History of Nairobi

The history of Nairobi began with the Lunatic or "Looney" Express. In 1899, when the builders of the "Lunatic Express" railway line decided to set up camp at " enkare nyirobi", ", they likely had no idea that they had just sown the seeds of what would become the largest city in the region. They chose to camp in this place for two main reasons:

As mentioned, the area was originally called "enkare nyirobi", ", a Maasai name meaning "a place of cool waters". The site was chosen by the British for its adequate water supply from Mbagathi and Nairobi rivers, its elevated cooler grounds, availability of ample level land for rail tracks and a climate free from tropical diseases, especially malaria.

However, the British were unable to pronounce this complex name and, instead, coined their own name from the original, calling it "Nairobi".

This railway line, meant to connect the East African interior with the rest of the world, had been named the "Lunatic Express" by skeptics doubting its economic worth. The Looney express camp gave rise to the town that would later become the City of Nairobi.

When the rail head finally arrived there in 1899, the town was established by the KUR as a shunting yard (place where trains are shifted from one track to another), and camping ground for the thousands of Indian laborers and other immigrant British colonial workers. It was established as the headquarters of the KUR at the end of 1899.

With the railway line now complete, the history of Nairobi continues when the British moved their administrative headquarters from the hot and humid town of Mombasa to the cooler, swampy town of Nairobi, thus making Nairobi the capital of British East Africa.

By this time Kenya was already a British protectorate and in 1900 Nairobi was defined by the colonial government as an urban center. In 1905 the city became the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate also called Kenya Colony.

As Nairobi replaced Mombasa as capital of the British protectorate, the city grew around administration and tourism, initially in the form of big game hunting. As the British colonialists started to explore the region, they started using Nairobi as their first port of call. This prompted the colonial government to build several spectacular grand hotels in the city. The main occupants were British game hunters. Nairobi continued to grow under the British rule, and many Britons settled within the city's suburbs.

In 1919, the Nairobi municipal community formally became the Nairobi City Council. Its boundary was extended to include surrounding part-urban settlements. The boundary was again extended in 1927 to cover 30 square miles (48 sq.km).

With the construction of the railway moving further inland, Nairobi emerged as a prime maintenance depot and railway station. A notable influx of European settlers thus began, encouraged by British authorities to explore the commercially viable fertile lands. They established exclusive residential sites to the west of the city that still stand to this day, locally known as Westlands'.

The Indians who after completing their employment on the railway took up various trades, settled to the north while the indigenous Africans remained in the periphery of the city and dwelt in shanty towns to the East.

The establishment of a settler economy and mammoth crop plantations created a labor system which forced the Africans to abandon their own land and work for the white settlers. Though the original mentality of the colonial authorities was to integrate Kenya into the Imperial system so as to develop its economic potential for the good of the Crown and the indigenous people, there was growing resentment from the Africans of their inferior status brought on by the redistribution of land to the white settler minority.

After a series of uprisings and violent anti-colonial resistance spanning more than 10 years, Kenya achieved internal self-government and finally became an independent state on December 12, 1963. Nairobi naturally remained its capital city.

Nairobi is now one of the most prominent cities in Africa politically and financially. Home to thousands of Kenyan businesses and over 100 major international companies and organisations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the main coordinating and headquarters for the UN in Africa & Middle East, the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), Nairobi is an established hub for business and culture.
The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) is one of the largest in Africa and second oldest exchange.It is ranked 4th in terms of trading volume and capable of making 10 million trades a day.

The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) defines Nairobi as a prominent social centre.

Geographically, the city of Nairobi now occupies approximately 425 square miles (684 sq.km).