Official name	Nairobi
Settlement type	City
Nickname	The Green City in the Sun
Pushpin map	Kenya
Map caption	Location of Nairobi
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates region	KE
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision type1	Province
Subdivision name
Subdivision name1	Nairobi Province
Established title	Founded
Established date	1899
Parts type	Constituencies of Nairobi
P1	Makadara
P2	Kamukunji
P3	Starehe
P4	Langata
P5	Dagoretti
P6	Westlands
P7	Kasarani
P8	Embakasi
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Geoffrey Majiwa
Area total km2	696
Population as of	2009
Population note
Population total	3,138,295
Population density km2	4509
Population demonym	Nairobian
Area code	020
Twin1	Denver,Colorado
Twin1 country	USA
Timezone	EAT
Utc offset	+3
Elevation ft	5450
Elevation m	1661
Website	http://www.nairobicity.go.ke

Nairobi () is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is surrounded by several expanding villa suburbs. The people of Nairobi are popularly nicknamed 'Nairobians'.

Founded in 1899 as a simple rail depot on the railway linking Mombasa to Uganda, the town quickly grew to become the capital of British East Africa in 1907 and eventually the capital of a free Kenyan republic in 1963. During Kenya's colonial period, the city became a centre for the colony's coffee, tea and sisal industry. Nairobi is also the capital of the Nairobi Province and of the Nairobi District. The city lies on the Nairobi River, in the south of the nation, and has an elevation of 1795 m above sea-level.

Nairobi is the second most populous city in East Africa, with a current estimated population of about 3 million. Nairobi is currently the 13th largest city in Africa, based on population and fourth largest in infrastructure development and its size.

Nairobi is now one of the most prominent cities in Africa politically and financially. Home to many companies and organisations, including the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN Office in Africa, Nairobi is established as a hub for business and culture. The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) is one of the largest in Africa and second oldest exchange.It is ranked fourth in terms of trading volume and capable of making 10 million trades a day. The Globalisation and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) defines Nairobi as a prominent social centre.

History

The area was an essentially uninhabited swamp until a supply depot of the Uganda Railway was built in 1899, which soon became the railway's headquarters. The city was named after a water hole known in Maasai as Ewaso Nyirobi, meaning "cool waters". It was completely rebuilt in the early 1900s after an outbreak of plague and the burning of the original town. The location of the Nairobi railway camp was chosen due to its central position between Mombasa and Kampala. It was also chosen because its network of rivers could supply the camp with water, and its elevation would make it cool enough for residential purposes. However malaria was a serious problem, leading to at least one attempt to have the town moved.

In 1905, Nairobi replaced Mombasa as capital of the British protectorate, and the city grew around administration and tourism, initially in the form of big game hunting. As the British colonialists started to explore the region, they started using Nairobi as their first port of call. This prompted the colonial government to build several spectacular grand hotels in the city. The main occupants were British game hunters.

Nairobi continued to grow under the British rule, and many Britons settled within the city's suburbs. The continuous expansion of the city began to anger the Maasai, as the city was devouring their land to the south. It also angered the Kikuyu people, who wanted the land returned to them.

In 1919, Nairobi was declared to be a municipality. In February 1926, E.A.T. Dutton passed through Nairobi on his way to [Mount Kenya], and said of the city:

After the end of World War II, this friction developed into the Mau Mau rebellion. Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's future president, was jailed for his involvement even though there was no evidence linking him to the rebellion. Pressure exerted from the locals onto the British resulted in Kenyan independence in 1963, with Nairobi as the capital of the new republic.

After independence, Nairobi grew rapidly and this growth put pressure on the city's infrastructure. Power cuts and water shortages were a common occurrence, though in the past few years better city planning has helped to put some of these problems in check.

The United States Embassy in Nairobi was bombed in August 1998 by Al-Qaida, as one of a series of U.S. embassy bombings. Over two hundred civilians were killed. It is now the site of a memorial park.

Geography

The city is located at and occupies .

Nairobi is situated between the cities of Kampala and Mombasa. As Nairobi is adjacent to the eastern edge of the Rift Valley, minor earthquakes and tremors occasionally occur. The Ngong hills, located to the west of the city, are the most prominent geographical feature of the Nairobi Area. Mount Kenya is situated north of Nairobi and Mount Kilimanjaro is towards the south-east. Both mountains are visible from Nairobi on a clear day.

The Nairobi River and its tributaries traverse through the Nairobi Province. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has fought fiercely to save the indigenous Karura Forest in northern Nairobi which was under threat of being replaced by housing and other infrastructure.

Nairobi's western suburbs stretch all the way from the Kenyatta National Hospital in the south to the UN headquarters and Gigiri in the north, a distance of about .

The city is centred on the City Square, which is located in the Central Business District. The Kenyan Parliament buildings, the , Nairobi City Hall, Nairobi Law Courts and the Kenyatta Conference Centre all surround the square.

Climate

{{climate chart | Nairobi | 11.5 | 24.5 | 64 | 11.6 | 25.6 | 57 | 13.1 | 25.6 | 93 | 14.0 | 24.1 | 219 | 13.2 | 22.6 | 177 | 11.0 | 21.5 | 35 | 10.1 | 20.6 | 18 | 10.2 | 21.4 | 24 | 10.5 | 23.7 | 28 | 12.5 | 24.7 | 55 | 13.1 | 23.1 | 154 | 12.6 | 23.4 | 101 |float = right |clear = none |source = WMO

There are two rainy seasons but rainfall can be moderate. The cloudiest part of the year is just after the first rainy season, when, until September, conditions are usually overcast with drizzle. As Nairobi is situated close to the equator, the differences between the seasons are minimal. The seasons are referred to as the wet season and dry season. The timing of sunrise and sunset varies little throughout the year, due to Nairobi's close proximity to the equator.

Districts and Suburbs

Nairobi is divided into a series of constituencies, these are Makadara, Kamukunji, Starehe, Langata, Dagoretti, Westlands, Kasarani and Embakasi. The main administrative divisions of Nairobi are Central, Dagoretti, Embakasi, Kasarani, Kibera, Makadara, Pumwani and Westlands. Most of the upmarket suburbs are situated to the west of Nairobi, where most European settlers resided in colonial times. These include Karen, Langata, Lavington, Gigiri, Muthaiga, Runda and Highridge, although Kangemi and Dagoretti are lower income areas. The city's colonial past is commemorated by many English place-names. Most low and lower-middle income estates are located in eastern Nairobi. These include Kariokor, Dandora, Kariobangi, Embakasi and Huruma. Many Somali immigrants have also settled in Eastleigh, nicknamed "Little Mogadishu".

