city of nairobi from 1904 to 2013

FRANCIS ILAHAKA With few days two the historical election to be held on 4th March majority of parties and politician are gearing up for Nairobi highest seats. In the past few weeks media had been treating there leaders to gossip kinds of news by not telling Kenyans who are those leaders who wants to be City fathers according to new constitution. The name Waititu, Phillip Kisia Dr Kedero, among others had been on the front line grabbing headlines of Kenya toothless media. Following the development like any other Scholar ihave been forced to dig deep into Nairobi history since 1800 by due to space iwill focus on the city which was ones forest from 1904 in order for both Kenya politicians and general leaders who are not good leaders to read On my sine only politicians with modern urbanization knowledge can save Nairobi which is facing numerous problems traffic jam and poor housing being on frontline There is no way Nairobi can map with other cities around the World when transportation is poor in the hands of criminals whop rise fare during traffic jam and rain season. Not only that Nairobi is the only city in Africa without public buses owned by City Council and the government because of corruption and tribalism. On my view only leaders who understand Nairobi historical background can be good leaders of Nairobi by putting modern urbanization in top agenda apart from that they should be good readers of books among others. Ihave been forced to trace Nairobi history after reading and attending some political rallies in which politicians are dreaming to use both tribal and propaganda magic to grabb Nairobi leadership The following in short history of Nairobi as recorded by historians around the World from Oxford University, Cambridge and Alexandria in Egypt among others In 1904 Nairobi was in transition. Halfway between a shantytown and a permanent urban settlement, its destiny still hung in the balance as the forces shaping it for the better began to give it a more malleable and enduring -look. The catalyst which began this period of transformation, which would span several years, was a-blaze, ignited by the health authorities, which had once again razed the bazaar at a cost reckoned to be about £50,000. Haj Jeevanjee, a far sighted visionary and philanthropist, took this as an opportunity to establish the town's first public recreation area and spent 500 ruppees laying out Jeevanjee Gardens. Thereafter, once a week, the band of the King's African Rifles entertained the townsfolk. The town committee had rented new offices—where Imenti Mansions (Regal Mansions) stands, on the traffic island facing Kenyatta Avenue—for £67-a-year and celebrated "self-consciously and with a wicked air" by throwing a party at which champagne, Portal's old panacea for fever, was served. These offices later became the Law Courts. The Norfolk, on which work was steadily progressing, set the style for much of the architecture which would follow, endowing Nairobi with a lasting elegance. Instead of. the ugly corrugated-iron roofing which had earned Nairobi the soubriquet Tin Town'—a characteristic of the newly-opened wood and tin shack which was the first upcountry branch of the National Bank of India in Victoria Street—it was clad in imported Bangalore tiles. And the Railway's engineers had discovered an abundant source of water around Kikuyu which was now flowing into the town and was availabe through several public standpoints, earning the Railway a handsome profit for the next. 16 years. But in faraway Westminster the British Parliament had no news of any of this. John Burns, a fiery orator, was mashalling public opinion to have the unsightly and unhygienic settlement removed from the map on which it had so recently been placed by Mr. Chamberlain's visit. Dr. B.W. Cherrett, Medical Officer of Health and a group of Government Doctors, headed by Dr. H.W. Macdonald, were the inspiration for Burn's agitation. They had petitioned Sir Charlies Eiiot to have the town removed. "The. whole place," wrote Dr. Cherrett, "is in a shocking insanitary condition, in fact it is a huge, evil-smelling swamp due to escape of liquid refuse from tjie houses, drains and overflowing sumps...not the slightest provision for drainage has been attempted." The attack provoked an impassioned reply from the Standard in August 1904 under the heading, 'Nairobi—The Natural Capital.' Pointing out the improvements being made—"The Norfolk would soon be conducted for white people in the style they have been accustomed to in their homes"—the paper went on to list the town's political advantages: •Nairobi's central position meant it was well-placed to quell a rising, particularly if Uganda and British East Africa became one Colony. •The climate was perfect, and except for cases brought in from outside, sickness was pcactically unknown. (This, mind, after constant recurrences of plaque!) •The fact that the millitary and railway