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Apr 9, 2018 49 tweets 16 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1/48 A #HistoryKeThread pictorial journey through #VintageNairobi.
2/48 1899: An early photo of Nairobi as a tent city.
3/48 1909: A market scene in the fast growing town.
4/48 1913: A wagon/rickshaw workshop and, next, wagon makers.
5/48 1912: Government Road (Moi Avenue) Nairobi.
6/48 1916: The front facade of Nairobi Club, which had been founded 15 years earlier, in 1901.
7/48 1916: British officers and askaris of the KAR at Mbagathi Lines, which is Langata barracks today.
8/48 1920s: A military band plays tunes outside Government House. This is State House today.
9/48 1921: St. Austin’s Church with coffee bushes in the foreground.
10/48 1927: Government Road (Moi Avenue).
11/48 1936: Uganda Railway HQs and Sixth Avenue (later Delamere Avenue, then later renamed Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi)
12/48 1937: Msongari School from the air.
13/48 1941: Guns of Italians killed or captured during #WW2 are displayed to the public.
14/48 1942: City Market, whose construction began in 1925.
15/48 1954: British officers execute Operation Anvil in the streets. This was an operation at the height of the Emergency to rid the city of #MauMau.
16/48 1954: Mau Mau suspects under detention in Bahati and downtown Nairobi respectively.
17/48 1954: Kenya plays Uganda during the Gossage Cup final at Doonholm Stadium, which is City Stadium today.
18/48 1955: The entrance to Royal Nairobi National Park.
19/48 1958: An East Africa Safari rally car zooms last City Hall after being flagged off.
20/48 1961: Cars parked in downtown Nairobi.
21/48 1961: A man walks past Standard Bank of South Africa Building on Delamere Avenue. The building hosts Standard Chartered Bank today.
22/48 1961: Nairobi Primary School’s swimming pool. The school was founded as a junior school of Prince of Wales School (Nairobi School).
23/48 1961: Skyline over the city of Nairobi. See the Union Jack fluttering atop Parliament Buildings?
24/48 1965: Kenyans at the Jockey Club races.
25/48 1965: A beggar in downtown Nairobi. Next is a view in the same year of the Moi Avenue-Kigali Road junction with Jamia Mosque in the background.
26/48 1966: A small crowd at a bus stage in Westlands.
27/48 1966: The grounds of the Great Circus of India in South B and, next, a circus performance in session. This was at grounds occupied by Nyayo Stadium today.
28/48 1966: Grounds of the former Royal College. They are today the University of Nairobi grounds.
29/48 1967: A scene at the Tom Mboya-Ronald Ngala Streets junction.
30/48 1968: Government Road, which was later renamed Moi Avenue.
31/48 1969: Kids from the nearby Catholic Parochial Primary School file nearly into the Holy Family Basilica.
32/48 1970: Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) under construction.
33/48 1971: HFCK building along Kenyatta Avenue. This is Rehani House today.
34/48 1973: A view of a bustling city with the Hilton Hotel in the background.
35/48 1973: A section of Buru Buru Estate (Phase 1). The estate was built by HFCK with support from the Commonwealth Development Corporation.
36/48 1975: A magnificent photo of the KICC grounds.
37/48 1976: School kids wait to be conducted on a tour of the KICC.
38/48 1978: Tom Mboya-Ronald Ngala Streets junction.
39/48 1978: A rugby duel at the Railway Club in Nairobi.
40/48 1981: Changaa brewing in Mathare slums.
41/48 1983: Mcmillan Memorial Library, construction of which was sponsored by Juja Farm’s Lady McMillan.
42/48 1985: Jua kali artisans at work in Shauri Moyo.
43/48 1987: A young @BarackObama outside Ramogi studio in downtown Nairobi.
44/48 1990: The front of Nairobi Railway Station.
45/48 1993: Eastern end of City Hall Way, featuring Kencom Building in the background.
46/48 1994: Worshippers at a rally hosted by German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.
47/48 2004: One of the London-look taxis that were popular in the city at the turn of this century.
48/48 2014: A herder walks in the shadows of gigantic power windmills at Ngong Hills, just outside Nairobi #NaiNiWho
Pardon the grammar - the inadvertent inclusion of ‘nearly’.

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More from @HistoryKE

Oct 3, 2018
#RIPJosephKamaru: The curtain falls on the life of legendary Gîkûyû benga musician Joseph Kamaru, following a long illness.
This is the man whose debut 1969 hit track, Darling ya Mwarîmû (teacher’s darling), caused a storm in parliament and in the national teachers’ union, who threatened to go on strike.

It took Mzee Kenyatta’s intercession to put the storm to rest.
He composed hundreds of gîkûyû songs throughout his lifetime. In 1989, he released the track Safari ya Japan shortly after his return from the Asian country, where he had accompanied Kamaru retired President Moi on a state visit.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 2, 2018
#HistoryKeThread: Seen here conferring with then President Moi, Mr. Burudi Nabwera is a former diplomat, MP, Asst. Minister and later not only Secretary General of KANU in its heydays, but also a Minister for State.
Last year, the alumnus of Makerere University released his biography, ‘How It Happened’, a book that should be a good read for anyone interested in the politics of Kenya during the single-party era.
On 7th of October 1990, Mr. Nabwera caused a stir when he announced that the government would not prosecute anyone for the murder of former minister Robert Ouko. The report by Scotland Yard’s detective John Troon, Nabwera argued, had not named any killers.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 25, 2018
#HistoryKeThread An American’s Observation Of Life Among The Agîkûyû

——-
Published in San Francisco, United States, Western Field was an American west coast monthly sports hunter magazine.

The magazine featured stories about the hunting exploits of various American hunters both at home and overseas.
One such adventurer was Elmer Davies, who spent some time among the Wakamba, Wataveta and the Agîkûyû in the period until sometime in early 1904.
Read 24 tweets
Sep 21, 2018
#HistoryKeThread: The Wadavida (Taita) Of Yore

In 1890, author Thomas Stevens authored the book, Scouting for Stanley.
The book is an account of the time Thomas spent in East Africa, where he had been sent to join in the search for legendary explorer Henry Morton Stanley.
In April of 1898, he camped at Ndara Hill among the Wataita. Here, a Rev. Wray of the Church Mission Society strived to teach the Wataita with much difficulty about the gospel of Christ. Perhaps this difficulty is what led Rev. Wray to dabble in farming.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 17, 2018
#HistoryKeThread: When Colonial Officials Adopted Locals As Mistresses

Hell hath no fury like a randy colonial officer stationed miles away from conjugal comfort.
In the early colonial years, the Governors' subordinates were initially men taken over from Imperial British EA Company (IBEAC). Later on, a professional class of colonial civil servants was recruited to take up the many administrative positions opening up in the colony.
Many of the officers had hardly gone beyond the age of 30.

As such, they invariably found themselves sexually starved and lonely. That is, if they didn't have African mistresses.
Read 19 tweets
Sep 3, 2018
#HistoryKeThread

Krapf’s Tough Crusade

In July, 1846, pioneering missionary Ludwig Krapf struggled to attend to his ailing, bed-ridden wife.

Krapf had suffered a debilitating fever and so had his wife, Mrs. Dietrich Krapf, who was in a worse state....
She had days earlier given birth to a baby girl at their budding Rabai mission.

Hours to her death, she asked Krapf to bury her right there at Rabai, saying she needed her remains to "constantly remind the passersby of the great object which...
...had brought the servants of the church of Christ to their country...."

Krapf would much later write that his wife "wished to be preaching to them by the lonely spot which encloses her earthly remains."
Read 16 tweets

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