of the total population. Islam is the second-largest religion in Kenya, practiced by approximately 9.7 to 11.1 percent of Kenyans. Other faiths practiced in Kenya are Baha’i, Buddhism, Hinduism and traditional religions.
Brief City History
Nairobi is a completely modern creation, and everything here has been built since the city was founded in 1899. As the tracks of the East African Railway were laid down between Mombasa and Kampala, a depot was established at a small stream known to the Maasai as uaso Nairobi (cold water). The Maasai were quickly forced from the land, as the British East Africa protectorate had ambitious plans to open up the interior to white colonial settlement. In addition to its strategic position between the coast and British holdings in Uganda, Nairobi benefited from its hospitable environment – water was abundant and the high elevation enjoyed cooler temperatures than the coast. Although Nairobi was blighted by frequent fires and an outbreak of the plague, by 1907 the booming commercial centre had replaced Mombasa as the capital of British East Africa.
Quite early on, the colonial government built some grand hotels to accommodate the first tourists to Kenya – big-game hunters, lured by the attraction of shooting the country’s almost naively tame wildlife. In 1946 Nairobi National Park was established as the first national park in East Africa.
After Kenya achieved independence in 1963, Nairobi grew too rapidly, putting a great deal of pressure on the city’s infrastructure. Enormous shanty towns of tin-roofed settlements appeared on the outskirts of the capital. In the name of modernization, almost all of the colonial-era buildings were replaced by concrete office buildings, which today characterize much of the modern city. As Kenya’s (and East Africa’s) largest city, Nairobi continues to face enormous challenges. Terrorist attacks on the US embassy in 1998 killed more than 200 people, while in December 2007 the city’s shantytowns were set ablaze as riots broke out following the disputed presidential election. In the early years of Kenya’s involvement in Somalia, which began in 2011, Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings on transport around Nairobi’s Eastleigh suburb, as well as for the devastating attack on the exclusive Westgate Shopping Mall on 21 September 2013; 67 people died in the latter assault
In the years since the Westgate attack, security has tightened considerably in Nairobi, although whenever there’s a flashpoint in the political life of the nation, it’s in Nairobi where it’s often felt most keenly. In the immediate aftermath of the 2017 elections, for example, violence erupted in the shantytown of Mathare and elsewhere, where migrants from other parts of Kenya now live; some of these areas are considered to be opposition strongholds. Large-scale and sustained political violence, however, has not been seen in the capital since 2007.
Language (s) Written & Spoken.
Swahili’s flexibility is also evident in a new urban “language” that is spoken in Kenya’s cities, especially in Nairobi. Swahili, English, and other ethnic languages.
Important Types of Commerce in Nairobi
Nairobi is the principal industrial centre of the country. The railways are the largest single industrial employer. Light-manufacturing industries produce beverages, cigarettes, and processed food. Tourism is also important.
Language Services US and others will provide working with Nairobi
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