Attractions in Nairobi County
41. Royal Nairobi Golf Club
Royal Nairobi Golf Club, established in 1906, is an excellent international golf course where all levels of golfers enjoy a great testing experience. Throughout the course, each element has been positioned carefully and is expertly detailed to make for a thrilling play. Unique to the Club is that it is fairly long compared to most other Kenyan courses. The part of the golf course that is closest to the club house is fairly flat while the part at the back of the course is undulated with a small stream meandering over the course. Its tremendous variety with careful and creative design pieces itself together as an exiting challenge for golfers of all levels. The Tanahill Shield, which was inaugurated in 1924 and more popular as the Easter Tournament, is traditionally played here during the Easter Holidays.
42. Nairobi National Library
On completion slated for 2020, the Nairobi National Library will be one of the must-dos in Nairobi. With a sitting capacity of 5,000 on 5-levels and taking up the triangular property enclosed by Ngong Road split and Ragati Road, it is an extraordinary combination of baroque flair and traditional design. One of the most striking feature is the nuance of African traditional designs that borrows inspiration from the fast-disappearing emblematic traditional huts. With an open-to-all membership policy, Nairobi’s foremost library will, in the sense of no matter what, en-kindle the moribund art of reading, and will be a place to discover, to contemplate and to create. Since time immemorial, libraries have been prodigious structures vital to societies the world over; at the same time protecting the written records of humanity. And Nairobi National Library is no exception. It will be impressive from the moment you arrive, to when you leave.
43. Railways Golf Club
This is set at the corner of Ngong Road and Uhuru Highway (A104 Mombasa-Uganda Road). It is backdropped by the high-rise towers at Upper Hill, more proper Capitol Hill, and sits across from Kenya Railways Headquarters and the Railways Museum. “This is a remarkable nine hole par-72 course, measuring 5,900 yards, boasting lush greens, “tight” fairways, beautiful mature trees, a clubhouse, changing rooms and cabro carpark in Nairobi’s green-belt”. It was begun in June, 1935, when the golf club was first formed. In 1942, it opened its first 5-hole golf course south of the main Nairobi City near Reflection Lake (in Uhuru Park). The Golden Golf Club was incorporated as a non-profit society in 1962, and continues under this designation in present day. Railways Gold Club is notable as one few pay and play golf course in Kenya, providing the residents of Nairobi with an affordable golfing experience on the first class playing club. The entrance is situated along Ngong Road, and opposite Railways Sports Club.
44. Nairobi Arboretum
From Yaya Centre, it is a short 4 kms drive into the CBD either using Argwings Kodhek Road and Valley Road, Lenana Road, or Valley Road. All these road at the bottom of the hill on Valley Road have the option of turning left into State House Road, which is the quickest way to get to Nairobi Arboretum. Gazetted in 1907, care of the Kenya Forestry Service, the 30.4-hectares public outdoor park contains more than 350 unique indigenous tree genres and over 100 species of migrant and resident bird species in addition to its Sykes and Vervet monkeys. The Arboretum provides a peaceful park for praying, meditation, walking and bird watching. Honest to its mission to provide a safe peaceful park, it remains one of the most-treasured urban parks and a pertinent green pocket in the fast expanding city-scape. From September of 2016, the Nairobi Arboretum started charging a small cover charge of Shs. 50 to help manage the ground sustainably.
45. All Saints Cathedral
Quite unmistakable, both for its scale and beauty, the All Saints Cathedral is on account of its location and accessibility, the most momentous of the Cathedrals in Kenya. Its history began over five decades after the arrival of Johann Ludwig Kraph in Mombasa, when Rev. William G. Peel – the first Bishop of the Diocese of Mombasa – arrived in Nairobi, at the same time as the Uganda Railway, in 1900. In 1903, Peel helped found St. Stephen’s Church, a small wood and iron fabrication near Parliament Building (which was demolished to make way for the extensions to Parliament in 1963). In 1907, a larger church was built under Reverend W. M. Falloon at St. Mark’s Church in Parklands, behind Parkland’s Police Station. In July 1914, a public meeting of European Anglicans was held to raise money for a permanent church in the centre of Nairobi City. Forthwith, on February 3, 1917, the foundation stone for All Saints Cathedral Nairobi was laid.
“The design of Mr. Temple Moore, an architect who ‘thought Gothic’ and was widely lauded as one of the most outstanding architects in that style in the late Victorian era, was used for the main build, and further portions of the building were completed in 1924, 1934 and in 1952 to a new design for the Chancel” – All Saints Cathedral. In November 1924, the Church of All Saints was elevated to Cathedral of the Highlands, equal in status to the Cathedral in Mombasa. By 1934, the raising of the cathedral had only progressed as far as the Chancel arch and it remained in that incomplete state until after the Second World War. In 1949, an appeal was launched to complete the building and the present-day building, which was completed and consecrated to the glory of God on the 21st March 1952. It was later designated as a National Monument under National Museums of Kenya. It’s located along Kenyatta Avenue adjacent to Uhuru Park.
The late Graham Hyslop, who was an organist at the All Saints Cathedral and Kenya’s colonial Music Inspector in 1963 with a particular interest in Pokomo songs. He was also conductor of the All Saints and Alliance School choirs. He died in 1978. It was he who recorded a lullaby from Mzee Meza Maroa Galana that became the melody to the Kenya National Anthem. Graham was part of the five-man 1963 Kenya Anthem Commission. It was mastered by the Kenyan Anthem Commission in 1963, from his composition.
46. Mau Mau Memorial
Spectacularly set in the Freedom Corner of Uhuru Park, an almost sacred area that has been the venue of some infamous demonstrations which changed the history of Kenya – to include ‘the mothers of political prisoners who stripped naked in Uhuru Park in 1992 after unsuccessfully petitioning then Attorney General Amos Wako to free their sons from detention’ – Mau Mau Memorial is a solemn reminder of the fearless folk who bore the brunt and, an everlasting symbol of the joys of freedom and the pains of the lack of it. The Memorial, a bronze statues depicting a woman handing over food supplies to a Mau Mau fighter which was commonplace in a war mainly waged in the forests, enshrines the villagers and Mau Mau fighter. This was, perhaps, the sternest of struggles for freedom in Kenya’s history. In spite of the horrors of the struggle for self rule, Mau Mau Memorial is also a significant step in the reconciliation process. It is located in Uhuru Park, along Kenyatta Avenue, nearby All Saints Cathedral.
Abiri Kenya 