But it was also at Uhuru Park where retired President Mwai Kibaki was inaugurated in 2002 and where he also promulgated the 2010 Constitution. The park is also where Wangari Mathai’s State funeral was held in honour of her standing for ‘ecology of public space as being democratic space.’
On the other side of Kenyatta Avenue opposite of Uhuru Park is Central Park, whose most iconic symbol is the Nyayo monument erected to celebrate 25 years of independence and 10 years of Nyayo era in 1988.
While these parks became popular public places after independence with Uhuru Park being officially opened to the public by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on May 29, 1969, their master plan was laid out by the colonial government after World War II in 1948.
But did you know that both Uhuru and Central Parks were symbols of colonial rule and leisure?
Well, before Kenya’s independence in 1963, racial segregation was the order of the day and the parks were out of bounds for miros who were barred from extending beyond River Road, Nairobi.