Parks and gardens

.]] Nairobi has many parks and open spaces throughout the city. The city has dense tree-cover and plenty of green spaces. The most famous park in Nairobi is Uhuru Park. The park borders the central business district and the neighbourhood Upper Hill. Uhuru (Freedom) Park is a centre for outdoor speeches, services and rallies. The park was to be built-over by former President Daniel arap Moi, who wanted the 62-storey headquarters of his party, the Kenya African National Union, situated in the park. However, the park was saved following a campaign by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

Central Park is adjacent to Uhuru Park, and includes a memorial for Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya. Other notable open spaces include Jeevanjee Gardens, City Park, Bomb Blast Memorial Park and Nairobi Arboretum., Nairobi]]

Administrative divisions

The City of Nairobi enjoys the status of a full administrative province.

The Nairobi province differs in several ways from other Kenyan provinces. The province is the smallest in area and is entirely urban. It has only one local authority, Nairobi City Council. Nairobi Province was not divided into districts until 2007, when three districts were created. The province is further divided into "divisions" which are further divided into "locations".

Nairobi Province has eight constituencies, which follow same boundaries with administrative divisions (which is not the case on most districts in Kenya). Constituency name may differ from division name, such that Starehe Constituency is equal to Central division, Langata Constituency to Kibera division, Kamukunji Constituency to Pumwani Division in terms of boundaries.

Divisions

Nairobi is divided into eight divisions and fifty locations, mostly named after residential estates. Kibera Division, for example, includes Kibera (Kenya's largest slum) as well as affluent estates of Karen and Langata.

Economy

Nairobi is home to the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), one of Africa's largest. The NSE was officially recognised as an overseas stock exchange by the London Stock Exchange in 1953. The exchange is Africa's 4th largest (in terms of trading volumes) and 5th (in terms of Market Capitalisation as a percentage of GDP).

Nairobi is the regional headquarters of several international companies and organizations. In 2007, General Electric, Young & Rubicam, Google, Coca Cola, Airtel and Cisco Systems relocated their African headquarters to the city. The United Nations Office at Nairobi hosts UNEP and UN-Habitat headquarters.

Several of Africa's largest companies are headquartered in Nairobi. KenGen, which is the largest African stock outside South Africa, is based in the city. Kenya Airways, Africa's fourth largest airline, uses Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as a hub.

Goods manufactured in Nairobi include clothing, textiles, building materials, processed foods, beverages, cigarettes. Several foreign companies have factories based in and around the city. These include Goodyear, General Motors, Toyota Motors, and Coca Cola.

Nairobi has a large tourist industry, being both a tourist destination and a transport hub.

Central business district and skyline

Nairobi has grown around its central business district. It takes a rectangular shape, around the Uhuru Highway, Haille Selassie Avenue, Moi Avenue and University Way. It features many of Nairobi's important buildings, including the City Hall and Parliament Building. The city square is also located within the perimeter.

A feature of the central business district that strikes foreign tourists the most is the skyline. Nairobi's skyline has been compared to many Asian and American cities. This is due to a construction boom after independence, and another construction boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most of the skyscrapers in this region are the headquarters of businesses and corporations, such as I&M; and the Kenyatta international Conference Center. The United States Embassy bombing took place in this district, prompting a new embassy building to be built in the suburbs.

In 2006, a large beautification project took place in the CBD, as the city prepared to host the 2006 Afri-Cities summit. Iconic buildings such as the Kenyatta International Conference Centre had their exteriors cleaned and repainted.

The district is bordered to the southwest by Uhuru Park and Central Park. The Mombasa to Kampala railway runs to the southeast of the district.

Upper Hill

Today, many businesses are considering relocating and/or establishing their headquarters outside the Central Business District. This is because land is cheaper, and better facilities can easily be built and maintained elsewhere. Two areas that are seeing a growth in companies and office space are Upper Hill, which is located, approximately from the CBD and Westlands, which is also about the same distance, away from the city center.

Companies that have moved from the CBD to Upper Hill include Citibank and in 2007, Coca Cola began construction on their East and Central African headquarters in Upper Hill, cementing the district as the preferred location for office space in Nairobi. The largest office development in this area is the Rahimtulla Tower, which is primarily occupied by British firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. World Bank is also located in Upper Hill, Hill Park Building. Earlier on, they were located in View Park towers in the CBD. The International Finance Cooperation - the private sector arm of the World Bank - is also located in Upper Hill at the CBA building.

To accommodate the large demand for floorspace in Nairobi, various commercial projects are being constructed. New business parks are being built in the city, including the flagship Nairobi Business Park. Nairobi is currently being considered by a Middle-Eastern company who is interested in building a high-rise headquarters in Africa.

{| style="background:none;" |+ Nairobi's tallest skyscrapers | Times Tower || | Teleposta Towers || | Kenyatta International Conference Centre || | NSSF Building || | I&M; Bank Tower || | Government Office Conference Hall || | Nyayo House || | Rahimtulla Tower || |}

Society and culture

Nairobi is a cosmopolitan and multicultural city. Since its foundation, Nairobi has maintained a strong British presence, and a lasting legacy from colonial rule. This is highlighted by the number of English-named suburbs, including Hurlingham and Parklands.

By the mid twentieth century, many foreigners settled in Nairobi from other British colonies, primarily India and Pakistan. These immigrants were workers who arrived to construct the Kampala - Mombasa railway, settling in Nairobi after its completion, and merchants from Gujarat. Nairobi also has established communities from Somalia and Sudan.

As Nairobi has a diverse and multicultural composition, there are a number of churches, mosques, temples and gurdwaras within the city. Prominent places of worship in Nairobi include the Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Family, All Saints Cathedral, Ismaili Jamat Khana and Jamia Mosque.

Nairobi has two informal nicknames. The first is "The Green City in the Sun", which is derived from the city's foliage and warm climate. The second is the "Safari Capital of the World", which is used due to Nairobi's prominence as a hub for safari tourism.

There are a number of modern malls in the Nairobi Area, including: West Gate, Prestige, Village Market, Sarit Center, Junction, etc. These malls attract Kenyans from all walks of life, mostly for their theaters.

