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The history of Nairobi – ‘Green City in the Sun’. Originally a particularly swamp-like area, the city now known as Nairobi was named after a watering hole referred to in the Maasai language as Ewaso Nyirobi, meaning "cool waters".
Nairobi was founded in 1899 as ‘Mile 327’, a supply depot for the Uganda Railway which was being constructed between the coast of Mombasa and Uganda. Nairobi's position was not a carefully selected one. It just happened to be the last open space and level ground where the trains could shunt before the late layers began to lay their rails up and over the eastern escarpment wall of the Great Rift Valley. A halt was called during the railways construction to undertake necessary repair work. Tents were put up on the plains by the railway workers and makeshift shacks erected. When the railway workers moved on, they left their shacks behind. Soon, other travelers arriving from Mombasa used these for want of better accommodation, and added to them.
Nairobi replaced the port city of Mombasa as the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate in 1905. The railway brought wealth into the city, which fueled dramatic growth. It was soon Kenya's second largest town after Mombasa itself. As the British colonialists began to explore the region, they were using Nairobi as their first port of call. This prompted the colonial government to build several grand hotels in the city. It was soon an important center for the colony, teeming with adventurers, hunters and travelers from all over the world.
Nairobi was granted city status in 1954. Kenyan independence from Britain was achieved in 1963 and Nairobi became the capital of the Republic of Kenya. After independence, the city grew rapidly and today it is a cosmopolitan and multicultural city, with a skyline that has been compared to some European and American cities.
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