Uhuru Park is a 12.9 hectare (32 acre) recreational park adjacent to the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya. It was opened to the public by the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on 23 May 1969. It contains an artificial lake, several national monuments, and an assembly ground which has become a popular skateboarding spot on weekends and also a location for local skateboarding competitions (best trick contest 2017), catering to Nairobi's growing skate scene. [1]
Apart from skateboarding, the assembly ground is used for occasional political and religious gatherings. It is infamous as the site where protest against illegal land grabbing was violently broken up by the Moi regime. In 2021, the park came under scrutiny for an attempted renovation which included removing old trees. A national court halted the project, due to environmental concerns. [2] [3] [4] It has been closed since November 2021, when the park was fenced with blue corrugated iron and a green wire fence with sharp spikes. The park was reopened to the public on 30th March 2024 by Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja. Entry to the park is free and one is required to only carry their national ID.
In 1989, Wangari Maathai and many of her followers held a protest at the park, attempting to stop the construction of the 60-storey Kenya Times Media Trust business complex. She was forced by the government to vacate her office and was vilified in parliament, but her protests and the government's response led foreign investors to cancel the project. [5] [6]
In August 1996, a group led by a Catholic cardinal and Archbishop Maurice Michael Otunga burned a heap of condoms in Uhuru Park. [7]
Uhuru Park was the scene of a bomb blast in June 2010, which killed six people and left over 100 people injured. The attack targeted a "NO" campaign rally for the forthcoming constitutional referendum. [8]
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to 'place of cool waters', a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had a population of 4,397,073 in the 2019 census. The city is commonly referred to as 'The Green City in the Sun'.
Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He is the country's longest-serving president to date. Moi previously served as the third vice president of Kenya from 1967 to 1978 under President Jomo Kenyatta, becoming the president following the latter's death.
Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an indigenous grassroots organization in Kenya that empowers women through the planting of trees. It is one of the most effective and well-known grassroots organisations addressing the problem of global deforestation. Professor Wangari Maathai established the organization in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). GBM's successes in forest conservation, education, and women's economic empowerment have gained the organisation worldwide acclaim. It is also noted for its advocacy of human rights, democratisation of access to public lands, and environmental justice issues such as the role of women's traditional ecological knowledge in addressing environmental degradation and desertification.
Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5-acre (4.2 ha) public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A, is abutted by St. Marks Place to the west. The park opened in 1834 and is named for Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice President of the United States.
The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNEP awards called Champions of the Earth started in 2005.
The National Museums of Kenya is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, archeology, ethnography and biodiversity research and conservation. Its headquarters and the National Museum are located on Museum Hill, near Uhuru Highway between Central Business District and Westlands in Nairobi. The National Museum of Kenya was founded by the East Africa Natural History Society (E.A.N.H.S.) in 1910; the society's main goal has always been to conduct an ongoing critical scientific examination of the natural attributes of the East African habitat. The museum houses collections, and temporary and permanent exhibits. Today the National Museum of Kenya manages over 22 regional museums, many sites, and monuments across the country.
Salim Lone is a Kenyan journalist who was Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Spokesman, and before that was a Director of Communications under Kofi Annan at the United Nations, where he worked for two decades until retiring in 2003. His final UN assignment was as a Spokesman in Baghdad for the head of the UN mission in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed with 21 other colleagues in a terrorist attack at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad; Salim Lone survived the bombing. Salim is now writing a book on Kenya's political evolution in the post-Moi democratic era. Salim Lone has also been a columnist for the Daily Nation of Kenya (2005-2007), and his commentaries have also been published in The NY Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times in the UK, the Washington Post, The New Republic and The New York Review of Books. He has been frequently interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN, including on Charlie Rose, Newsnight, Inside Story and Larry King Live. Earlier, after working two years for the renowned Lester Markel, the Pulitzer prize-winning Editor of the Sunday New York Times, he returned to Kenya, where was the Editor-in-Chief between 1971 and 1982 of the Sunday Post and Viva magazine, the only mainstream media in the Kenyatta and Moi eras which consistently presented the political opposition's point of view. He is the only journalist in independent Kenya to have been prosecuted and convicted in court for his work (1981), and had to flee the country in 1982 to avoid arrest. His citizenship was subsequently revoked by President Moi for "disloyalty" to Kenya in 1986 but restored in 1993.
General elections were held in Kenya on 27 December 2002. Voters elected the President, and members of the National Assembly. They coincided with the 2002 Kenyan local elections.
South B is the name of a Division of the sub-county of Starehe in Nairobi, Kenya and the name of a "sub-location" of Mukuru Nyayo within the Division. The 2019 Kenya Census gives a population of 102,441 for South B Division and 34,216 for the sub-location. South B is about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south-east of Nairobi Central Business District; the Industrial Area lies to the east and the South C district to the south-west.
Karura Forest is an urban forest in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The forest was gazetted in 1932 and is managed by the Kenya Forest Service in conjunction with the Friends of Karura Forest Community Forest Association.
The history of the evolution of the traits of women in Kenya can be divided into Women within Swahili culture, Women in British Kenya, and Kenyan Women post-Independence. The condition and status of the female population in Kenya has faced many changes over the past century.
David Kenani Maraga is a Kenyan lawyer and jurist. He was the 14th Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya from October 2016 until his retirement in January 2021.
The Mwakenya Movement was an underground socialist movement in Kenya in the 1980s formed to fight for multi-party democracy.
Philomena Mbete Mwilu is a Kenyan lawyer and judge, who has served as the Deputy Chief Justice of Kenya and Vice President of the Supreme Court of Kenya since 28 October 2016. Following the retirement of Chief Justice David Maraga, and before Martha Koome was appointed as the Chief Justice, she served as Acting Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya from 11 January 2021 to 19 May 2021, making her the first woman to hold that office.
Wanjira Mathai is a Kenyan environmentalist and activist. She is Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this role, she takes on global issues including deforestation and energy access. She was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine in 2018 for her role serving as the senior advisor at the World Resources Institute, as well as for her campaign to plant more than 30 million trees through her work at the Green Belt Movement.
Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti is a Kenyan environment and climate activist and founder of the Green Generation Initiative, which nurtures young people to love nature and be environmentally conscious at a young age and has now planted 30,000 tree seedlings in Kenya.
All Saints' Cathedral, Nairobi is a Cathedral of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK).
The National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) was founded in 1964 to provide coordination among the various women's groups in Kenya. These included groups as varied as the National Nurses Union, Nairobi Business Women, East African Women's League, the Home Economics Association of East Africa, the Mother's Union, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Kenya Girl Guides, and the Kenyan Association of University Women.
Feminism in Kenya concerns the organized efforts to improve the rights of the girls and women of Kenya. The modern feminist movement, which took off in the early 1960s and also in the 1970s, gained impetus through the establishment of various organisations such as Maendeleo Ya Wanawake and Kenya Women’s Political Caucus.
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