Theatre and cinema
riverside furniture
After many years of stagnation, the Nairobi arts scene appears to finally getting a rhythm of their own, separate from tourist market, which in fact had formerly driven a lot of it. Although still modest by worldwide
standard, it’s really worth finding. Beside looking at the cinemas and arts center the following, the first base ought to be the excellent arts-scene, which posts news of up-and -coming entertainers,
shows and occasions. Also worth getting a glance at would be the theatre pages within the Thursday edition from the Standard and also the Nation on Friday and Saturday. In France They Alliance Francaise, the German
Goethe-Institut an italian man , Cultural Institute and also the British Council all host occasions, though funding is inconsistent through the years. One arts organization that’s been active for several years may be the Kuona
Trust, in Hurlingham (Likoni Close, off Likoni Lane, off Dennis pritt Road) that can bring together Kenyan and worldwide artists and entertainers for residencies, training courses and occasions.
The main malls- the Sarit Center, Village Market, Prestige Plaza, Westgate and Nakumatt Junction- all have modern multiplex cinemas, many of them area of the Silverbird (Nu-Metro) chain,
showing recent mainstream movies. Within the CBD, the twentieth Century on Mama Ngina Street and also the Kenya Cinema on Moi Avenue show fairly recent mainstream launched- usually blockbusters or award
those who win. Seats cost in a different way for that mainstream and cheaper places. Dairy programmes are available in the country and also the standard newspapers.
Cinemas and arts centres
GoDown Arts Center Dunga Rd, Industrial Area. A not- for- profit entity featuring an memorial, dance studio and gratifaction condition- of- the -art recording studio.
Kenya National Theatre Opposite the Norfolk Hotel, Harry Thuku Rd. kenya’s national stage gives special emphasis to African theatre and Kenyan drama particularly. Built-in 1952, the nation’s Theatre
was furbished in early 2000s by a mix of government funds and sector ans has been restored in most its Art Deco glory.
Professional Center/phoenix gamers Parliament Rd. this small theatre has assumed the layer of Nairobi’s leading playhouse, and it is highly suggested. Its energetic repertory company, the phoenix
gamers, created in 1948, stages contemporary functions by Kenyan or foreign playwrights and classics modified for Kenya. Their productions will always be worth catching plus some outstanding.
Sarakasi Dome Ngara Crescent, east from the Nairobi River from River Rd. A lately refurbished performance space for that very active Sarakasi Trust as well as their Serakasi gamers, marketing contemporary
African art, music and dance.
Shopping
It does not take lengthy to understand that commerce is Nairobi’s raison d’ere. Disappointingly possibly, the shape which trade takes here isn’t necessarily very exotic. But Nairobi is the greatest devote East Africa to purchase
crafts, using the largest, otherwise the least expensive, selection. The town also offers lavish produce marketplaces, enjoyable even when you simply want to browse. Top of the a part of Moi Avenue is Nairobi’s most popular regular
shopping street, all colonnaded shop- fronts and old title-boards, and fun to wander past.
Negotiating is anticipated whatsoever Nairobi’s marketplaces and many shops -except for grocery stores and stores selling imported goods. Bear in mind however, the “last cost” has a tendency to vary seasonally
and skyrocket whenever a major conference hits town.
Produce marketplaces and food
Although it does not provide the city’s cheapest prices, for any colourful and- quality selection of fruit and veggies, the town Market (Mon-Comes to an end 7.30 am -6.30pm, Sitting 7.30am-3pm, Sun 8.30am -noon) may be the
apparent target, but watch out for bag-snatching in the region. Another large produce marketplaces would be the Wakulima (or Maqui berry farmers) market, sometimes known simply as Marikiti, a cavernous, dank hall at the end of
River Road, and also the excellent, if totally chaotic, open-air Kariokor market in the north finish of Racecourse Road in the junction with General Warungu Street. Also great for fruit and veggies may be the Forest
Road open-air market on Limuru Road in parklands, opposite the Agha Khan primary school (daily 6am-6pm).
