page_title: History of Nairobi
section_title: Pre-independence
hierarchical_section_title: History of Nairobi / Pre-independence
caption_attribution_description: English: Maasai man, Eastern Serengeti
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: The former swamp land occupied by the city now was once inhabited by the herding people, the Maasai, under the British East Africa protectorate  when the British decided to build a railroad from Mombasa to Kisumu on the edge of Lake Victoria in order to open East Africa and make it accessible  for trade and encourage  colonial settlements. The Maasai were forcibly removed to allow white ranchers to use the land.
  In 1896, work on the railway began. A British railroad camp and supply depot for the Uganda Railway was built in the Maasai area in 1899.  The building soon became the railway's headquarters and  a town grew up surrounding it, named after a watering hole known in Maasai as Ewaso Nyirobi, meaning "cool waters." The location of the Nairobi railway camp was chosen due to its central position between Mombasa and Kampala, as well as  its proximity to a network of rivers that could supply the camp with water. Its elevation  made it cool enough for comfortable residential living. Furthermore, at 1661 meters above the sea level, the temperatures are too low for the  mosquitoes carrying malaria to survive.
  The town was totally rebuilt in the early 1900s after an outbreak of plague and the subsequent burning down of the original town.
  By 1905, Nairobi was a humming commercial center and  replaced Mombasa as capital of the British East Africa. The city expanded, supported by the growth in  administrative functions and in tourism, initially in the form of British big game hunting.  As the British colonialists explored the region, they began using Nairobi as their first stop.  This prompted the colonial government to build several grand hotels in the city for British tourists and big game hunters.
  Nairobi continued to grow under  British rule, and many Britons settled within the city's suburbs.  The continuous expansion of the city began to anger the Maasai, as the city was devouring their land to the south, as well as the Kikuyu people, who felt that the land belonged to  them. In 1919, Nairobi was declared to be a municipality by the British.
  In February 1926, E.A.T. Dutton passed through Nairobi on his way to Mount Kenya  and, seeing the progress and  the ambitious plans the city was making,  foresaw a city of paved roads, landscaped avenues and parks, impressive cathedrals, museums, art galleries, theatres and office buildings. He predicted that Nairobi would become a city of beauty, although he noted that much needed to be accomplished before the ambitious municipal  plan was completed and until then Nairobi would remain  "a slatternly creature, unfit to queen it over so lovely a country".
caption: A Maasai man
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S3 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:10:17 05:56:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1542", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8340", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:10:17 05:56:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:10:17 05:56:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF Flash": "80", "EXIF FocalLength": "72", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1584", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1584", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1370", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "112640/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1584000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}