Uhuru Park is a recreational park adjacent to the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya. It was opened to the general public by the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on 23 May 1969. It contains an artificial lake for people to go boat riding, several national monuments, and an assembly ground which has become a popular skateboarding spot on weekends, catering to Nairobi’s growing skate scene.
Apart from skateboarding, the assembly ground is used for occasional political and religious gatherings.
For Picnic Lovers, Uhuru Park provides the ideal setting, with the option of buying snacks from food vendors dotting various corners of the park’s walkways.
In 1989, Wangari Maathai 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.
In August 1996, a group led by a Catholic cardinal and Archbishop Maurice Michael Otunga burned a heap of condoms in Uhuru Park.
Uhuru Park was the scene of a bomb blast in June 2010, which killed six people and leftover 100 people injured. The attack targeted a “NO” campaign rally for the forthcoming constitutional referendum.
