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Nairobi
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Nairobi
Nairobinīrō'bē, city (1996 pop. 3,000,000), capital of Kenya, S Kenya, in the E African highlands. Nairobi is Kenya's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic center. It is the trade and distribution center for a productive agricultural area specializing in coffee, tea, and cattle. The city has a large industrial complex which manufactures automobiles, food products, beverages, construction materials, cigarettes, chemicals, textiles, clothing, glass, and furniture. The city is linked by road with the rest of Kenya and by railroad with Mombasa (on the Indian Ocean coast), W Kenya, and Uganda. Although Nairobi is only 90 mi (145 km) south of the equator, it has a moderate climate, largely because of its high altitude (c.5,500 ft/1,680 m). Many tourists are attracted to Nairobi National Park, a large wildlife sanctuary on the city's outskirts, and to nearby scenic areas. Nairobi was founded in 1899 on the site of a waterhole of the pastoral Masai as a railhead camp on the Mombasa-Uganda line. In 1905 it replaced Mombasa as the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate (Kenya Colony, 1920–63). Nairobi became the center of the prosperous European-dominated highlands farming area. In the 1950s the Mau Mau insurgency flared among Kikuyu people near Nairobi; there were related disturbances in the city. Nairobi Univ., Kenyatta Univ., and several medical and technical schools are in Nairobi. The National Museum of Kenya, which has extensive collections of Kenya's prehistory and natural history, and the Sorsbie art gallery are in Nairobi. Many international organizations have their African headquarters in the area, including the United Nations Environmental Program.

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Wikipedia search results for: Nairobi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is surrounded by several expanding villa suburbs. Founded in 1899 as a simple rail depot on the railway linking Mombasa to Uganda, the town quickly grew to become the capital of British East Africa in 1907 and eventually the capital of a free Kenyan republic in 1963. During Kenya's colonial period, the city became a centre for the colony's coffee, tea and...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Nairobi
Results 1 - 8  of 8
  • Maathai, Wangari Muta

    Maathai, Wangari Muta, 1940–, Kenyan environmental activist; studied Mount St. Scholastica (now Benedictine) College (B.S., 1964), Univ. of Pittsburgh (M.S., 1966), Univ. of Nairobi (Ph.D., 19...

  • Kikuyu

    Kikuyu, Bantu-speaking people, numbering about 6 million, forming the largest tribal group in Kenya. The Kikuyu live in the highlands NE of Nairobi. Before the British conquest they were the m...

  • Naivasha

    Naivasha, lake, 12 mi (19.3 km) long and 9 mi (14.5 km) wide, W central Kenya, E Africa, in the Great Rift Valley. Large flower farms that supply European flower markets have been developed ne...

  • p'Bitek, Okot

    P'Bitek, Okot, 1931–82, Ugandan writer and anthropologist. Educated at the Univ. of Bristol, University College of Wales, and Oxford, p'Bitek is best known for three verse novels, Song of Lawi...

  • Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett

    Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett, 1903–72, British archaeologist and anthropologist of E Africa, b. Kabete, Kenya; father of Richard Leakey. His fossil discoveries in E Africa demonstrated that hu...

  • Ngugi wa Thiong'o

    Ngugi wa Thiong'o or James Ngugi, 1938–, Kenyan writer, acclaimed as East Africa's foremost novelist. He studied at universities in Uganda and England. His first novel, Weep Not, Child (1964) ...

  • Kenya

    Kenya, officially Republic of Kenya, republic (2005 est. pop. 33,830,000), 224,960 sq mi (582,646 sq km), E Africa. Kenya is bordered by Somalia on the east, the Indian Ocean on the southeast,...

  • Sudan

    Sudan, officially Republic of Sudan, republic (2005 est. pop. 40,187,000), 967,494 sq mi (2,505,813 sq km), NE Africa. The largest country in Africa, it borders on Egypt in the north, on the R...

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