Westlands is a mixed-use neighbourhood in Upper Parklands in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

. Located from Nairobi's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

, it sits on the westerly areas of the larger Parklands area of Nairobi.

Location

Westlands is located approximately , by road, northwest of the central business district of Nairobi. The geographical coordinates of the neighbourhood are: 01°16'01.0"S, 36°48'42.0"E (Latitude:-1.266944; Longitude:36.811667).

Overview

Westlands is a residential district in Nairobi which houses a sizable population of upper middle class and wealthy Kenyans During the 1990s and early 2000s, as land and office space became scarce and exorbitantly priced in the

, more businesses relocated to Westlands and Upper Hill, where land and office space are more readily available and less expensive. Westlands was initially considered part of the Parklands area and straddled what is now Waiyaki Way, originally the Kenya-Uganda Railway. The area has been nicknamed Westie by the youth of Nairobi.

Muthaiga Muthaiga is an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. In 2019, media reports indicated that it was the most affluent and most expensive neighbourhood in the entire country. Location Muthaiga is located approximately , by road, north of ...

, a neighbourhood to the northeast of Westlands, but within the Westlands Division of the county, is rated the most affluent and most expensive neighbourhood in the country.

Points of interest

In Westlands or near the boundaries of the neighbourhood, there are several points of interest, including the following: * UNHCR branch office in Kenya * The Sarit Centre Shopping Mall *

Catholic Relief Services Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 ...

- East Africa Regional Office * The Ukay Shopping Mall * The Westgate Shopping Mall * The M. P. Shah Hospital, a private hospital * Unga House - An office high-rise building * Mpaka Road - Many businesses have offices on this street * USAID Towers - The headquarters of

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in Kenya * The High Commission of

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to Kenya * The Embassy of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

to Kenya * The Embassy of

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to Kenya * Westlands Office Park * Westlands Primary School * Datoo's Glassware Mart Ltd * An office of

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

* Sankara Hotel * Dusit D2 * Phillips Pharmaceuticals head office * Delta Towers *

Safaricom Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. T ...

head office * Art Cafe head office * Java head office * Villa Rosa

Kempinski Kempinski Hotels S.A., commonly known as Kempinski, is a luxury hotel management company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in Berlin in 1897 as the ''Hotelbetriebs-Aktiengesellschaft'', the group currently operates 77 five-star hote ...

Nairobi * Movenpick Hotel * A branch of Woolworth Stores * The Nairobi Institute of Technology

Westlands Division

Prior to 2013, a division named after Westlands was also one of the eight administrative divisions of

, which is coterminous with Nairobi City. The other divisions were Central,

Dagoretti Dagoretti is an area in the western part of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It straddles the Nairobi and Kiambu County boundary with the Dagoretti Road Reserve marking the psychological border point heading Northerly and North-Easterly. Administrati ...

Embakasi Embakasi is a neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. It is approximately , southeast of the central business district. Embakasi is considered part of Nairobi's Eastlands area, lying to the south-east of Nairobi County. The Embakasi proper cover ...

Kasarani Kasarani is a mixed-use neighbourhood in northeast Nairobi. Kasarani is also used in reference to the city's second most populated sub-county with the same name, encompasing various neighbourhoods in the northeastern areas of Nairobi. Located ...

Kibera Kibera (Kinubi language, Kinubi: ''Forest'' or ''Jungle'') is a division and neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya, from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and also the largest urban slum in all of Africa. The 2009 Kenya Popul ...

, Makadara and

Pumwani Pumwani is an estate of Nairobi. It is one of the oldest estates in Nairobi's eastlands. In 2019 it had an estimated population of 42,461, a population density of 34,767/km2. Pumwani contains other neighbourhoods such as Magorofani, Shauri Moyo, ...

. Areas in the Westlands Division were: * Parklands *

Kitisuru Kitisuru is a residential suburb of Nairobi. The name Kitisuru comes from a nearby river "Gĩtathuru" which was borrowed from the original inhabitants of the area who were mainly of the Kikuyu ethnic group. Kitisuru forms part of Kitisuru Ward ...

Highridge Highridge is a residential estate in Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phras ...

Kangemi Kangemi is a peri-urban area in Kenya located in Westlands Sub-county in Nairobi County, on the outskirts of the city. It is bordered on the north by the middle-class neighbourhoods of Loresho and Kibagare and Westlands on the west. Its southern ...

Kilimani Kilimani is a mixed-use commercial and residential neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. Location Kilimani is located approximately west of Nairobi's central business district, within Westlands Sub-county. It is north of Woodley; east of K ...

* Lavington *

Currently, there is a constituency and a sub-county named after Westlands;

Westlands Constituency Westlands is an electoral constituency in Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous cou ...

is one of the 17 constituencies of Nairobi and Westlands Sub-county is one of the 11 sub-counties of Nairobi. The postal code for Westlands is 00800.

Deep Sea Settlement

Within the Westlands Division lies the Deep Sea Settlement. This is a shanty town of approximately 7,000 inhabitants. In 2005 a private firm, with police support, began bulldozing homes, an act the Kenyan high court deemed illegal. Poverty is rife and is exacerbated by the area's poor sanitation. In 2021, a significant part of the southern areas of the settlement was cleared to enable the construction of the long-planned Parklands section of the Ring Road.

Education

The '' Lycée Denis Diderot'' opened in Westlands as the ''École française à Nairobi'' in 1962. It moved to

in 1972.Accueil
" '' Lycée Denis Diderot''. Retrieved on 18 January 2015. There are many other educational institutions in Westlands Division, as detailed in this reference.

References

{{coord, 01, 16, 01, S, 36, 48, 42, E, display=title Cities in the Great Rift Valley Suburbs of Nairobi