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Nairobi itself has had something of a bad reputation recently, which it only partly deserves. Despite serious efforts to clean up the centre of town, the old nickname of Nairobbery has been difficult to shift. But be honest now, there are parts of any city in the world that you would be scared to walk around in, aren’t there? Even parts of your own home town. Nairobi is a bustling modern city with almost every convenience you can think of (OK, only “almost”), with a wonderful African ambiance. It has developed a lot in the time I have known it, and especially over the past year or so, with the new wave of confidence brought by the change of government.

I hate cities, and yet I love Nairobi. I loved the edge that it had when I first went there, and which, despite the fact that it is generally a much safer place now, it still has (or is that just wishful thinking?). Anyway, these days one hardly needs to go into the city centre that often, as there are a wide range of shopping centres and supermarkets in the suburbs. If, like me, you are an aficionado of supermarkets (have you ever realized just how much the culture of a country is reflected by its supermarkets?) you really should check out the old-style Uchumi supermarkets before they are all closed.

Places to stay range from US$5 a night guest-houses on River Road to the top hotels like The Norfolk (which celebrated 100 years in business last Christmas Day), The Stanley, and the Fairview, and all varieties in between. There is something to suit everyone. To go for the cheap River Road options you either have to be a back-packer seriously strapped for cash and after ‘real experiences’, or a nutter. Guest-houses are not always brothels, but a very large number of them do rent rooms by the hour. Incidentally, the Gracia Guest House behind the Yaya mall in Hurlingham is a nice, quiet, Christian-run place that I would recommend without hesitation.

On the subject of places of ill-repute: if you have heard about Buffalo Bill’s – sorry, it has closed and is now the marble-floored foyer of a rather more superior class hotel. Something wonderful (if irredeemably seedy and rather depressing) has gone from the city. The Bavaria has gone too – maybe that’s why one of my former colleagues has decided to head for Bangkok. Not all “progress” is a move forwards.



When you do go into town, or even stay in the suburbs, Nairobi has a range of entertainments to suit everyone (although one of my favourite bars is now a Friends style coffee house, and another has been yuppyfied, and lost all its character – ah well). Film? There are nearly twenty cinema screens in town – and they usually get the new Hollywood movies sooner than they arrive in the UK. Theatre? There are plays every week: at the National Theatre, at the Professional Centre, the French Cultural Centre, and at the Braeburn School theatre; Art, Literature? All there for the taking. Music of all types available at all times (great local band at Roasters, Thika Road, especially at weekends) … if you can’t have a good time in Nairobi you are already dead. Food of all varieties and from all countries is readily available everywhere – one can be spoiled for choice.