Crafts
For that tiring business of purchasing crafts and curios, it’s better to decide what you would like before walking right into a shop or searching in a stall. You will find a large number of curio shops and you can find a great
deal at almost them, though you shouldn’t accept their first cost, and try to bargain hard. The upmarket places are progressively moving towards the city’s suburban malls. Within the CBD they are
clustered on Standard, Kaunda and Mama Ngina roads.
At a few of the more inticate places you are able to search for age range undisturbed, but in the cheaper shops dilly- dallying isn’t urged and also the pressure might be onto spend your hard earned money. To browse and also to
establish comparative values, visit the Zanzibar Curio Shop on Moi Avenue, with a large range of stuff at fixed and realistic process. Unless of course you are after certain antique sculptures, masks and
xylophones, you would be hard- pressed to complement its prices by negotiating elsewhere.
Curio shops and hawkers
If you’re in no hurry and after something unique, although not always Kenyan, Kashmir crafts on Biashara Street may be worth a trip. There is a great choice of designs and carvings, masks and jewelry from over the
region at very affordable prices, just like Batik Heritage on Muindi Mbingu Street and Shah’s on Morktar Daddah Street, west of Muindi Mbingu . African Heritage,in Libra House around the Mombasa road, on
the best way to JKI Airport terminal, has some beautiful products including great musical instruments for example thumb pianos and lyres additionally, it includes a branch at Carnivore.
You will find much more curio shops within the roads round the City Market, mostly overpriced and unresponsive to substantial negotiating. Usually cheaper are places where they do not have to pay a store
rent -street stands and market cubicles-though they are a nearly- extinct species, constantly being bothered and destroyed through the city council. The greater permanent cubicles within the enclosure in the
back from the city Market off Market Koinange Street are an apparent choice specifically for soapstone, batiks and basket work, however the whole area is one thing of the tourist trap and, while you’ll most likely find
what you are searching for, you are unlikely to knock it lower to some good cost.
For traditional materials and clothes for example kikois and kangas, you will find around twelve shops to search through along Biashara Street. Of those, Haria’s placed shop comes with an excellent and incredibly
reasonably listed range, including single bits of fabric or kikois. The standard masks you will see everything are imported-only a number of Kenyan tribes make masks, the Kikuyu being the very best
known, which are exceedingly rare.
Craft and shopping
Kenya is a great spot to buy designs and carvings and textiles particularly, the first kind usually made particularly for that tourist market. Beadwork and traditional items produced from gourds will also be popular, but
Kenya’s most significant artisanal traditions are ironwork and metal jewelry, and basketware, each of which return centuries in certain towns. What you could carry. It is not difficult, when negotiating on
the beach or in the kerbside, to obtain caught up: some wooden and soapstone designs and carvings tend to be heavy in addition to fragile, and can be difficult to trolley home. Bigger shops and enormous cooperatives will ship products for
you.
Designs and carvings
Kenya is among the world’s greatest producers of wooden designs and carvings. In the ubiquitous creatures of doubtful appearance to carefully chiseled bowls and plates, designs and carvings are produced within the millions,
mostly by Kamba carvers. Probably the most striking designs and carvings have been in the dramatic delicate makonde style (following the Makonde people of Mozambique and Tanzania, several whom lives west of west Taita Hillsides).
Makonde designs and carvings are on the face completed in ebenholzfarben, but many are blackened rosewood or something like that similar, a well known fact which should not put you off purchasing-this conserves ebenholzfarben forest stocks and also the result
looks just like wonderful inside your family room. Another extremely popular carving material is soapstone or steatite- a soft, lustrous stone found in one locality, Tabaka near Kisii. Aside from getting a inclination
to snap when created too thin (making soapstone hippos popular then tigers), soapstone is among the most versatile materials, and also the industry has sprouted within the last couple of decades to
encompass a multitude of plates, bowls, boxes and items in addition to decorative products for example chess sets and candlesticks.