Literature and film

Kwani? is Kenya's first literary journal and was established by modern writers living in Nairobi. Nairobi's publishing houses have also produced the works of some of Kenya's best known and most respected authors, including Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Meja Mwangi who were all part of the post-colonial writing boom.

Many film makers also practice their craft out of Nairobi. Film-making is still young in the country but people like producer Njeri Karago and director Judy Kibinge are paving the way for others.

Perhaps the most famous book and film set in Nairobi, is Out of Africa. The book was written by Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen), and it is her account of living in Kenya. Karen Blixen lived in the Nairobi Area from 1917 to 1931 (the neighbourhood in which she lived, Karen, is named after her).

In 1985, Out of Africa was made into a film, directed by Sydney Pollack. The film won 28 awards, including 7 Academy Awards. The popularity of the film prompted the opening of Nairobi's Karen Blixen Museum.

Nairobi is also the setting of many of the novels of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenya's foremost writer.

Nairobi has been the set of several other American and British films. The most recent of these was The Constant Gardener (2005), a large part of which was filmed in the city. The story revolves around a British diplomat in Nairobi whose wife is murdered in northern Kenya. Much of the filming was in the Kibera slum.

Most new Hollywood films are nowadays screened at Nairobi's cinemas. Up until the early 90s there were only a few film theatres and the repertoire was limited. There are also two drive-in cinemas in Nairobi.

Music

Nairobi is the centre of the Kenyan music scene. Benga is a Kenyan genre which was developed in Nairobi. The genre is a fusion of jazz and Luo music forms.

In the 1970s, Nairobi became the prominent centre for East and Central African music. During this period, Nairobi was established as a hub of soukous music. This genre was born in Kinshasa and Brazzaville. After the political climate in the region deteriorated, many Congolese artists relocated to Nairobi. Artists such as Orchestra Super Mazembe moved from Congo to Nairobi and found great success. Virgin records became aware of the popularity of the genre and signed recording contracts with several soukous artists.

More recently, Nairobi has become the centre of the Kenyan hip hop scene. The genre has become very popular amongst the East African youth, and Nairobi acts have become some of the most popular in the region. Successful artists based in Nairobi include Jua cali Nonini and Nameless. Record labels include Ogopa DJs and Calif Records.

Many foreign musicians who tour Africa, perform and visit Nairobi. Bob Marley's first ever visit to Africa started in Nairobi. Acts that have performed in Nairobi include Shaggy, Sean Paul, Ja Rule and Morgan Heritage.

Sport

.]] Nairobi is East Africa's sporting centre. The premier sports facility in Nairobi is the Moi International Sports Centre in the suburb of Kasarani. The complex was completed in 1987, and was used to host the 1987 All Africa Games. The complex comprises a 60,000 seater stadium, the second largest in East Africa (after Tanzania's new national stadium), a 5,000 seater gymnasium, and a 2,000 seater aquatics centre.

Coca Cola National Stadium formally known as Nyayo National Stadium is Nairobi's second largest stadium. Completed in 1983, the stadium has a capacity of 30,000. This stadium is primarily used for football. The facility is located close to the Central Business District, which makes it a convenient location for political gatherings.

Nairobi City Stadium is the city's first stadium, and used for club football. Nairobi Gymkhana is the home of the Kenyan cricket team, and was a venue for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Notable annual events staged in Nairobi include Safari Rally (although it lost its World Rally Championship status in 2003), Safari Sevens rugby union tournament, and Nairobi Marathon.

Football is the most popular sport in the city by viewership and participation. This is highlighted by the number of football clubs in the city, including Mathare United, AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia and Tusker FC.

There are six golf courses within a 20 km radius of Nairobi. The oldest 18-hole golf course in the city is the Royal Nairobi Golf Club, founded in 1906 by the British, just seven years after the city was founded. Other notable golf clubs include the Windsor Country Club, Karen Country Club and Muthaiga Country Club. The Kenya Open golf tournament, which is part of the Challenge Tour, takes place in Nairobi. The Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi is the center of horse racing in Kenya.

Tourism

at Nairobi National Park, with Nairobi's skyline in background]] Nairobi is not a prime tourist destination, but it does have several tourist attractions. The most famous is the Nairobi National Park. The national park is unique, in being the only game-reserve of this nature to border a capital city, or city of this size. The park contains many animals including lions, giraffes, and black rhinos. The park is home to over 400 species of bird. The Nairobi safari walk is a major attraction to the Nairobi national park as it offers a rare on-foot experience of the animals.

Nairobi is home to several Museums, Sites and Monuments. The Nairobi National Museum is the country's National Museum and largest in the city. It houses a large collection of artifacts portraying Kenya's rich heritage through History, Nature, Culture and Contemporary Art. It also includes the full remains of a homo erectus popularly known as the Turkana boy. Other prominent museums include the Nairobi Gallery, Nairobi Railway Museum and the Karen Blixen Museum. Uhuru Gardens, a national monument and the largest memorial park in Kenya, is also the place where the first Kenyan flag was raised at independence.

Nairobi is nicknamed the Safari Capital of the World, and has many spectacular hotels to cater for safari-bound tourists. Five star hotels in Nairobi include the Nairobi Serena, Laico Regency (formerly Grand Regency), Windsor (Karen), Holiday Inn, East African Safari Club (Lilian Towers), The Stanley Hotel, Safari Park & Casino, InterContinental, Panari Hotel, Hilton, and the Norfolk Hotel.

Nairobi is also home to the largest ice rink in Africa: the Solar Ice Rink at the Panari Sky Centre. The rink, opened in 2005, covers and can accommodate 200 people.

Shopping Malls in Nairobi include; The Yaya Centre (Hurlingham), Sarit Centre(Westlands), Westgate Shopping Mall(Westlands), ABC Place(Westlands), The Village Market(Gigiri), Junciton Shopping Centre(Ngong Road), Prestige Plaza(Ngong Road), Crossroads Shopping Centre(Karen), and T-Mall(Langata). Nakumatt, Uchumi and Tuskys are the largest supermarket chains with modern stores through-out the city.

The Nairobi Java House is a popular chain of restaurants with multiple branches located around the city including one at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Other notable sites include Jomo Kenyatta's mausoleum, Kenya National Theatre and the Kenya National Archives. Art galleries in Nairobi include the Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art (Ramoma) and the Mizizi Arts Centre.

