Expat talk: Club 1900 was the place to be in the 70’s

Nairobi has changed Photo: Courtesy

There is construction all over this fair city of Nairobi. It had been a while since I had been to Westlands and when I turned down on Chiromo Road into its heart, I was not sure where I had landed. There was always a run down lot next to the coral–coloured Villa Rosa Kempinski hotel since I returned to settle in Nairobi in 2009. However, that lot was not always run down.

When I first encountered that space during my very first trip to Kenya in the late 70s,  it was a happening spot where people mingled and danced at the Club 1900. I first came to Kenya as an Operation Crossroads volunteer, building Kathiani Secondary School brick by brick in Machakos County. When we laid our shovels down and took a break, we eagerly headed to Nairobi.