Nairobi’s city centre is divided into two- the uptown and downtown sections. There are only four avenues – two named after former presidents and one named after the last Emperor of Ethiopia. These avenues are Moi Avenue, Kenyatta Avenue, Haile Selassie Avenue and Luthuli Avenue
Named after a Maasai phrase that means a place of cool waters, Nairobi is in no way cool as far as its downtown area is concerned. A lot takes place there. The hustles and bustles of bus terminuses, loudspeakers blaring from retail shops, buses, matatus, and droves of people is what you encounter daily in the downtown area. The main streets are Ronald Ngala Street, Tom Mboya Street, Accra Road, River Road, Race Course Road, Kirinyaga Road, Ladhies Road and Temple Road.
The uptown streets of Nairobi are quiet, cleaner and architecturally structured unlike the layout of the downtown section of the city. Business executives clutching files, university students going to or from class, high-end shoppers characterise the largest number of people you pass by on the streets of the uptown area.
Government offices, five-star hotels, business plazas, university campuses and fine dining restaurants occupy this section of the city. Uptown streets include Muindi Mbingu Street, Koinange Street, University Way, Kenyatta Avenue, Loita Street and Kimathi Street.
The following are the top 10 money making streets and roads in Nairobi:
Mombasa Road
The road starts in the city of Nairobi, at the confluence of Langata Road, Uhuru Highway and Lusaka Road, immediately west of DHL House. It continues in a generally southeasterly direction, through seven Kenya Counties to end in the city of Mombasa at the confluence of Digo Road, Langoni Road and Abdel Nasser Road, a total distance of about 482 kilometers.
There are so many companies along Mombasa road, both new and old ranging from range from Telecommunications ( Airtel Kenya), hotels(Eka Hotel/Ole Sereni Hotel), research firms, motor industry (General Motors East Africa, DT Dobie), Media House(Standard Media Group), manufacturing and insurance companies(AA Insurance).
2. Kenyatta Avenue
A famous street in Nairobi named after the first president of the republic of Kenya. The street host some of the famous building in Nairobi. At the end of Kenyatta Avenue, is the skyscraper of the General Post Office on the left and, just before it, Koinange Street. named after the Kikuyu Senior Chief Koinange of the colonial era.
The peculiar caged Galton-Fenzi Memorial. just here on the left, is a monument to the man who founded, of all things, the Nairobi branch of the Automobile Association. Fenzi was also the first motorist to drive from Nairobi to Mombasa, back in 1926 when there was only a dirt track.
The Avenue cuts across the Central Business District and links downtown Nairobi to Upper side of Nairobi.