Places of interest

Transport

Airports

, the largest and busiest airport in East Africa.]] Nairobi is served primarily by Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. It is the largest airport in East and Central Africa, and handled over 4.9 million passengers in 2008. The airport is a major transit hub for passengers flying to East Africa's natural attractions, and other smaller cities in East and Central Africa. The airport is situated from Nairobi's Central Business District. The airport directly serves intercontinental passengers from Europe and Asia. There are currently major plans underway to expand the airport to accommodate growing air traffic.

Wilson Airport is a small, busy airport to the south of Nairobi. It handles small aircraft that generally operate within Kenya, although some offer services to other East African destinations.

Eastleigh Airport was the original landing strip in the pre-jet airline era. It was used as a landing point in the 1930s and 1940s British passenger and mail route from Southampton to Cape Town. This route was served by flying boats between Britain and Kisumu and then by land-based aircraft on the routes to the south. The airport is now a military base.

Matatu

, after the regulation changes.]] Matatus are the most common form of public transport in Nairobi. Matatus, which technically means, "thirty cents for a ride" (nowadays much more) are privately owned minibuses, and the most popular form of local transport, and generally seat fourteen to twenty-four. Matatus ama(or) mathree operate within Nairobi and from Nairobi to other towns. The matatu's destination is imprinted on the side of the bus, and matatus plying specific routes have specific route numbers. Matatus were easily distinguishable by their extravagant paint schemes, as owners would paint their matatu with various colorful decorations, such as their favourite football team or hip hop artist. More recently, some have even painted Barack Obama's face on their vehicle. They are notorious for their poor safety records, which are a result of overcrowding and reckless driving. Matatu drivers are pressured to make as many round trips as possible to maximize profits for their operator. Due to the intense competition between matutus, many are equipped with powerful sound systems and television screens in order to attract more customers.

However, in 2004, a law was passed requiring all matatus to include seat belts and speed governors and to be painted with a yellow stripe. At first, this caused a furore amongst Matatu operators, but they were pressured by government and the public to make the changes. Matatus are now limited to .

Buses

Buses are increasingly common in the city. The three bus companies operating the city routes are the traditional Kenya Bus Service (KBS), and newer private operators Citi Hoppa and Double M. The Citi Hoppa buses are distinguishable by their green livery, the Double M buses are painted purple while the KBS buses are painted blue.

Companies such as; Akamba, Coast Bus, Modern Coast, Eldoret Express, Chania and Mash Poa run scheduled buses and luxury coaches to other cities and towns.

Smartbus

Smartbus-Kenya is the latest bus operator in Kenya and serves Nairobi and the areas around it. Presently, the company operates buses to Kitengela, Kiserian, Rongai, and Ngong. Passengers have a smartcard which they must swipe in order to gain access to the vehicle. Passengers top up their smartcard and the fare is deducted from the amount of money in the account. The fare is determined by the point at which the passenger enters and the point at which the passenger exits the bus.

Trains

Nairobi was founded as a railway town, and the Kenya Railways (KR) main headquarters are still situated at Nairobi railway station, near the city centre. The line runs through Nairobi, from Mombasa to Kampala. Its main use is freight traffic, but regular nightly passenger trains connect Nairobi to Mombasa and Kisumu. A number of morning and evening commuter trains connect the centre with the suburbs, but the city has no proper light rail, tramway or subway lines. A rail link to the airport is planned.

Nairobi is also the junction for a branch railway to Nanyuki.

Taxi

Taxis are available in most parts of the city. They are costly in comparison to matatus and buses but are a safer and more convenient form of transport. They park outside most hotels, at taxi ranks in the city centre and at shopping malls.

Roads

Driving in Nairobi is straight-forward. Most of the Roads are tarmacked and there are signs showing directions to certain neighborhoods. The city is connected to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by the Mombasa Highway which passes through Industrial Area, South B, South C and Embakasi. Ongata Rongai, Langata and Karen are connected to the city centre by Langata Road which runs to the south. Lavington, Riverside, Westlands etc. are connected by Waiyaki Way. Kasarani, Eastlands, Embakasi are connected by Thika Road, Jogoo Road and Outer-ring Road.

Highways connect the city with other major towns such as Mombasa, Machakos, Voi,(A 109), Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Namanga Border Tanzania(A 104) etc.

Nairobi is currently undergoing major road constructions in order to update its infrastructure network. The new systems of roads, flyovers and bridges would cut outrageous traffic levels caused the inability of the current infrastructure to cope with the soaring economic growth in the past few years. It is also a major component of Kenya's Vision 2030 and Nairobi Metropolis plans. Most roads now, though are well lit and surfaced with adequate signage.

Media

Nairobi is home to most of Kenya's news and media organisations. The city is also home to East Africa's largest newspapers: the Daily Nation and The Standard. These are circulated within Kenya and cover a range of domestic and regional issues. Both newspapers are published in English.

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation is a state-run television and radio station, is headquartered in the city. Kenya Television Network is part of the Standard Group and was Kenya's first privately owned TV station. The Nation Media Group runs NTV which is based in Nairobi. East Africa Television Channel 5 is 24 hour music channel based in Dar es Salaam Tanzania and broadcasts in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. There are also a number of prominent radio stations located in Kenya's capital including KISS 100, Capital FM, East FM, Kameme FM, Metro FM and Family FM.

Several multinational media organisations have their regional headquarters in Nairobi. These include the BBC, CNN, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Deutsche Welle and the Associated Press. The East African bureau of CNBC Africa is located in Nairobi's city centre, while the Nairobi bureau of the New York Times is located in the suburb of Gigiri.

Housing

There is a wide variety of standards of living in Nairobi. Most wealthy Kenyans live in Nairobi but the majority of Nairobians are poor. Half of the population have been estimated to live in slums which cover just 5% of the city area. The growth of these slums is a result of urbanisation, poor town planning and the unavailability of loans for low income earners.

Kibera is one of the largest slums in Africa, and is situated to the west of Nairobi. (Kibera comes from the Nubian word Kibra, meaning "forest" or "jungle"). The slums cover two square kilometres and is on government land. Kibera has been the setting for several films, the most recent being The Constant Gardener. , with the Central Business District in the distance]]

Other notable slums include Mathare and Korogocho. Altogether, 66 areas are counted as slums within Nairobi.