Baskets
The Kamba will also be large basket-makers: the familiar sisal baskets (chondo, or vyondo within the plural) are available in large number of designs and can be created from nylon material string in addition to sisal and, a lot more
rarely, baobab bark twine, with beads woven in. the basket are light and functional and, since becoming fashion add-ons in the western world, tend to be more costly compared to what they were: purchasing direct from
weavers, especially when leatherstraps along with other adornments have still to become added, is definitely an excellent deal for those.
Beads and tribal products
Beadwork (ushanga, mkufu) and tribal regalia-weapons for example warrior spears and clubs, shields, drums (ngoma), created stools and seat, traditional items produced from gourds (sometimes handmade, cowhorn
keepsafes and metal jewelry -are not unheard of, but a lot more costly when they are genuine instead of designed for the tourist industry. The very best region to buy metal goods is
its northern border: Turkana-land can yield some fairly spectacular good examples of lethal weaponry, crafted indiscriminately for murderous assault or apartment wall. The bracelet-like wrist knives, or aberait, accustomed to
slash an opponent, are particularly impressive.
Toys
Consider superbly fashioned, push-along buses, cars and lorries made entirely of wire. These once had tall rods, fitted with steering wheels, and could be provided to lucky boys in rural areas by
older siblings and uncles. Today, they are greatly outnumbered by mass-created (though still hand crafted) wire vehicle toys, manufactured as tourist souvenirs. Also broadly on offer are : amusing,
push-along wild birds, monkey and bike riders, that flap, bob or crank as they are folded.
Textile and shoes
Textiles, although always imported, bear a particular stamp of authenticity for the reason that they’re worn in your area making good-value, and practical, souvenirs. The printed women’s systems -kanga-in cotton, and
heavier- weave men’s sarongs – kikoi- work great buys on coast, and older ones represent collectable products worth searching for. Kangas will always be offered in pairs and therefore are printed with intriguing Swahili
proverbs. Local tailors can make them into clothes for you personally at very affordable prices.
Shoes may also be great value. The common Bata chain has bargains, but you will get a lot more interesting sandals from tourist stalls, including pretty handmade leather sandals, and also the
much harder and much more local sandals produced from thrown away vehicle tyres -”five-1000-mile footwear”.
Music and musical instruments
Other good buys include music Compact disks (though attempt to listen before purchasing), and musical instruments- for instance nyati, a luo lyre- although it’s very difficult to get quality instruments instead of souvenir
facsimiles. Drums could be bulky and many people even purchase them for tables, but look into the skins happen to be correctly healed. Individuals made to take place one arm, more prevalent around the coast, would be the
most practical as souvenirs. Lamu features its own wind instrument known as a siwa, an enormous side- blown factor typically produced from an elephant tusk, but nowadays fashioned from hardwood.
Shop comes with an excellent and incredibly reasonably listed range, including single bits of fabric or kikois and kangas. The standard masks you will see everywhere are imported-only a number of Kenyan tribes
make masks, the Kikuyu being the very best known, which are exceedingly rare.
Community craft centres
Nairobi has numerous craft shops with charitable status, or connected with development or self-help projects. Although a little costly-and negotiating is not possible-they frequently have
unusual and well-made stock, most of which finds its distance to the Christmas charitable organisation catalogues overseas. A couple of are some distance on vacation, but really worth making special journeys to go to, and they are
good tonics if you are struggling with curio shop fatigue.
Amani ya Juu Riverside Drive. The project utilizes fifty women who’ve been marginalized by poverty and war. It is good for gifts-the boutique sells colourful hand crafted clothes and bags. Matatu#48.
Mon-Fri9am-5pm
Bega Kwa Bega Korogocho projects. Federation of small handcrafts producers in the Korogocho slums of eastern Nairobi, offering sisal bags, bracelets, batiks, furniture and cloth puppets. Have a taxi.
