Sixteen things to do, all inside walking distance.

The KICC rooftop

Kenya’s 1973 conference centre, a 28-storey cylinder in exposed concrete with a helipad deck on the roof. From the top the grid, Uhuru Park, the ridge and, on a clear morning, the escarpment beyond.

Note: Buy the deck ticket at the ground-floor desk and bring a passport or ID.

Nairobi National Archives

Behind the banking-hall columns of the old Bank of India, the Murumbi collection: African art, textiles and photographs stacked from floor to ceiling. The most surprising room in the centre.

Note: On Moi Avenue at the Hilton corner. Photography rules are posted at the desk.

City Market and the curio halls

A 1930s art deco market hall on Muindi Mbingu Street: flowers at the door, produce and a fish counter in the nave, and a gallery of curio stalls around the upper level.

Note: Bargaining is expected, and the first price is a long way from the last.

Jamia Mosque

Three silver domes and twin minarets in Banda Street, built in 1925 and the principal mosque of the city. Visitors are received outside prayer times, modestly dressed.

Note: Avoid Friday midday. Ask at the gate rather than walking in.

Uhuru Park at golden hour

The lawns, the boating lake and the clearest view of the skyline in the city, reopened after a long rebuild. Freedom Corner, at the north end, carries the city’s protest history.

Note: Late afternoon. The park closes at dusk and that is enforced.

Nairobi Railway Museum

The yard where the line that created Nairobi keeps its locomotives, including the carriage tied to the Tsavo man-eater story. Dusty, unrestored and the best history in the CBD.

Note: Walk down in daylight. It shuts in the mid-afternoon.

August 7th Memorial Park

The site of the 1998 embassy bombing, kept as a small garden with a memorial wall and a one-room museum. The quietest ground in the centre and the most serious.

Note: Haile Selassie Avenue at Moi Avenue. The museum is a single room: read it all.

Holy Family Basilica

The 1960s cathedral facing City Square, a pale concrete hall that holds four thousand people and sits directly under the KICC. Open through the day between services.

Note: Sunday mornings are full. A weekday afternoon is empty and enormous.

Nairobi Gallery

The 1913 colonial court known as Hatches, Matches and Dispatches, now a gallery for the Murumbi African heritage collection at the top of Kenyatta Avenue.

Note: Small. Pair it with the Archives for one long history afternoon.

The Maasai Market rota

The open-air craft market does not have an address: it moves around the centre and the malls by day of the week. Beadwork, soapstone, kikoi, carvings, and hard bargaining.

Note: The day decides the place, so check the current rota before setting out.

Ngara fruit market, before six

The northern edge’s produce market trades in the dark and is finished by the time the offices open. Mangoes by the crate, and the city’s best breakfast stalls around the edge.

Note: Go with someone who knows it, and carry small notes only.

Nairobi National Museum

Up the hill from the Globe roundabout: the human-origins collection, Joy Adamson’s botanical portraits, the snake park and a botanic garden along the river.

Note: Human origins first, and allow an hour for that gallery alone.

Kenyan coffee, in the city that exports it

Kenya grows some of the most sought-after coffee on earth and for most of a century drank almost none of it. The CBD roasteries now cup their own lots, and will brew you the AA they used to ship.

Note: Ask for a single origin and let them choose the method.

A walk down Moi Avenue

The busiest pavement in Kenya, end to end: hawkers, matatu touts, bookshops, phone kiosks and the Archives in the middle of it. Do it once in daylight and the rest of the grid makes sense.

Note: Daylight, one pocket, nothing in your hands.

McMillan Memorial Library

Marble lions, 1931 columns and a reading room that ran for ninety years before a restoration. Banda Street, and the calmest interior in the centre.

Note: Check the current opening notice: restoration work has been in phases.

The night city, carefully

The CBD is not an evening quarter. The hotel bars on the ridge and the rooftops a short ride west are where the night is, and the ride matters more than the venue.

Note: Book the ride both ways. Do not walk the grid late.

The history day

On foot, all of it

The market day

Early start, shaded streets

The view day

Two landmarks, one park

Find a stay in the centre