Nairobi, known in the '70's as the "Green City in the sun", is home to millions of hopeful souls. Literally translated from the Masai language, it means the 'place of cold water'. But ponder for one minute just how well you know the place you have called 'home' since you arrived here. How well do you know the streets? Can you give accurate directions from 'A' to 'B', strictly by the names of her streets? If you can, let me throw in a twist: Do you know the historic names of some of her major streets?
Guided by a pre-1960 map of Nairobi, lets take a walk down memory lane with a few personal anecdotes that reference the historical names of some of our streets.
The year was sometime in the early nineties, when I was nearing completion of my primary school education, and by this time, preparations for joining a good secondary school were in full gear. It was a cold, cloudy Saturday morning and I was nervous because later that day I was to take an entrance examination/interview at one of the prestigious, top Boys' secondary schools situated in Lavington, Nairobi. My mom and I were to rendezvous early that morning with a colleague of hers along Delamere (Sixth) Avenue so that she could drop us at the school. My mom's friend was right on time! We boarded the vehicle and set off towards the school. We navigated our way out of the traffic along Delamere Ave. and joined one of the City's main arteries, Princess Elizabeth way. We finally arrived at the school, located a couple of kilometres off the highway. I got into the school, confident, pen and paper in hand.....perhaps I might have left behind an important part my brain because the interview was tough and I never made the cut. I remember having to dash to the wash rooms mid-interview, almost peeing on myself maybe because of the rigor of the test.
Nevertheless upon completion -six-or-so months later- of the much-maligned 8-4-4 , or more aptly put, eight-fo-fo system of education, I joined a mixed day school, also located further north along Princess Elizabeth way. I was condemned to another four years of mis-education by the National education system. I call it mis-education because of the enormous number of drop outs along the way and the staggering, nay, alarming number that fail to gain admission into any university, public or private at the end of their secondary education. Last year alone, only twenty seven percent obtained a grade that allowed them to return home confidently and face their parents and guardians.
During my tenure in secondary, my daily commute back home from school frequently lead me along both Victoria Street and Government Road, where i almost always had to contend with hordes of Nairobi-ans pacing in all directions, frantically hoping to get to their next destination on time. Nairobi seemed densely populated even then -with perhaps with a population of about two million by 1999 estimate. There was the occasional Nai-robbery which either consisted of a threat to be smeared with faecal matter or downright mugging in broad daylight if one did not dole out a generous amount of cash. School goers like me were often forced to part with loose change; Men in suits and women usually parted with much more fearing utter humiliation. If one survived far enough to board a matatu, they often breathed a sighed of relief once in there and their pulses momentarily stabilized as it sped off along Whitehouse Road (First Ave.)
Many years later, I would find myself along Conaught Rd., on my way to a tertiary college as I had not obtained a grade that would allow me to participate in four more years of demonstrations, stone throwing and rioting along Nairobi's streets. Back then, even a C+ couldn't get one into university directly and there weren't as many private universities as we have today. Thanks to the proliferation of university education, those students that have fared less favorably at KCSE now have a chance at meaningful higher education.
Conaught Rd. was always, and still is, one of the 'cleaner' and more nice places to walk along in the city centre. Its appearance belies the cloak and dagger politics and horse trading that goes on inside one of the adjacent structures. If only business inside those chambers could be as clean, maybe we would all have a better nation.
Now, decades later, I still find myself strutting along these streets, albeit with different ambitions and thoughts in my mind. The streets still haven't changed much, and neither has the population. Certain streets such as York street have been redesigned to allow only one-way traffic, flower beds and more room for pedestrians but other than the cosmetic, superficial changes, they remain the same. Other streets such as Sadler street went on to acquire bad reputations and perhaps can do with another name and image change.
One would probably think they know everything about our city but before you claim to really know Nairobi, please remember the city is more than 100 years old, and has a rich and diverse history to it. One can start with a learning little history about the naming of our streets in the attached map.
