Nairobi Local Custom Tips by croisbeauty Top 5 Page for this destination

Furahi day

Kenyans don't make big difference if monday or sunday, to most of them all days in a week look alike, except for friday. Friday or "furahi day" (in kswahili) is special day, it's time for total relax and blust. It doesn't matter if one is working class or jobless, rich or poor, CEO or assistant, furahi is a day when everybody must go out and get drunk.
Many locals call it Tusker day, after the most polupar drink, Kenyan beer which have very good quality......

Keep Nairobi clean - it works

I don't know weather this campaign started only this year but fact is, Nairobi looks to me much cleaner than I remembered it during my last year visit. Such a litter bins are disposed all over the city centre and the locals really care to keep Nairobi clean. In fact, it is much cleaner than some European cities I visited in last couple of years. Fact is, Nairobians love their town and are proud to be the part of it.

Monuments

Thomas is my favourite sculpture in Nairobi, it is work of South African artist Claudette Schreuders, and representating Thomas a Maasai guy who used to be Claudette's guard during her two months stay at Nairobi. "He lives in the city but his heart is at home", that's the way Claudette saw Thomas. Those who know Maasais cannot agree more then that. Claudette creates carved and painted wooden figures of Africans. The sculpture stands at busy Aga Khan Walk.
War Memorial Statues could be seen at the Kenyatta Avenue, it is statue of three African soldiers standing next to each other. The monumennt is memorial to the Africans who fought and died in both WWI and WWII. The British colonial government did recruit Africans to partecipate in that wars, in particularly to Asian front.
The Peace Pole stands right at the entrance to the big open space where the gigantic statue of Jomo kenyatta could be seen. It is memory of the bomb blast victims, in both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, 7th August 1998. The message on the pole says: "May peace prevail on earth".

Sundays

Most of the Kenyans, those who have job in a big companies or government institutions, work six days in a week. Sunday is day off, time for the chuch in the mornings and family walkings in the parks after lunch time. Uhuru Park is the place where most of the locals like to spend their free time, either in walkings, attending mass in open or listening gospel songs performed by numerous groups around.

Global Museum

Global Museum is situated in a walking distance to Holiday Inn hotel where I stayed during my three days visit to Nairobi. It happened that I passed there only by chance and was attracted by its look, which is in a shape of bursting flower. It was about 8:00 AM and the musuem was still closed. My intention was to come back and visit it later in a day but honestly I forgot it.

Living standards

Local working class cannot afford high flat-rents in the city area of Nairobi, just a simple room with bathroom costs around 6.000 ksh, which is more than most of them earn per month. Therefore, they live or in the outskirts of Nairobi or, if very poor, in Kibera. My friend Francis, who work as the security guy, pays one thousand shillings per month for two small rooms in Kibera. I visited his "apartment" which has no power, no running water and no bathroom inside the flat. Such a rent is almost one third of his wages.
Francis spend small money for the food, eating twice a day only and equaly small money for the second hands cloths, which is the only cloths he can afford. He never attended theatre in his life and never goes to the bars or clubs which are inside the city area of Nairobi. On the other hand, Francis is very polite with good manners and really nice guy. When I asked him is he happy with his life, Francis confirmed telling me this, many people cannot afford what I have and not in Kenya only. Francis never visited coastal part of Kenya, never saw the ocean and it is one of his dreams. I gave him money to makes that dream come true and he was extremely happy and gratefull.

What if......

What to do if, all the sudden, such a scary head appeares out of the bush right in front of you? What if two of a kind? I guess the best is what I did, remain cold-blooded and taking the pics. What they did? They ignored me completely and just passed on the other side of the road. It was so unexpected and funny.
Later on I met this lovely couple lying on the grass and still ignoring my presence.

Mausoleum to Jomo Kenyatta

It was one of the rare unpleasant experiences I had in Nairobi. The Mausoloem to Jomo Kenyatta was closed and there wasn't any indication regarding openning hours. When I approached to the iron gate there were two guards who aworned me not to take the pictures because it is not allowed. I asked them for the reason but they became rude telling me to put my camera away and leave the place.
Since I never quit, I went across the avenue took out my strong lens and made this pictures hidden by the hedge.

Hospitality

Jane is my interner friend, we exchnaged a few e-mails and calls before my departing to Kenya. Once I called her, she cooked the dinner and it was traditional local dish called ugali. She promiced to make it for me if I ever came to the town of Nairobi. I've meet her only tha last day of my staying in Nairobi because she was out of the town. Jane is by origin Maasai and she is very proud to be it. She shawn me around and we spend whole day together visiting parts of the town I couldn't see if on my own. I bought her a lunch and she invited me at her home making ugali and sukuma as she promiced. There at her home I've meet some of her friends and we spent very pleasant evening, right before my flight back to Mombasa.

Gigiri, for rich (and white) people only

There is a part of the town where only white people live, actually, it is residential area and all houses are hidden behind high and wired walls. My taxi driver took me there in order to show me this completely different face of Nairobi. Never before in no place I saw so many secutity cars and armed guys around. This part of the town is in a huge contrast with the rest of Nairobi and I didn't like it at all.