Many Nairobi non-slum-dwellers live in relatively good housing conditions. Large houses can be found in many of the upmarket neighbourhoods, especially to the west of Nairobi. Historically, British immigrants have settled in Gigiri, Muthaiga, Langata and Karen. Other middle and high income estates include Parklands, Westlands, Hurlingham, Milimani, Spring Valley, Lavington, Rosslyn, Kitisuru, and Nairobi Hill.

To accommodate the growing middle class, many new apartments and housing developments are being built in and around the city. The most notable development is Greenpark, at Athi River town, from Nairobi's CBD. Over 5,000 houses, villas and apartments are being constructed at this development, including leisure, retail and commercial facilities. The development is being marketed at families, as are most others within the city. Eastlands also houses most of the city's middle class and includes South C, South B, Embakasi, Buru Buru, Komarock, Donholm, , and others.

Population

Nairobi has experienced one of the highest growth rates of any city in Africa. Since its foundation in 1899, Nairobi has grown to become the largest city in East Africa, despite being the youngest city in the region. The growth rate of Nairobi is currently 4.1%. It is estimated that Nairobi's population will reach 5 million in 2015.

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Kibera Slum

The Kibera slum in Nairobi, with an estimated population of 170,000 people, was thought to be Africa's second largest slum. However recent census results have shown that Kibera is indeed much smaller than originally thought. The distortion of facts has been attributed to exaggeration by western NGOs in order to obtain funding from governments and charity organizations.

Most of Kibera slum residents live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1.00 per day. Unemployment rates are high. Persons living with HIV in the slum are many, as are AIDS cases. Cases of assault and rape are common. There are few schools, and most people cannot afford an education for their children. Clean water is scarce and therefore diseases caused by related poor hygiene are prevalent. A great majority of people living in the slum lack access to healthcare.

The Government is addressing the problem, having initiated a program to replace the slum with a residential district consisting of high rise apartments, and relocating the residents to these new buildings upon completion. The apartments are being built in phases in line with the Government's budgetary allocations, and a few apartments in phase 1 of the project have already been occupied.

Crime

Throughout the 1990s, Nairobi had struggled with rising crime, earning a reputation for being a dangerous city and the nickname "Nairobbery". In 2001, the United Nations International Civil Service Commission rated Nairobi as among the most insecure cities in the world, classifying the city as "status C". In the United Nations report, it was stated that in 2001, nearly one third of all Nairobi residents experienced some form of robbery in the city. The head of one development agency cited the "notoriously high levels of violent armed robberies, burglaries and carjackings. Crime had risen in Nairobi as a result of unplanned urbanisation, with a minimal number of police stations and a proper security infrastructure. However, many claim that the biggest factor for the city's alarming crime rate is police corruption, which leaves many criminals unpunished. As a security precaution, most large houses have a watch guard, burglar grills, and dogs to patrol their grounds during the night. Most crimes, however, occur around the poor neighborhoods where it gets dangerous during night hours.

In 2006, crime decreased in the city, due to increased security and an improved police presence. Despite this, in 2007, the Kenyan government and U.S. State Department has announced that Nairobi is experiencing a greater level of violent crime than in previous years. Since then, the government has taken measures to combat crime with heavy police presence in and around the city while U.S. government has updated its travel warning for the country.

Education

The Majority of schools follow either the Kenyan Curriculum or the British Curriculum. There is also International School of Kenya which follows the North American Curriculum and the German school in Gigiri.

Higher Education

]] Nairobi is home to several universities. The University of Nairobi is the oldest university in Kenya. It was established in 1956, as part of the University of East Africa, but became an independent university in 1970. The university has approximately 22,000 students. Kenyatta University is situated from the centre of Nairobi. The university was established in 1985, offering mainly education-related courses, but has since diversified, offering medicine and environmental studies as well as Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce degree courses. It has a student body of about 21,500, the bulk of whom (17,000) are in the main (Kahawa) campus.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is a public university near Nairobi, Kenya. It is situated in Juja, 36 kilometres North East of Nairobi, along Nairobi-Thika Highway. It offers courses in Engineering, Science, Architecture and Building sciences. The university has a strong research interest in the areas of biotechnology and engineering.

Strathmore University started in 1961 as an Advanced Level (UK) Sixth Form College offering Science and Arts subjects. The college started to admit accountancy students in March 1966, and thus became a university. In January 1993 Strathmore College merged with Kianda College and moved to Ole Sangale Road, Madaraka Estate, Nairobi.

United States International University - Nairobi is a branch of the United States International University, which has campuses across the world. The Nairobi campus was established in 1969. The university has accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, in USA and the Government of Kenya.

Daystar University is a Christian liberal arts university located in Athi River, an outlying town south-east of Nairobi, with a satellite campus on Nairobi's Ngong Road.

In 2005, The Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi was upgraded to a teaching hospital, providing post graduate education in medicine and surgery including nursing education, henceforth renamed the Aga Khan University Hospital.

The Catholic University of Eastern Africa which obtained its "Letter of Interim Authority" in 1989. Following negotiations between the Authority of the Graduate School of Theology and the Commission for Higher Education (CHIEA), the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was established three years later, culminating in the granting of the Civil Charter to CHIEA on 3 November 1992.

The Africa Nazarene University, located in Ongata Rongai, is a private chartered Christian university sponsored by the Church of the Nazarene International and it is a member of the worldwide family of Nazarene institutions.

Sister cities

Denver, Colorado (1975)

See also

International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology

References

External links

; Community

All About Nairobi

Nairobians.com

24 Nairobi

; Destinations

NairobiKenya.com

; News

Daily Nation

The Standard

; Live Traffic Camera's

Nairobi Traffic

; Other

The City Council of Nairobi (official website)

National Geographic Feature about Nairobi

National Museums of Kenya (official website)

Category:Provincial capitals in Kenya Category:Capitals in Africa Category:Populated places established in 1899 Category:Provinces of Kenya Category:Populated places in Nairobi Province

M'bilia Bel (born 1959) is a Congolese soukous singer, known as the Queen of Congolese rumba. She rose to fame after being discovered by Tabu Ley Rochereau.

Biography

Born in 1959 and brought up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M'bilia Bel became successful in the early 1980s when she recorded and toured with Tabu Ley Rochereau, and made her own solo albums. The birth of her first child prompted her to take a break from performing, however, and after a last album with Tabu Ley in 1987, she moved to Paris. There she started working with guitarist Rigo Star, and between 1989 and 1990 she went on tour to the United States, the United Kingdom, and West Africa. With a combination of beauty, an angelic soprano voice, and tremendous agility on stage, M'bilia Bel stole the hearts of music fans all over the continent. She was Africa's first female transcontinental diva. She became the first female musician from Africa who could claim popularity all over the entire continent and beyond. In fact, one could argue that there has not been any female musician from Africa who has captured the imagination of music fans across the continent as much as M'bilia Bel did in the eighties. South African Miriam Makeba, known as Mama Afrika, popularity peaked in the 1960s but could not attract as many fans as M'bilia Bel did later.

