Immediately to the west and north of the CBD, there is a lot of open space. These include Uhuru Park and several other parks, sports grounds and a golf course. There is also Nairobi National Park to the south and Karura forest, which is outside the city boundaries. These open spaces have occurred because the land, which surrounds the three rivers (Mathare, Nairobi and Ngong), is swampy and malarial so would be unsuitable to build upon. The golf course is in between the rivers Mathare and Nairobi while the Nairobi National Park is south of the River Ngong.
The industrial zone has grown in a linear fashion in a sector that borders the railway linking Nairobi with the port of Mombassa. The main industries in Nairobi are formal and include engineering, chemicals, clothing and food processing. Also a modern industrial area extends alongside the airport road and contains many well-known multinational firms. The industrial zone has formed a linear pattern to the railway, as this is its main line of communication out of the city. This means that the industries can transport its products out of the city quickly and cheaply, as the line of transport is so near. Being so close to the railway also means that their products can be transported to other parts of Africa. Multinational firms have been built around the airport road as it means that everything they produce can be transported quickly by plane to all the firms in Africa, and this would take less time than transporting products by train or road. They can afford the cost of transporting their materials by air as well because they are likely to be the richer companies as they are multinational.
Wealthy European colonists and later, immigrant Asians lived on ridges of highland to the north and west of the CBD. Today, Europeans tend to concentrate in Muthaiga and the Asians in Parklands and Westlands. The high-income residential housing was built in this area as the large houses could then be out of the way of the malarial swamps. The Westlands is also a popular place to live as well because it has many shops and restaurants where the rich can eat and shop. On Nairobi Hill there is also several large hotels for the rich who are visiting and don’t want to stay in the centre but in the areas where the rich are, like them.
Then there is the middle-income residential housing areas which is adjacent to the industrial zone. The estates, which were planned, are now mainly occupied by Africans who have found full-time employment. This area of housing was built here as it was originally planned for Asians who were working at the nearby industries. This meant that they would be able to cut down the cost of transport to and from work and be able to afford the essentials instead.
As in other developing cities, shanty settlements have grown up away from the CBD. The two largest settlements are those which extend for several kilometres along the Mathare valley and in Kibera. It is estimated that over 100’000 people, almost exclusively Africans, live in each area and usually work in informal industries. The shanty towns have been built in these areas because they have been built on land that was previously been considered unusable. This was along the narrow, swampy, flood plains of the Rivers Mathare and Ngong. People living in shanty settlements can’t afford rent any higher that low as they would most likely have migrated from rural areas with no money so the only place they could afford to build ‘housing’ was on areas which most people would class as dangerous/unusable.
There is also an area called low-income housing; they mainly include flats of about 3-5 storeys and are council built. They are to the north of the industrial areas and south of the Mathare valley shanty settlements. This is because they were previously former shanty settlements to which the council has added a water supply, sewage and electricity so the conditions of living there aren’t as low as the shanty settlements but not as high as the middle-income housing.
In a small area in the north-east of the city just south of the River Mathare there is an area of self-help housing. It is similar to the areas of low-income housing as the council has provided basic amenities and at a cheap price, building materials. In Dandora which has just over 120’000 residents, relatively wealthy people have bought plots of land and built up to six houses around a central courtyard. Then a tap and toilet was installed in each courtyard and electricity and roads were added to the estate. They were built in these areas so that the owner could buy the land and materials at a cheap price and able to rent the houses out which are needed by his/her family to people who couldn’t afford the middle-income housing and could then rent. Or instead if they had a bit of money could buy the property and materials from the council themselves and build their own houses.