Residential areas dying in Karen

Karen: beautiful suburbs of Nairobi. Calm, secure and rich : this is where everybody, from 7 to 77 wants to live. But yet, as it was not difficult enough to find a little house for a reasonable price , now, the residential areas are dying in Karen.

Langata Road: Nakumatt, Toky Restaurant, church, Karen market and soon "Karen Offices" building
Karen Road : Karen Connection, Karen shopping centre and soon "the arcade" as a shopping centre
Dagoretti Road: Rusty Nail, House of Treasure
Ngong Road: No shops, there are only houses surrounded by schools (new Montessori Centre, St Christopher school) or bars (Friends) or petrol station (each side of he round about).

And even sometimes, you will find a club in the middle of a residential area like Karen Country Lodge!
I can't help it and i want to scream : LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE!


We, young people in Kenya are struggling to find houses to live at a reasonable price. LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE!

We, people in Kenya, do not want to see our houses and gardens destroyed to build a church, a school or a bar.LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE!

We, Kenya's lovers , do not want to live in unfriendly, noisy area, we want to conserve our residences. LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE.

We, friends of nature, do not want to see our trees, our birds, our nature disappearing to ugly buildings. LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE.

We, Kenyan citizens and residents , do not want to be pushed away from our residences.LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE.

We, American, French, British, Chinese, Russian, do not want to live in noisy area, we all want our residential area to stay and remain: Everywhere in the world. LEAVE OUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS ALONE.


Do not get me wrong: Building shopping centres, offices or even restaurant (if quiet!) makes the life great in our residential areas. We have everything around us and we get this nice "small community" feeling. It makes a residential area more alive and lovely. People move where shops are: This just make our residences even better.
I am only raising my voice against noisy buildings: Friends Bar/ Montessori Learning Centre/ Osteria on Ngong Road for example.

The owners of these buildings obviously had permission (or not, we know how Kenya works) to build, i am actually blaming them for having such bad ideas and for not caring enough about residential. But there is only one person to blame for this disaster: Kenyan government.