She began her performing career at the age of seventeen singing backup for Abeti Masikini and later with Sam Mangwana. She burst into the music scene when she joined Tabu Ley's Afrisa International in 1981. The duo of Tabu ley and M'bilia Bel was an instant hit. The combination of Tabu Ley's composing genius and Mbilia Bel's heavenly voice resulted in high sales of Afrisa records.

Her first song with Afrisa, released in early 1982, was "Mpeve Ya Longo", which means Holy Spirit in Kikongo. It was a moving song about spousal abuse. In the song, M'bilia sang the part of a woman who had been abandoned by her husband and has to raise the children by herself. The song was very popular, especially among women in Zaire.

Her first album, released in 1983, was the extremely popular Eswi yo wapi, which roughly translates to "Where did it hurt you?", composed by both Tabu Ley and M'bilia Bel. The song won the award for the best song of 1983 in Zaire, and M'bilia Bel won the award for best new performer. She went on to feature on several other songs that year, including Tabu Ley's "Lisanga ya Bambanda", "Faux pas" and Dino Vangu's "Quelle Mechante". Thanks to M'bilia Bel, the popularity of Afrisa International was soaring. Even songs that did not feature M'bilia Bel were receiving more exposure. The stranglehold that Franco's TP OK Jazz had held in the music scene was now being loosened, as Afrisa could now match TP OK Jazz in popularity and record sales, thanks to the arrival of this new sensation who was now being referred to as the African tigress.

Concerts of Afrisa were now a huge draw. M'bilia Bel was always the main attraction, and when she made an appearance, the crowds often went into a frenzy. She was a talented stage performer and often tantalized crowds with her exceptional dancing ability when she would join the Rocherreautes (dancers) in their dance routine.

By the mid-eighties, Mbilia bel had officially married Tabu Ley and was a refined and mature performer. Her songs continued to dominate the scene. Among them was "Mobali na ngai wana", which roughly translates to "This Husband of Mine". The song was composed by Tabu Ley and Roger Izeidi and is an adaptation of a traditional song in Kikongo. In the song, M'bilia Bel praises her husband as being handsome and successful and stresses the fact that even though he has the opportunity to choose from any of Kinshasa's beautiful women, he chose her. Other songs that blazed the charts during that period include "Balle a terre" and "Bameli soy".

In 1987 Tabu Ley recruited another female artiste to accompany M'bilia Bel. Kishila Ngoyi was here real name, but she was known by her artistic name, Faya Tess. It was with this new lineup that Afrisa embarked on a tour of East Africa that took in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, culminating in the album Nadina, which had Lingala and Swahili versions of the title song. The tour was well received by crowds. M'bilia Bel took centre stage, overshadowing other Afrisa artistes including Ndombe Opetum who had returned from TP OK Jazz. Upon their return to Kinshasa, rumours started surfacing about a rift between Tabu ley and M'bilia Bel. Apparently Mbilia Bel was not too happy about the emergence of Faya Tess, who seemed ready to steal her thunder. Both publicly denied having any problems.

M'bilia Bel quit the band late in 1987 to embark on a solo career. She briefly joined with a Gabonese producer in Libreville before leaving for Paris where she joined with guitarist Rigo Starr Bamundele. Her first album with Rigo Starr was entitled "Phénomène" and was a huge success in Kinshasa as well as abroad. Subsequent releases such as Yalowa, Desolé and Exploration have met with limited success.

Following the departure of M'bilia Bel, the popularity of Afrisa International as a band plummeted substantially. Tabu Ley himself seemed to lose inspiration for composing as is evidenced by the substantial reduction in the number of albums released. With the exception of her debut album, Phénomène, Mbilia Bel's career also took on a downward spiral when she left Afrisa.

Her more recent work has involved taking her usual style (traditional rumba and soukous) and mixing in rap and other modern elements.

References

Discography

1983: Eswi Yo Wapi

1983: Faux Pas

1984: Loyenghe

1984: Boya Ye

1985: ''Keyna

1985: Ba Gerants Ya Mabala Paka Wewe

1986: Beyanga

1987: Contre Ma Volonte

1988: Phénoméne

1991: Bameli Soy

1991: ''Désolé

1993: Ironie (with Rigo Star)''

1997: Yalowa

1997: Exploration

1999: 8/10/Benedicta/8/10

2001: Welcome

2003: Boya Ye

2004: Belissimo

2007: "Phénomène"

Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic Republic of the Congo singers Category:Soukous musicians

Name	Ernie Kovacs
Caption	Ernie Kovacs on the set of his television show.Ralph Morse for Life, 1957
Birth name	Ernest Edward Kovacs
Birth date	January 23, 1919
Birth place	Trenton, New Jersey United States
Death date	January 13, 1962
Death place	Los Angeles, CaliforniaUnited States
Medium	newspaperradiotelevisionmagazinefilm
Nationality	Hungarian-American
Active	1949–1962
Genre	Character comedySurreal comedyImprovisational comedyProp comedySpoofSketch
Influences	Buster Keaton
Influenced	David LettermanChevy ChaseCraig FergusonDan RowanDick Martin
Spouse	Bette Lee Wilcox (1945–1952) (divorced) 2 childrenEdie Adams (1954–1962) (his death) 1 child
Notable work	Silent Show–EugeneThe Nairobi TrioPercy Dovetonsils

}}

Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian whose uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Such iconic and diverse shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Uncle Floyd Show, Saturday Night Live Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and TV hosts such as David Letterman and Craig Ferguson have been influenced by Kovacs. Chevy Chase acknowledged Kovacs' influence on his work in Saturday Night Live, thanking him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for SNL. Chase appeared in the 1982 documentary called Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius, speaking again of the impact Kovacs had on his work.

On or off screen, Kovacs could be counted on for the unexpected - from having marmosets as pets, to wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show. When working at WABC (AM) as a morning drive radio personality and doing a mid-morning television show for NBC, Kovacs disliked eating breakfast alone while his wife was sleeping in after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and whose job was to make breakfast for them both, then take him to the WABC studios.

