page_title: History of Nairobi
section_title: Post-independence
hierarchical_section_title: History of Nairobi / Post-independence
caption_attribution_description: Terrorists bombed the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya in August 1998, leaving hundreds dead and wounded.
context_page_description: The earliest account of Nairobi's history dates back to 1899 when a railway depot was built in a brackish African swamp occupied only by a pastoralist people, the Maasai, as well as the agriculturalist Kikuyu people who were both displaced. The railway complex and the building around it rapidly expanded and urbanized until it became the largest city of Kenya and the country's capital. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, Nairobi is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun."
context_section_description: After independence, Nairobi grew rapidly and this growth put pressure on the city's infrastructure.  Power cuts and water shortages were a common occurrence, though in the past few years better city planning has helped to put some of these problems in check.
  In 1975 Nairobi was the host city of the 5th Assembly of the World Council of Churches.
  The U.S. embassy in the heart of Nairobi was bombed on August 7, 1998 by Al-Qaida, as one of a series of U.S. embassy bombings.  Over two hundred civilians were killed in the embassy and another 213 persons in the surrounding area with more than 5,000 people injured. The effects  were widespread and devastating. The embassy was completely destroyed and another forty buildings severely damaged. A seven-story building collapsed killing at least 60 people.
  The growth of Nairobi has put pressure on the government to develop and maintain protected lands such as the Nairobi National Park. The new residential areas for the growing human population are making inroads into  lands that have been traditionally the migration routes for huge animal herds.
  Following the disputed Kenyan presidential election, 2007, serious violence broke out in Nairobi. In the Mathare slum, Kikuyu and Luo gangs burned more than 100 homes.
  On September 21, 2013, a mass shooting broke out in the luxurious Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi's Westlands neighbourhood, killing at least 68 people. The attacks were claimed by the Somalian militant group Al-Shabaab.
caption: 1998 embassy bombing
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