Kenya: How Nairobi can win its groove back?
By Wanjohi Kabukuru – Nairobi is Kenya’s capital city. This city of 4 million inhabitants today has stoically held to the status of East Africa’s financial, technological and communications hub since 1907. Nairobi has a long history spiced by local cultures, trade with Persia, Middle East, India, the Far East and the beginning of British colonialism.
Right in the heart of Nairobi is a beautiful white and stoney grey colonial edifice that still serves as the city’s seat of power. It is City Hall. There is a street light near the official entrance of Nairobi’s City Hall and on it the city’s coat of arms is plastered in a would-be neon-light. This coat-of-arms of the city has radically changed from the original ones. What has not changed however is the presence of crane birds holding a shield. Indeed the most striking feature in the city’s emblem are two golden crested crane birds that face each other glowing with elegance and pride of their colourful feathers, enchanting crown and graceful mannerisms.
Before the coming of Nairobi City County after the March 4th2013 election replacing City Council of Nairobi the two golden crested cranes held a shield of green and gold quarters with a fountain ornamentation in the centre. A golden lion holding a shield said to have been from the Maasai community rested on top of this shield.
The old coat of arms had a lot of symbolism written on it and deftly captured Kenya’s history. The golden lion on top of the shield symbolised British “peace bringing” rule. The heraldic fountain that binds the four golden and green quarters signified Nairobi’s fresh water wetlands which gave it its greenery, name and home to the regal cranes. “Nyarobe” meaning the availability of fresh and cold waters was what gave Nairobi its name from the Maasai community who with their large livestock numbers criss-crossed the savannah plateaus and found rest and plenty of grass and water in Nairobi. The shield’s four quarters of gold and green illustrated Kenya’s rich mineral wealth and agricultural potential.
This old coat of arms had a long history. It first became Nairobi’s official insignia in 1923 and with a few changes added notably the Maasai shield on its crest and the central shield in 1950 it was formally submitted to the College of Arms as Nairobi received its city status charter from the Duke of Gloucester in March 30th1950.
“A salute of 21 guns today heralded the presentation by the Duke of Gloucester of a Royal Charter raising Nairobi to the status of a city.” A dispatch from Australian Associated Press (AAP) published in one of Australia’s oldest papers The Agenoted. And this status did not come cheaply as the paper reported. “In return the Duke received a silver pot containing 30 East African peppercorns – a token payment to discharge Nairobi’s longstanding debt to the King for 30 plots of Crown lands in the Municipality. Nairobi today celebrates half a century of Municipal government.”
Why fuss over a seemingly inconsequential coat of arms and the heavy price the country had to pay to secure a city status in colonial times? It is because Nairobi’s emblem sprightly paints the troubles with Kenya and the missed opportunities of this East African nation. The Republic of Kenya’s seal with its brave lions grasping spears and a shield ready to defend the country’s freedom won by blood, is totally different from that of Nairobi. Sartorial elegance and gracefulness denotes the seal at City Hall Nairobi.
Decades ago the crested crown was a common bird in Nairobi. At the time of adopting this seal Nairobi teamed with the elegant crested crane birds and it is because of the simplicity, virtuous nature of this bird that it first came into use as Nairobi’s seal. Then Nairobi was “the green city in the sun.”
In other words these birds were to mark Nairobi as a city of order, connoisseur of art, a place of beauty, haute couture and class. The golden quarters in the shield represented a city of wealth.
For a time Nairobi was all these.
Not anymore. To start with the crane birds are all gone and the gold quarters mysteriously became a screaming yellow. They crane birds left the capital over two decades ago and in their place a new species of unique birds came. The Marabou Stork.
Today’s Nairobi’s most common bird today of the size of the crane is the Marabou Stork. In fact it is the bird that welcomes visitors to Nairobi city from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) as the acacia trees lining the Uhuru Highway are the stork’s colony. Ornithologists will tell you that this bird is everything that is opposite of a crane bird.
The Marabou Stork is a scavenger which is mostly found in dump sites and garbage mounds feeding on garbage and waste. In other word this wading bird symbolises a decaying city which cannot handle its waste, teems with unplanned structures and buildings and has encroached on wetlands and green spaces. Where a stork will survive a crane won’t. When the crane left, Nairobi lost its groove.
For Nairobi to attract the proud crane back, it must clean its house. Psssts the crane is Uganda’s national symbol.
