I really loved Nairobi of the mid 70s and to mid 80s...I was a child to mid teenager(God I am old!)...We first lived in Upperhill (near Matumbato Rd) then moved to Kileleshwa...I remember it took only 25 minutes from Upperhill to City Centre..I remember Dad taking us to Uhuru Park or sometimes we would hang around the Railway Golf Club while he played..I remember running with my friends, after the ice cream man who came through the estate on Saturday...I had my 1 shilling to buy my favorite pineapple flavored one....I remember green grass and smell of trees...The City functioned from the street lights to drainage,roads were swept and Kanjo guys tended the shrubbery and generally kept things nice and clean...There were garbage collectors who collected trash (from your pipa) every week.This was a free service...Those were the golden good old days...The weather was beautiful..
Fast forward to today...I took my my young adult children to see these places I keep telling them about. That was last year...While the places I grew up are still pretty decent the City itself has lost its glory..I cannot drive in the CBD...The traffic is outrageous...It is a shame because Nairobi was cleaner and more developed than Singapore in late 70s and 80s...Nairobi was like being in Europe(we visited my aunt in UK during the same time and we didn’t see a lot of difference apart from the underground train)
I guess I am just a nostalgic middle aged man...I now see why Western countries have strict rules on building permissions...All is not lost with a good City Planner things can turn around...Maybe if PSVs could be banned from the CBD then that could help.
I miss the old Nairobi....
hahahaha...Nai ndio ina uchumi mkubwa barani africa baada ya Johannesburg, Cape town, Cairo na Lagos..tumewakanyaga kina Casablanca, Algiers na kadhalika....kuipita ndoto za mchanaOmbeni tz iwekewe vikwazo vya kiuchumi ndiyo itakuwa salama yenu vinginevyo nai tunaisahau muda si mrefu
Jinsi huwa unacomment kuhusu Kenya, kumbe hujapafika Nai
Anyway welcome, waulize mabwenyenye wenye hela zao Arusha maana wengi huja Nairobi kula bata na kugeuza, kuna kabaridi fulani hivi kama Arusha, lakini sio kama kule Ngorongoro ambako niliganda noma noma kwa baridi.
Anyway hapo umenena nilichokua nakisema kwamba raha ya Dar huwa pale kama kazi yako haihusu mizunguko ya mjini, kwamba ukitoka kwenda kazini ni hatua chache na itakuchukua kama dakika kumi, na pia vile vile wakati wa jioni ukirudi nyumbani.
Lakini kama unategemea kila siku utoke Ngongo la Mboto uje Posta na kugeuza kila jioni ndio utakoma.
Tembea Nairobi kwanza kijana, ukirudi na mrejesho ndo tutaendelea na huu mjadala.Pole endelea kujifariji tafuta wakenya walio ishi dar muda mrefu wengi awataki kuludi Kenya niamini
Duh! Kumbe you're an old timer, you hanged in Nairobi in mid 70s???
The thing is, we need to invest heavily on devolution and create more Nairobis, am seriously considering migrating to some other upcoming town or city. Good thing is my kind of work allows me to live in anywhere without any inconvenience.
Machakos and Nakuru are top on my list.
Kha! huyo haijui Dar vizuri, hivi anajua kuna Watanzania ukiwatuma Dar kikazi wanaona kama adhabu na wanatamani wamalize fasta na kugeuza. Mji wenyewe joto na mifoleni unatamani utelekeze gari barabarani, lakini hata hii Nairobi nataka kuihama, bado nawaza mji wa kuhamia hapa Kenya, uliotulia bila mikimbio ya kila siku.
Dar kama kazi yako haihusu mizunguko ya mjini inakua nafuu, kwanza kama unayo ofisi maeneo ya nje nje kama Tegeta au hata Kigamboni
ahaaa haaa haaa
ukiona unajiwa na mawazo kama hayo ujue umekuwa mhenga. maisha ya mikiki huwezi tena. you want a quite life. Mimi binafsi nimenunua kijijini kwetu ekari tano nalima miti pia naendelea na ujenzi. nikiwa muhenga nahamia huko basi story kwisha.
Kweli you are in love with Mo town....Kha! Kijijini siendi hata kwa mtutu wa bunduki.... Pia nina shamba la kahawa kule, huwa nakwenda kuzuga zuga na kugeuza.
Uhenga wangu nitaupeleka kwenye mji uliotulia bila mikimbio lakini sio kijijini, kuna miji mizuri tu hata hapo kwenu Bongo ukienda Morogoro, mji wenyewe mdogo halafu hauna mihemko, ukijenga jengo nzuri karibu na milima ya Waluguru mbona unatulia tu, na Dar haipo mbali, masaa machache unafuata unachokitaka Dar na kugeuza.