While Ernie and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957, Kovacs also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television. In 1986, the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) presented an exhibit of Kovacs' work, called The Vision of Ernie Kovacs. The Pulitzer Prize winning television critic, William Henry III wrote for the museum's booklet:

Kovacs was more than another wide-eyed, self-ingratiating clown. He was television's first significant video artist. He was its first surrealist... its most daring and imaginative writer. He was... television's first and possibly only auteur. And he was a genius. In commercial terms, a genius is any entertainer... who finds a new way to make money. Kovacs never fit that description. Kovacs' genius lay in the realm of art. There, a genius is someone who causes an audience to look at the world in a new way.

Early life and career

Kovacs' father, Andrew, emigrated to the US from Hungary at age 13. He worked at various jobs, including those as a policeman, restaurateur, and bootlegger. Bootlegging was quite lucrative during Prohibition; this allowed Andrew to move his wife, Mary, and sons Tom and Ernie, into a 20-room mansion in the better part of Trenton.

Though a poor student, Ernie's interest in theater began in high school. He was influenced deeply by his Trenton Central High School drama teacher, Harold Van Kirk, and received a scholarship for acting to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937 with Mr. Van Kirk's help. The end of Prohibition and the Depression brought hard financial times to the family. When Kovacs began drama school, all he could afford was a fifth floor walk-up apartment on West 74th Street in New York City. During this time, Ernie managed to see a lot of "Grade B" movies (admission was only a dime); many of them were the spark of his routines later on. Like any aspiring actor, Kovacs used his class vacation time to try for roles in various summer stock companies. While working in Vermont in 1939, he became ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, and spent the next year and a half in very serious condition in several hospitals. It was during this time that he began to show definite comedic talent, entertaining both doctors and patients with his antics; his doctors didn't expect he would live. While still in the hospital, he developed a lifelong love and understanding of classical music through the gift of a radio, which he kept tuned to WQXR. By the time he was able to leave, his parents had separated and he went back to Trenton, living with his mother in a two room apartment over a store.

His first paid entertainment work came in 1941, as a disc jockey on Trenton's WTTM radio. Ernie spent the next nine years with WTTM, becoming the station's director of Special Events along the way; in this position he did things like trying to see what it was like to be run over by a train (leaving the tracks at the last minute) and broadcasting from the cockpit of a plane (for which he took flying lessons). Kovacs was also involved in local theater; a news clipping from a local paper ran a photo and the news that he was doing some directing for the Trenton Players Guild in early 1941. The Trentonian, a local weekly newspaper, offered him a column in June 1945; Ernie called it "Kovacs Unlimited". Showing up at NBC's Philadelphia affiliate, WPTZ (now KYW-TV), for an audition wearing a barrel and shorts got him his first television job. Kovacs' first show was Pick Your Ideal, a fashion and promotional program for the Ideal Manufacturing Company. Before long he was also the host of Deadline For Dinner, a show where local chefs shared cooking tricks and tips. When Kovacs' guest chef did not show up in time to go on the air, Ernie offered a recipe for "Eggs Scavok" (Kovacs spelled backward).

Three to Get Ready was groundbreaking, as the first regularly scheduled early morning (7–9 a.m.) show in a major TV market. Prior to this, it had been assumed that no one would watch TV at such an early hour. While the show was billed as early morning news and weather, Kovacs provided this and more in an original manner. When rain was in the weather forecast, Kovacs would get on a ladder and pour water down on the staff member reading the report. and tiny women appeared to walk up his arm. Kovacs also went outside of the studio for some of his sketches: wearing a gorilla costume and running through a downtown Philadelphia restaurant, looking into a construction pit saying it was deep enough to see to China, when a man in Chinese clothing popped up, said a few words in the language, and ran off. Ernie brought the EEFMS to New York in 1952 when he moved to WCBS. The success of Three to Get Ready proved the theory wrong and was one of the factors that led NBC to create The Today Show. WPTZ did not begin broadcasting Today when it premiered on January 14, 1952; network pressure caused the station to drop Three to Get Ready for it at the end of March of that year.

In early 1952, Kovacs was also doing a late morning show for WPTZ called Kovacs On the Corner. The show had a Sesame Street feel, as Kovacs would walk through an imaginary neighborhood, talking with various characters such as Pete the Cop and Luigi the Barber. As with Three to Get Ready, Kovacs did some special segments. "Swap Time" was one of them; viewers could bring their unwanted items to the WPTZ studios to trade them live on the air with Kovacs. Creative control was wrested from Kovacs soon after the show's debut; beginning on January 4, 1952, it ended on March 28, 1952—the same day as Three to Get Ready. Kovacs' cameras commonly showed his viewers activity beyond the boundaries of the show set—including crew members and outside the studio itself. Kovacs also liked talking to the off-camera crew and even introduced segments from the studio control room. Kovacs' love of spontaneity extended to his crew, who would occasionally play on-air pranks on him to see how he would react. During one of his NBC shows, Kovacs was appearing as the inept magician Matzoh Heppelwhite. The sketch called for the magician to frequently hit a gong, which was the signal for a sexy female assistant to bring out a bottle and shot glass for a quick snort of alcohol. Stagehands substituted real liquor for the iced tea normally used for the gag. The look on Ernie's face upon taking the first shot was priceless when he realized that he would be called upon to drink a shot of liquor for each successive gong. Kovacs pressed on with the sketch and was quite inebriated by the end of the show. On another occasion, as "Percy Dovetonsils", he found that his drink contained a live fish.

Kovacs helped develop camera tricks still common almost 50 years after his death, one of which became one of his signature gags. His character Eugene sat at a table to eat his lunch, but as he removed items one at a time from a lunch box, he watched them inexplicably roll down the table into the lap of a man reading a newspaper at the other end. When Kovacs poured milk from a thermos bottle, the stream flowed in a seemingly unusual direction. Never seen on television before, the secret was using a tilted set in front of a camera tilted at the same angle. Kovacs constantly sought new techniques and used both primitive and improvised ways of creating visual effects that would later be done electronically. One innovative construction involved attaching a kaleidoscope made from a toilet paper roll to a camera lens with cardboard and tape and setting the resulting abstract images to music. Another was a soup can with both ends removed fitted with angled mirrors. Used on a camera and turning it could put Kovacs seemingly on the ceiling.