Craft banda Sarit Center, Westlands. Hassle-free browsing and fair prices. Buses #25, #29, #30 and many more.
Kamili Designs Langat Rd, Karen. This textile workshop sells in your area designed, hands printed materials. The designs are usually bold and colourful, available both through the metre so that as cushions, bed linen,
and so on. Buses/matatus #24, #111 or #126. Mon-Fri9am-5pm.
Kazuri Beads & pottery Center Mbagathi Ridge, Karen. Kazuri, meaning “small beautiful”, utilizes nearly 100 formerly destitute women, who make an remarkable number of hand crafted,
mostly ceramic, jewelry and beads. You can view the entire process from shaping and colouring to firing, and gleam pottery showroom. It’s costly, however the stuff is lovely. They likewise have
retail outdoors at Village Market in Gigiri and also the Junction Shopping Center, Ngong Rd. buses/matatus #24, #111 or #126. Training courses Mon-Comes to an end 8am-4.30pm, Sitting 8am-1pm shop Mon-Sitting 8am-5pm, Sun
9am-5pm.
Kitengela Glass from the Magadi road, south of Nairiobi National Park. Inspiring community of glass-blowers and crafts-folks a photogenic creative village. Site visitors are welcome and you will observe,
discount riverside furniture
browse and purchase unhassled. You will need your personal transport to obtain here. It can make for any good extra visit if you are in the Giraffe Center or going to Daphne Sheldrick’s elephant orphans.
Maridad Materials City Stadium roundabout, Landhies/Jogoo Rd, 2km east from the stop. Chapel-based Maridadi was produced in 1966 being an earnings-producing community work for women in a single of
Nairobi’s earliest slum areas-Pumwani and Shauri Moyo. The primary workshop is really a delight if you are into making your personal clothes. A sizable screen-printing workshop (on view in the visitors’ gallery)
produces the number of prints available within the shop. Especially appealing would be the bark cloth prints African peoples before the finish from the nineteenth century. Buses #46 or #34. Mon-Comes to an end 8am-5pm
Mikono Craft Shop Opposite Ratna Fitness Studio, Gitanga Rd, Kawangware, just north of Dagoretti Corner. The opening from the Jesuit Refugee Service, with well- made work (especially beautiful patchwork
textiles) from refugees, and superb Mozambican designs and carvings. Bus #46 or #46B.
Spinner’s Web second floor, Viking House, Waiyaki Way, Westlands. A sizable shop selling lots of nutrients-crafts, textiles, woollen goods and jewelry, a lot of it produced by self-help groups and people,
including Meru’s Makena Textile Workshop. Bus/matatu-any to Westlands.
Undugu upstairs in the Mall Westlands. Using its roots within the chapel, Undugu (“fraternity”)os probably the most energetic society available in the united states and organizes regular led visits for their slum projects.
The store sells a great choice of well-listed, high-quality crafts with more unusual products, for example Ethiopian jewelry, basketwork, and crafts from DRC, Tanzania and Uganda. You might have the ability to
have alook round the training courses. Bus/matatu- any to Westlands. Mon-Fri9am-6pm, Sitting 9am-55.30pm.
Utamaduni Crafts Center Bogoni East Rd, Langata. 18 individual craft shops in a single large house, opined by Richard Leakey in 1991 (a area of the profits visit the Kenya Wildlife Service). It’s
everything you may want, a lot of it made on-site or from street-kid projects quality and process are high. The attached Verandah restaurant is great. Bus/matatu #24. Daily 9.30am-6pm.
Woodley Weavers Chaka Rd, Hurlingham. Recognized to many because the “rug gallery”, this place has a number of area rugs produced by local women, frequently single moms in the Kibera slum, using local made of woll, cotton
and plant dyes. Any bus or matatus to Ngong Rd.
