Uhuru Park

Uhuru Park is a 12.9-hectare recreational park adjacent to the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya. It was opened to the general public by the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta (1897-1978) on 23 May 1969. It contains an artificial lake, several national monuments, and an assembly ground which has become popular for skateboarding at weekends and also a location for local skateboarding competitions (best trick contest 2017), catering to Nairobi’s growing skate scene.

Besides skateboarding, the assembly ground is used for occasional political and religious gatherings. It is infamous as the site where the protest against illegal land grabbing was violently broken up by the Moi regime.  In 1989, Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) and many of her followers held a protest at the park, attempting to stop the construction of the 60-storey Kenya Times Media Trust business complex.  She was forced by the government to vacate her office and was vilified in parliament, but her protests and the government’s response led foreign investors to cancel the project.