Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital of Kenya. It is one of the largest cities in Africa with a population of around 3 million. Nairobi's name comes from the Maasai Ewaso Nyirobi, meaning "cool waters".

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The city is located at and occupies around 150 sq km. It is situated about 1660 m (5450 ft) above sea level. The main languages spoken are English and Kiswahili. English is the legal, business and administrative language while Kiswahili remains the lingua franca.

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Nairobi was founded in 1899 as a supply depot for the Uganda Railway which was being constructed between Mombasa and Uganda. It was totally rebuilt in the early 1900s after an outbreak of plague and the burning of the original town. Thereafter the settlement continued to grow, becoming the capital of the British East African Protectorate in 1907 and the capital of the newly independent Kenya in 1963.

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Nairobi is served by Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Wilson Airport the busiest airport in Africa. Eastleigh Airport was the original landing strip in the pre-jet airline era. It was used in a landing point on the 1930s and 1940s British passenger and mail route from Southampton to Cape Town. This route was served by flying boats between Britain and Kisumu and then by land-based aircraft on the routes to the south.

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Nairobi is unique in having a protected game reserve, Nairobi National Park, within its borders. Nairobi also has more species of birds than any other capital city in the world.

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The US Embassy in Nairobi was bombed in August 1998 by Osama bin Laden's terrorist group Al-Qaida. See: 1998 U.S. embassy bombings

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Nairobi has struggled with rising crime, earning a reputation for being a dangerous city and the nickname "nairobbery". In 2001, the United Nations International Civil Service Commission rated Nairobi as among the most insecure cities in the world, classifying the city as "status C". The head of one development agency cited the "notoriously high levels of violent armed robberies, burglaries and carjackings"http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20010428/402881.htm.

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Kenya: The Republic of Kenya, or Kenya (), is a country in East Africa. It borders Ethiopia on the north, Somalia on the north-east, Tanzania on the south, Uganda on the west, and Sudan on the northwest, with the Indian Ocean on the southeast....

Africa: Africa is the world's second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. At about 30,244,050 km² (11,677,240 mi²) including its adjacent islands, it covers 20.3 percent of the total land area on Earth. With over 800 million human inhabitants in 54 countries, it accounts for abou...

Maasai: The Maasai or Masai, an indigenous African tribe of semi-nomadic people located primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania, are probably one of the most familiar tribes of East Africa. Despite the growth of modern civilisation, the Maasai have largely managed to stay out of the mainstream and maintain...

Nairobi related Images and Photos (experimental)

Leopard Nairobi National Park Kenya

Three Girls in Sunday School Class Nairobi Kenya