On Valentine’s Day 2015 my good friend Kirstin and I met George out the front of the Hilton Lodge in downtown Nairobi. It wasn’t some kinky Valentines arrangement, but fairly a really instructive and entertaining strolling tour of Nairobi’s CBD.
From the Hilton, we walked to Kimathi Street where by a statue of the war hero Basic Kimathi stands. When this statue was staying erected, there was major controversy about whether Kimathi was deserving of a statue or not. Right after 1 yr of deliberation he received his area. Kimathi was a chief of the Mau Mau rebellion which has been considered by some Kenyans as the fantastic revolt that gave Kenya its independence and by other Kenyans as a team of rogues who prompted unnecessary difficulty whilst much more official initiatives were having put.
Following we headed up to Kenyatta Avenue wherever the extraordinary Sarova Stanley Lodge dominates. Within the lodge is the Thorn Tree Cafe in which an acacia tree employed to stand. The acacia tree held a information board exactly where colonial settlers remaining messages for one a different. At present, you may well have heard of Lonely Planet’s on line vacation discussion board dubbed “Thorn Tree” – which is the place the title arrives from!
Also at this intersection, a statue of Lord Delamere made use of to stand. It marked the division of Nairobi – to the west of Delamere was the aspect of the town for the white colonialists and to the east was the rough and tumble of Indian merchants and Kenyan vendors. Nonetheless today you can see the variation concerning the east and west sides of the metropolis.
Along Kenyatta Avenue, we stopped to admire Cameo. Not due to the fact it is a well known night time spot, but for the reason that it is the oldest constructing in Nairobi at more than 100 several years previous. Ironically Nairobi’s most recent retail store is situated inside of – Subway, the sandwich chain has created a foray into the Kenyan marketplace. Subsequent doorway is the Lender of India which has had really a record. It has been the Parliament Residence, in advance of the present-day Parliament was designed, and also the Countrywide Archives ahead of people too were being relocated to their current residence on Moi Avenue.
Turning off Kenyatta on to Wabera Street we identified the McMillan Nationwide Library. It truly is not challenging to discover anything if it truly is address is Wabera Road, as the road is only 100 metres prolonged! Upcoming to the library is Jamia Mosque and continuing along with the mosque to the stop we arrived at Chai Household and the Town Sector. The current market sells every thing from meat and fish to veggies and souvenirs. Irrespective of all the outlets even though, the industry was vacant of consumers. Outdoors on the other hand, the rose sellers were being doing a booming Valentines trade!
Our very last quit was the Kenya Global Conference Centre (KICC), the tallest setting up in Nairobi at 28 flooring. The 2nd flooring from the major was a revolving cafe, but the significant vacant place was nowadays a put for younger couples to cling out. On the roof is a helicopter landing pad and for a charge you can stroll close to for 360 diploma sights of Nairobi.
On weekends there is an open up air industry that George offered to consider us to for some memento browsing. But it had started off to rain and Kirstin and I figured this would not be our 1 and only opportunity to obtain souvenirs, so we skipped it and went to a cafe rather. Over a cup of tea we learnt more about George who experienced been taken in by Mathare Children’s Fund (MCF) when he was a boy or girl and gained assist from the local community organisation to total university. MCF also provided him with the education to grow to be a city tour manual, facilitated by the Countrywide Museums of Kenya. George is also attending university, researching economics, and the guiding makes it possible for him to receive some revenue to enable him via university.
MCF have properly trained quite a few young people to be guides on city walking tours. Even even though I have lived in Kenya for more than four several years, there was a lot we observed on the tour that I had under no circumstances found in advance of (even if I experienced walked previous it a dozen occasions!). And things I experienced noticed, I hadn’t identified about. The tour lasts two hrs (not like the cup of tea at the close!) and fees 1000 Kenyan shillings (around US$10) per person furthermore 400KES to go to the leading of KICC.