Pros and Cons of Living in Nairobi Kenya

[orangepanda761]

Pros of Living in Nairobi

Affordable to live

Warm now

Warm all year round

Good air quality on average

Many Nomad List members have been

Easy to make friends

Easy to do business

Everyone speaks English

LGBTQ+ friendly

Not many people smoke tobacco

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Cons of Living in Nairobi

Freedom of speech is weak

Not very democratic

Not very safe

Pretty slow internet

Not much to do

Not many Nomad List members right now

Feels crowded

Quality of education is low

Roads are very dangerous

Not safe for women

Not family friendly

[yellowswan996]

Lived in Nairobi off and on since 2019. I think it's an excellent place to live. Weather is phenomenal between 20-27C most of the time. People are super friendly and it's very cosmopolitan (attracts people from all over Kenya, Africa and the world). For Africa it's relatively progressive and I'm not sure why it gets a "not safe for women" (IME it's not perfect but no worse than many other countries around the world and much less regressive than Middle East, South Asia, etc.) It's an excellent jumping off point for the rest of Kenya which is very diverse (beaches/mountains/savannahs/deserts) - a bit like SF in that the city itself is great but a lot of the appeal is surrounding nature. Tech and nightlife scenes are vibrant. Main cons: it's not THAT cheap, it's not an amazing food city, mainly car-based for getting around (Uber is cheap though).

[blackbutterfly667]

Nairobi is one of he best place to be a Nomad in Africa. Very low cost of living especially if you know where to look.

[lazycat857]

I visited Nairobi twice - in 2017 and then again in 2019. On my second visit I stayed in a comfortable 2 bdrm apartment with friends. It was super easy to move around - just call Uber. I visited a few nice shopping malls where I shopped and ate lunch. Prices were reasonable for me (an American). I'm also vegan and there were vegan options at all of the restaurants I visited as well as a great vegan restaurant (Indian cuisine). The best part of the trip for us was going on safari. It's a long drive to safari country (Amboselli NP, Maasai Mara NP) but the experience is well worth it. I also visited Mombasa which, while not as big a city as Nairobi, had lovely beaches and the hotel where we stayed was great.