Nairobi is young for a capital: barely 125 years old. It grew from a railway camp into the largest city in East Africa, and much of that history is still visible from its streets.
The name
The name comes from the Maasai Enkare Nairobi - “the place of cool waters” - for the stream that ran through the swampy plain where the city now stands.
A railway town, 1899
In 1899 the Uganda Railway, being built from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, reached this flat, well-watered spot at the foot of the highlands. It became a depot and camp for the railway, and a town grew around it. The Nairobi Railway Museum, beside the station, tells the story.
Colonial capital
In 1905 Nairobi replaced Mombasa as the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate, which became the colony of Kenya. The city was laid out along racial lines: Europeans in the western and northern hills, Asians in areas such as Parklands and the old bazaar, and Africans in the eastern estates. The pattern still shapes Nairobi’s neighbourhoods. Nairobi was granted city status in 1950.
The struggle for independence
Nairobi was central to the fight for independence, including the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s. Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first leader - the date celebrated as Jamhuri Day.
A regional capital
After independence Nairobi became East Africa’s hub for business, diplomacy and travel. The KICC opened in 1973, and the United Nations Environment Programme made Nairobi its headquarters in the 1970s, one of the few UN headquarters in the global south - today the UN Office at Nairobi in Gigiri.
Hard days
The city has lived through difficult moments, including the 1998 bombing of the US embassy and the 2013 attack on Westgate. Both are remembered with memorials.
Nairobi today
Under the 2010 Constitution, Nairobi became Nairobi City County, one of Kenya’s 47 counties, with its own governor and assembly from 2013. The 2019 census counted over 4.3 million people, and the wider metropolitan area is home to many more. It is a centre for technology, finance, the media and the arts - and it keeps growing.