Parks
Nairobi Sister City Web Site
In September of 1974, the Assistant Town Clerk of Nairobi, Simon Getonga, visited Denver to explore the feasibility of establishing a sister city relationship between the two cities. Mr. Getonga’s visit was fortuitous, for People-to-People of Denver, Inc., the corporate forerunner of Denver Sister Cities International, Inc., had already expressed an interest in forming a sister city relationship with a city on the African Continent. Following much transoceanic correspondence, the affiliation of the two cities was formalized on March 2, 1975, making Nairobi Denver’s third sister city.
Nairobi, like Denver, is situated on a high plateau, with two of the highest peaks in Africa a relatively short distance away. Nairobi is an exciting and cosmopolitan city and serves as a center of commerce for all of East Africa. Like the “Queen City of the Plains”, Nairobi is a beautiful city and has often been called the “Jewel of Africa.”
The inauguration of the sister city relationship was followed by a two-week “Salute to Nairobi”, held in downtown Denver, with folk-art, dances, handicrafts and other products from Kenya displayed at various downtown locations.
Since its inception in 1975, the Denver-Nairobi Committee has sponsored many highly successful projects, including high school youth exchanges periodic shipments of textbooks to Kenya, and numerous fund-raising events. A wide assortment of prosthetic equipment was collected and sent to the Dagoretti Children’s Centre for the Handicapped in Nairobi. Books, school supplies, equipment and scholarship assistance have been donated to the Materi Girls School in outlying Meru County. An “African Forum”, a program which focused upon the history, lifestyles and cultures of African tribal systems, was presented in area high schools, colleges and universities.
In 1976, the “City of Nairobi Park” was dedicated by then-Councilor Nathan Kahara who later became Mayor of Nairobi. The Nairobi Park is located at East 36th Avenue and Cook Street in Denver.
Over the years the Denver-Nairobi Committee has been the recipient of many prestigious awards. Most recently, the Committee received the “Best Overall Project for 1996 Award” from Sister Cities International for its Nairobi Dance Troupe Exchange.