Jeevanjee Gardens

Jeevanjee Gardens is an outdoor area in Nairobi’s Central Business District that is open to the general public.

A.M. Jeevanjee, an Asian-born entrepreneur in Kenya, developed Jeevanjee Gardens. It is the city’s only park that is directly owned by the people, having been offered as a resting space to the lovely people of Nairobi (the park was private property and it is held in trust for the people of Nairobi).

Alibhai Mullah Jeevanjee donated this 5-acre recreational park to Nairobi inhabitants in 1906, making it one of the city’s rare green spots.

The park has been threatened with extinction on several occasions, including in 1991 and 2007, when the Nairobi City Council, in collaboration with development partners, planned to develop it by building a multi-story parking lot, bus terminal, markets, theaters, and shopping malls in its place (Zarina Patel, “revitalising” Jeevanjee’s Gardens). Following complaints from Zarina Patel (Jeevanjee’s granddaughter), Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement, and other activists, these plans were postponed each time. Some of these activists were arrested and placed in jail for a few days in 2007 as a result of this issue. Only time will tell if the park will be able to withstand the next assault.

It is a blessing that should be loved and enjoyed by the city’s citizens while it still exists, especially in light of the uncertain future.

How to Get There

To the north of the city center, Moi Avenue, Monrovia Street, Muindi Mbingu Street, and Moktar Daddah Street form the Jeevanjee Gardens. Its central location allows citizens from all parts of the city to readily reach it.

Requirements for Entry

The park is available to the public at no charge.

Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee

Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee (1856–2 May 1936) was a Kenyan trader, politician, and philanthropist who was born in India. He was one of Kenya’s first and most powerful Indian settlers, earning enormous money and rising to the top of the Indian community.
Jeevanjee was born to Shia Dawoodi Bohra parents from the western region of present-day Gujarat in Karachi, then part of the Bombay Presidency in British India.

His father was a horse and cart driver with only a high school diploma. He left home at the age of thirty, following the death of his father, to roam India and start a career as an itinerant peddler.

He subsequently relocated to eastern Australia, where he learned English, established a business selling Eastern commodities, attended the 1887 Jubilee Exhibition, and met British authorities familiar with East African commercial potential.

When he returned to Karachi, he started a business that provided stevedoring and translation services to visiting ships. He travelled to Mombasa on a dhow in 1890 to establish a branch of his business there, extending out into road construction, construction, and transportation.

Jeevanjee Gardens

Jeevanjee began building Jeevanjee Gardens in 1906, when he was at the prime of his riches. He gave the gardens to the residents of Nairobi in 1906 as a place for them to rest.

In 1991, these gardens made headlines when it was revealed that certain government officials were planning to transform them into a commercial property. There was a proposal to build a multi-story parking garage, which Jeevanjee strongly opposed. Shirin Najmudean, Jeevanjee’s youngest remaining daughter, relocated to Nairobi to prevent the planned development of the plot of land.

The location of Jeevanjee Gardens makes it an ideal recreation space for city dwellers. Beautiful gardens and trees provide welcome shade from the tropical sun in the Park. It is embellished with beautiful seats and sculptures, adding to its allure.

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught inaugurated the Queen Victoria monument on the eastern extremity of the Park, near the Moi Avenue entrance, on March 17, 1906.

Prior to independence, the monument served to dissuade colonial government land grabbers from destroying the park, which would have been insulting to the British Royal family. The same issue does not apply to Kenya’s post-independence governments, thus it’s impossible to say how long the Kenyan political elite will protect the Park.

A statue of Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee can be found at the park’s western entrance on Muindi Mbingu Street.

On a normal workday, many people may be found sitting on the park’s benches and lawns, or simply strolling about.

Bunge la Wananchi (a grassroots or people’s parliament), a group of activists that congregate in the Park for informal debates and discussions on current topics, is also based there.

Since smoking is illegal in public places in Kenya, this park is one of the city’s few approved smoking zones.

Our historical tour of Nairobi’s city center, a GPS audio walk created using VoiceMap, an innovative audio walking tour software, now includes the Jeevanjee Gardens tale. It’s accessible on iTunes and Google Play, but you can also listen to it on the VoiceMap website.

The Queen Victoria monument in this park was vandalized on February 17, 2015, 109 years after it was unveiled by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught on March 17, 1906. Only the pedestal on which it was installed remained intact. Future generations will only have photographic photos of this piece of Kenyan history unless well-wishers or the government step forward to replace it with a duplicate.

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