administration and the public health authorities were already well-established had also to be considered. In response, the committee Ordered the removal of the public toilets from the bazaar to a site behind Victoria Street and solicited new designs for 3 five-seater, 3 two-seater, and 2 one-seater conveniences from the Railways. At the same time, warning the Railways about the drains oh their estate, it commissioned two new street watering cars and two more night-soil carts. These improvements were inaugurated under the able administration of Nairobi's new town clerk, Capt. E.L. Sanderson, late of the Yorkshire Regiment, who began work in September. Almost immediately the committee told Sanderson to ask the Lands Department to earmark sites for a new town hall, public library, museum, tramway sheds, stables, workshop and lighting compound, slaughter houses, cattle pens and a 10-acre showyard. The Nairobi Power and Lighting company had just published a prospectus bf.its plans to bring light to the 'Dark Continent' and, in particular, 'Tin Town.' Aly Khan's livery stables in River Road were flourishing. The Norfolk had quickly established itself, at the periphery of the town, as the social centre of the community. It advertised: NORFOLK HOTEL Stone-built—tiled roof. The fashionable rendezvous of the Highlands Good stabling. Carriages and baggage gharries meet every train. Hot and cold baths and Billiard Room. French chef, late of the Waidorf Astoria Hotel, New York. Terms moderate. Its P.O. Box number was 23- Although the hotel had opened before the New Year, the title for the lease—Plot No L/R 209/126—was not handed to its owners until well into the New Year. It had opened at a fortuitous time for by now Kenya was becoming a subject of conversation in the clubs and the dining tables of the elite of Europe. The Uganda Railway, with few sources of revenue, foresaw in this perhaps a reason for its existence. They opened a British sales office in Dewar House in London's Haymarket and advertised the wildlife delights of Kenya with a flair which can only have delighted the Norfolk's two entrepreneurs. The railway authorities touted Kenya extensively. Posters proclaiming the highlands of British East Africa as "a winter home for aristocracts" depicted the train's departure from Mombasa as an event little short of embarking aboard the Ark in a veritable Eden. Cartoons of every known form of wildlife frolicked by the line under a diminutive caption which said: "Arrival of the first Cook's excursion, and the result of carefully preserving the big game." Bolder capital's pronounched: "Uganda Railway observation cars pass through the greatest natural game preserve in the world". The biggest beneficiary of this advertising however was not the railway but the Norforlk. The posters lured such a formidable array of aristocrats that the hotel soon became known as "House of Lords" and a 1905 guestlist—printed some months later—indicates the railway's boasts has substance. Among those who booked in for extended periods at the Norfolk Were The Earls Carlisle, Warwick, Cowley and his Countess, the Marquis and Marchioness of Waterford, Lady Lawley and daughter, Lord and Lady Granwonh {who returned almost at once as settlers), Lord Hindlip, Lord Cole (another who came to settle), Lord Cardross, Lord Montgomerie, and General Baden-Powell, hero of Mafeking and founder of the world­wide Scouc movement. He would make Kenya his last home and enjoyed three years of retirement in the seclusion ot Nyeri from 1938 until his death in 1941. Two"other guests who signed the register were Mr. and Mrs. William Northrup McMillan. McMillan took up a lease on land next to the Norfolk which now accommodates the University of Nairobi campus. At the time the railway cut through part of this estate, Chiromo on its climb up the escarpment. McMillan would become one of Kenya's most colourful characters. A huge and massive man, this millionaire from St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, had a sword belt which measured 65 inches. He was later knighted for services to the British Empire—he enlisted in the Kenya Army which fought the German forces from Tanzania—and in his memory his wife endowed the town with the McMillan Library in Banda Street, on a site not far from their first home in Kenya. Another entrepreneur who witnessed the steady flow of eminent visitors to the Norfolk was 'Pop' Binks, his dreams of farming shattered. Three years before, on the occasion of Chamberlain's visit, 'Pop' had borrowed a camera from Mr. Firmin who ran a business supplying seed to farmers on credit. Developing the slides in the 'very dark stock room' of Tommy Woody's shop the enterprising Binks had netted a profit of 48 rupees. In 1905, he decided his future altogether lay in photography and he opened Nairobi's first photographic shop. Most of the time, he recalls, this enterprise ran on the credit system which Nairobi had already developed. Bills were paid between August and March when Pop was busy supplying or working for hunting safaris. In between it was back to the 'chit and credit system.' Other adventurers whose names are writ large in the early history of Nairobi and East Africa also made the Norfolk a springboard for their epic deeds as hunters and merchants, including W.D.M. 