Nairobi city – Kenya Tourist Attraction Destinations
Nairobi city is the capital city of Kenya. The country known today as Kenya was created by European colonialism in Africa, which lasted from the mid-1800s to the 1960s. Kenya was a British protectorate from 1895 to 1920 and a colony from 1920 to 1963.
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Prior to 1870 the peoples of what is now Kenya were independent of European control; they governed themselves through councils of elders. However, in 1884 the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Bargash, allowed a trading concession to the British East Africa Company; thus, British interest in East Africa was sparked by private enterprise.
In addition to the British East Africa Company, pioneer missionaries also came to East Africa to spread Christianity and to help abolish the slave trade. An 1886 Anglo-German treaty partitioned East Africa between the two powers, placing the future Kenya in the British sphere and the future Tanzania in the German sphere. In 1888 the British East Africa Company was granted a Royal Charter and renamed the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA). The company was given exclusive rights to commercially exploit the British sphere. In 1895 the territory lying between Mombasa and the eastern edge of the Rift Valley (the future Kenya) was declared the East African Protectorate. In 1902, the eastern province of Uganda was added to the East African Protectorate. In 1920 the Protectorate was declared a Crown Colony and renamed Kenya. The name Kenya appears to have come from the Kamba word Kinyaa,meaning “ostrich.”
The word “Nairobi” came from the Masai word enairobe, which literally means ” stream of cold water. ” Nairobi city was founded in 1899. It grew up around a railway line constructed by the British colonial officials from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast to Uganda. The present site of Nairobi was selected as a stores depot, shunting yard (place where trains are shifted from one track to another), and camping ground for the thousands of Indian laborers (also British colonials, who came to Kenya seeking work) employed by the British to work on the line.
From this point Nairobi city developed slowly, unplanned, and unexpectedly. The outbreak of plague and the burning down of the original compound necessitated the town’s rebuilding. By 1907, Nairobi was firmly established and the colonizers decided to make it the capital of the newly formed British East Africa.
European settlers were encouraged to settle in the country, and Nairobi was their natural choice due to its cool climate and fertile soils. British authorities hoped these settlers would develop a modern economic sector that would enable the railway to pay for itself. Until that happened, the railway scheme seemed a useless venture that would consume more money than was called for in the initial plans. White settlement in the early years of the twentieth century was led by Lord Delamere, a pugnacious farmer from Cheshire, England. The lord and many other pioneer farmers suffered a lot in their farming ventures as little was known of the kind of crops to grow there. By trial and error they established plantations of coffee, tea, sisal (a plant yielding a strong fiber used to make rope), and pyrethrum (a perennial plant yielding flowers used to make insecticide). Cattle rearing also proved to be a profitable undertaking, spurring the establishment of huge ranches. The development of the settler economy allowed the railway venture to reverse its deficits.
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