Maasai and crafts marketplaces
If you are after Maasai Crafts (whether traditional handmade jewelry or products composed for that tourist industry), or designs and carvings and crafts generally, the different “Maasai Marketplaces” are suggested, though they
are no more a budget, hot tip they were in the past. Started downtown opposite the publish office within the mid- 1990′s, the audience of Maasai along with other women from rural areas, in addition to a quantity of males, were
moved several occasions by city council askaris and today convene to show their wares at various places through the week: on Friday in the roof carpark at Village Market, Gigiri on Tuesday at
Westgate Mall in Westlands on Saturday or sunday in the Law Courts carpark off City Hall Way as well as on Sunday in the Yaya Center in Hurlingam. They often start around 9am and finished mid-mid-day.
You’ll sometimes find prices well below individuals within the tourist marketplaces, with good usually you will need to bargain challenging what appears as an acceptable cost. The Saturday Law Courts marketplace is
most likely probably the most promising from the three for any bargain.
The Embakasi Village Crafts Market, situated around the Mombasa road in order to the airport terminal (second activating the left soon after City Cabanas Restaurant bus #34 and #34B), is possibly among the
most organized in Kenya, and many products tend to be less expensive than in other Nairobi marketplaces. There’s a place where one can watch the carvers happening, and commission individual carvers.
Kariokor market
Between Rececource Road and Ring Road, Kariorkor Market Road and Ring Road, Kariokor Market S(named following the despised war time”Company Corps” bus/matatu #4, #6, #14, #15, #30, #31, #32, #42, or
#46/46B) is nearer to an oriental bazaar than most marketplaces in Kenya, with permanent cubicles for that traders. Inside, there’s just as much manufacturing finishing happening as selling- you will find sisal weavers,
leather employees, makers of tyre-rubber sandals (“5000-mile, footwear”, it remarkably comfortable ) craftsmen, toy-makers, tailors, hair stylists, along with a row of excellent, inexpensive, amazingly clean eating
places, popular at lunchtime with local employees. Note that you might be mobbed by kids and touts here.
Kariokor is the greatest devote Nairobi to purchase baskets (vyondo), created using sisal, coloured with natural or artificial dyes with garish plastic or with cord made of the bark from the baobab
tree. The cord baskets could be truly exquisite, with small beads use in the tight weave. Numerous cubicles sell vaguely pharmaceutical oddities- snuff, remedies, charms, amulets and so forth -where
you may also get everything from down to snakeskin. Outdoors you will find the odd African literary jewel within the secondhand bookstalls. Clothes, footwear, toys and music
The biggest general market in Narobi is Gikomba Market, off landhies Road, beyond the Country Bus station (to obtain there by trains and buses, take any bus or matatu for Jogoo Road and obtain off at Gikomba).
This can be a place that couple of vacationers ever see, a labyrinth of muddy alleyways, courtyards, and open sewers, it is also a location to see an exciting slice of Nairobi existence, and nearly anything could be
available on purchase, from soccer practice uniforms and electronics to industrial-size ovens. You will find also tailors, she repair shops, hair stylists and various little bars and food stalls. Include someone
you never know the area, though it is easy to obtain lost and Gikomba could be unsafe.
For everyday general merchandise stores, in the CBD, the eastern area of the City Market district is easily the most useful area. Biashara street (biashara means commerce) when the street for materials
and a good option to purchase tents and mospuito nets. For affordable and never-so -cheap imports, the hangar-like Freemark Pavilion in south Uhuru Park has 100s of stalls.
You will find clothes shops throughout, with fashion shops on Standard and Kaunda roads, and much more lower-to-earth gear on Kenyatta Avenue, Moi Avenue and Kimathi Street. Good-value shoes is
offered by the African Boot Co, on Moi Avenue opposite Bookpoint, and Bata, that has numerous branches round the city. Even cheaper shoes are available at Miniprice Shoes Supermarket
on River road.