'Karamoja' Bell, Frederick Courtney Selous, Majoy Hugh Chauncey Stigand, and Captain Jim Sutherland. Many more would follow and all would use Nairobi and the. Norfolk as a base. Early mornings on the hotel's verandah and in the rutted dirt road outside were a babble of noise and movement, porters, and safari leaders and their pack animals in a bedlam of competition for the honour of being first away on the road to adventure. Aly Khan, flourishing a large, bushy moustache, would stand on the steps directing operations with a flick of his whip, a twinkle always evident in his kindly arid ever curious eye as pack animals and horses stirred the dust which danced in the air before settling on cushioned chairs and white collats of shirts and blouses. Always, during the hot season, tension would grow .under the withering glare of the sun. Silent prayers for rain were answered with torrential effect in 1905. They came early and in volume, flood-waters sweeping away Patterson's Ainsworth Bridge and its temporary replacement in the space of a week. Yet the downpours could do nothing to staunch Nairobi's potential as a fire hazard. One spark was enough to ignite a blaze of horrendous proportions. In the second half of 1905, a windblown cinder settled on the sapless frame of a vintage Victoria Street shack. Within minutes the building was ablaze and the flames hungrily pounced on the neighbouring shack. Hours later the whole of Victoria Street lay in ashes, including the Masonic Hotel of Rayne and the Stanley Hotel of F.F. Tate The conflagration caused damage estimated between 100,000 to 300,000 rupees though no accurate valuation wa£ ever made. The town, now six years old, had no effective form of fire prevention and only ineffectual means of fire fighting. Such arrartgments as" existed were either made privately or left in the hands of the unfortunate Police. The Standard bayed at length about the need for proper insurance and a voluntary town fire-fighting force. Tate gritted his teeth and rented an unfurnished two-story building in Government Road, bought iron bedsteads and fresh linen,"covered the unfinished roof timbers with tarpaulins and began business in the second Stanley Hotel. 'There would be no shortage of wood for future pyrotechnics—Ewart Grogan had just been granted a 64,000-acre timber concession in the virgin stands of the Mau Forest which drew from Meinertzhagen the dry comment, "I trust that whoever cuts the timber up here is compelled to plant 10 trees for every one cut." The fortitude and cheerful acceptance of disaster which characterized many members of the early European and Asian communities—such as the resolute attitude of Tate—was one of the remarkable features of Nairobi social life. Their isolation from their own culture needs placing in perspective. They were two or three days distance from Mombasa, the only other established community of any significance. And Mombasa was several weeks distance from the familiar environment of Europe. Meinertzhagen, normally the soul of cheerfulness, tried to crystalise the effects of this separation in a melancholic reflection in 1905. "Isolation from my family, whose formative effect has been considerable on my character, is dreary and might of itself account for unwholesome ideas and gloomy thoughts. I seem to have received a heavy sowing of unhappiness and depression...my experience shows me that it is but a small percentage of white men 'whose characters do not in one way or another undergo a subtle process of deterioration when they are compelled to live for any length of time...under such conditions as exist in tropical climates." It was also a time of transition for the Administration. In bitter dispute with Whitehall over a proposal to turn the Mount Elgon foothills into an Israeli state and the forced movement of the Maasai off their grazing lands at Naivasha, Sir Charles Elliot, the protagonist of white settlement, quit. He was, to many, still a paradox when he tendered his formal resignation in the second half of 1904. He left to become head of Sheffield University for 14 years until his recall as Ambassador to Japan in 1919. An ascetic scholar with a brilliant Balliol record, the classicist had endeared himself to the Delameres and Grogans but Meinertzhagen, an astute judge, thought him a "cold fish." In this respect, the classics scholar left one monument of his stay in Kenya—an academic study of Indian Ocean shell-fish. FRANCIS ILAHAKA IS CUTURAL WRITER BASED IN NAIROBI CURRENTLY WORKING ON ABOOK MAKING OF KENYA PRESIDENCY FROM KENYATTA TO MWAI KIBAKI francisilahakai@gmail