If you want to purchase toys, you’ll get the best products are in your area made wire-and-fabric gadgets- cars, bicycles, flapping wild birds- that are sometimes usually made in your own home for sons and nephews and
not available. The very best general toyshop within the CBD is Hobby Center in Jubilee Insurance House on Kaunda Street, but Village Market also offers a great toyshop, Toy World.
The large amount of music on Compact disc- whether legitimate, murky, or illegal -makes Nairobi an excellent spot for music fans, particularly if you possess a taste for Kenya’s stunning number of ethnic musical
strands, as well as all the different tracks from elsewhere in east and central Africa, especially Congo. Try Assanand’s and Musikland on Moi Avenue, Melodica on TomMboya Street or, better
still, the host of shops and stalls on and around River Road and Accra Road.
Departmental stores
Nairobi presently has the dubious distinction of getting more departmental stores- a lot more than twenty and counting-than every other African city outdoors Nigeria, supplying an inconvenience-free atmosphere to get
up with regular shopping and business. You will find many of them stuffed in to the western and northern and surrounding suburbs where they focus on the expat and wealthy Kenyan marketplaces. All of them include banks, travel
agents, specialist food providers and a variety of cafés and restaurants.
Junction Dagoretti Corner, Ngong Rd. also called Nakumatt Junction, it includes a sizable Nakumatt supermarket, cinema, book shop, greengrocer, restaurants, a great boutique selling leather
items, the Kitengela glass shop and fashion stores.
The Mall Westlands. Shops and offices together with a branch of let us Go Travel, a sports shop, a French bakery, ice- cream parlour,a 711-style convenience store and various fashion and clothing store.
Buses #25, #29, #30 and many more.
Prestige Plazza Ngong Rd. Includes a large supermarket, cafe and completely new cinema showing the most recent Hollywood blockbusters.
Sarit Center Westlands. A large, established complex, using more than 60 shops and offices, together with a dry-cleaner, any adverse health- food store, a wrist watch repairer, a publish office, a multiplex complex cinema, an
Uchumi Hypermarket, the Arena Fitness center, a sizable branch from the Text book center as well as an Apple computer store. You will find good quality sports and hobbies merchants around the lower first floor. Buses as
for that Mall.
Village Market Limuru Rd, Gigiri. Upmarket shopping center that’s more California then Nairobi, filled with miniature waterfall. A lot more than 100 shops complete for the custom like a four-screen
cinema, a Nakumatt hypermarket, a bowling alley and a very good food court with great German, Thai and African shops, bus/matatu #106 and #108.
Westgate Westlands. The latest and probably the most impressive malls in Nairobi- a huge Singapore-style space, housing an enormous Nakumatt supermarket, a great Safaricom service center, high-finish
clothing boutiques, a cinema along with a good book shop.
Yaya Center Argwings Kodhek Rd, Hurligham. There is a good deli here, a helpful newsagent with awide choice of mainly British magazines, a bookshop, supermarket, health- food store. French bakery,
publish office, chemist, camping supply store along with a good toyshop. Bus/matatu #41, #46or 46B.
Safari transport and operators
Nairobi may be the travel hub of Africa, with scores of possibilities for safaris around Kenya and literally 100s of safari operators, vehicle-rental shops and travel specialists to offer you all you
requirement for your vacation. If you are are organizing yourself drive safari in Kenya (without or with a person),
One possibility not frequently considered is cycling: Hell’s Gate at Naivasha Kakamega Forest and many other small parks allow bikes, and there’s lots of wonderful cycling country besides these
areas. For bicycle rental contact Bike Treks, though observe that they like you to definitely cycle on vacation as there is a chance of thievery in Nairobi.
In the other finish from the budget spectrum, the possibilities for photography to see the nation are without equal should you charter an airplane. A couple of small operators, mostly based at Wilson Airport terminal,
will oblige “see Air charter companies”