He also developed such routines as an all-gorilla version of Swan Lake, a poker game set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the Silent Show, in which Eugene interacts with the world accompanied solely by music and sound effects, parodies of typical television commercials and movie genres, and various musical segments with everyday items (such as kitchen appliances or office equipment) moving in sync to music. He was also one of the first television comedians to use odd fake credits and comments between the legitimate credits and, at times, during his routines.

Kovacs reportedly disliked working in front of a live audience, as was the case with the shows he did for NBC in the 1950s. He found the presence of an audience distracting, and those in the seats frequently did not understand some of the more elaborate visual gags and special effects, which could only be appreciated by watching studio monitors instead of the stage. The Miklos character wasn't always confined to a kitchen; Kovacs performed a parody of The Howdy Doody Show with "Buffalo Miklos" as the host. Poet Percy Dovetonsils can also be found playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on a disappearing piano and as a "Master Detective" on the Private Eye-Private Eye US Steel special on CBS March 8, 1961. On the same show, the Narobi Trio abandons their instruments for a safe cracking job; still with a background of "Solfeggio" but speaking, two of the three appear in an "Outer Space" sketch.

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Ernie never hesitated to lampoon those considered institutions of radio and television. He had a late night talk show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, on DuMont Television Network's New York flagship station, WABD, that began in April 1954. Stage, screen, and radio notables often dropped by as guests. Archie Bleyer, head of Cadence Records, came to chat one evening. Bleyer had been the long-time orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey's radio and television shows. He had been fired by Godfrey the year before along with fellow cast member, Julius La Rosa, when it was discovered Bleyer's record company had a contract with La Rosa without Godfrey's knowledge. Bleyer and Kovacs were shown in split-screen, with Kovacs wearing a red wig, headphones, playing a ukelele in a Godfrey imitation, while talking with his guest. Ernie in Kovacsland, (a summer replacement show for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, 1951), The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952–56 on various networks), a twice-a-week job filling in for Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays (1956–57), and game shows One Minute Please, Kovacs later publicly accused Allen of stealing material and characters from him and then performing them in only slightly obfuscated form. (For example, Kovacs' "Mr. Question Man" bore a resemblance to Allen's "Answer Man," and later, Johnny Carson's long-running Carnac character.) Kovacs also had a short stint as a celebrity panelist on What's My Line?, but took his responsibilities less than seriously, often eschewing a legitimate question for the sake of a laugh. An example: Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, the founder of the automobile company, was the program's "mystery guest." Previous questioning had established that the mystery guest's last name was synonymous with an automobile brand, Kovacs asked, "This may seem like a long shot, sir, but by any chance are you Abraham Lincoln?"—a reference to the Ford Motor Company's brand of luxury automobile. When Kovacs gave an interview admitting that he was absent from the show when he wanted to go out for dinner on a Sunday, his stint on the panel show was over.

Kovacs became a regular on NBC Radio's Monitor beginning in late 1958, often using Mr. Question Man in his radio monologues.

TV specials

He also did several television specials, including the famous Silent Show (1957), featuring his character, Eugene, the first all-pantomime prime-time network program. After the break-up of the Dean Martin--Jerry Lewis partnership, NBC offered Lewis the opportunity to host his own 90-minute color TV special. Lewis opted to take only 60 minutes, leaving the network 30 minutes to fill; no one wanted this time slot, but Kovacs was willing to have it. The program contained no spoken dialogue and contained only sound effects and music. Starring Kovacs as the mute, Chaplinlike character "Eugene," the program contained surreal sight gags. Kovacs developed the Eugene character during the fall of 1956 when hosting the Tonight Show. Expectations were high for the Lewis program, but it was Kovacs' special that received the most attention; Kovacs received his first movie offer, had a cover story in Life, and received the Sylvania Award that year.

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A series of monthly half-hour specials for ABC in 1961–62 is often considered his best television work. Shot on videotape using new editing and special effects techniques, it won a 1962 Emmy Award. Kovacs and co-director Behar also won the Directors Guild of America award for an Ernie Kovacs Special based on the earlier silent "Eugene" program. Kovacs' last ABC special was aired posthumously, on January 23, 1962.

What made Kovacs unique may also have been what made him a hard sell to television viewers used to situation comedies and variety shows. Having a cult following at best, Kovacs rarely had a highly rated show. His friend Jack Lemmon was once quoted as saying that no one ever understood Kovacs' work because "he was always 15 years ahead of everyone else."

"The existence of these separate shows is testament to both the success and failure of Ernie Kovacs," says the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "A brilliant and innovative entertainer, he was a failure as a popular program host; praised by critics, he was avoided by viewers… The Ernie Kovacs shows were products of the time when television was in its infancy and experimentation was acceptable. It is doubtful that Ernie Kovacs would find a place on television today. He was too zany, too unrestrained, too undisciplined. Perhaps Jack Gould of The New York Times said it best for Ernie Kovacs: 'The fun was in trying'."

Other shows had greater success while using elements of Kovacs' style. Laugh-In producer George Schlatter was married to actress Jolene Brand, who had appeared in Kovacs' comic troupes over the years and had been a frequent participant in his pioneering sketches. Laugh-In made frequent use of the quick blackout gags and surreal humor that marked many Kovacs projects. Another link was a young NBC staffer, Bill Wendell, Kovacs' usual announcer and sometimes a sketch participant. From 1980–95, Wendell was the announcer for David Letterman, whose show and style of humor were greatly influenced by Kovacs. Kovacs also made careful use of the shrill singer Leona Anderson—who had somewhat less than a classical (or even listenable) voice, by some estimations—in comic vignettes.

Kovacs used classical music as background for silent sketches or abstract visual routines, including "Concerto for Orchestra", by Béla Bartók; music from the opera "The Love of Three Oranges", by Sergei Prokofiev; the finale of Igor Stravinsky's suite "The Firebird"; and Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks". He may have been best known for using Haydn's "String Quartet, Opus 3, Number 5" (the "Serenade," actually composed by Roman Hoffstetter), which was used in a series of 1960-61 commercials he created and videotaped for his sponsor, Dutch Masters.

For the show of May 22, 1959, Kovacs On Music, Kovacs began by saying, "I have never really understood classical music, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain it to others." Presented in the form of the gorilla version of Swan Lake which differed from the usual performance only in the persona of the dancers, giant paper clips moving to music and other sketches, Ernie's offerings showed his instinct for the classics and made them more comprehensible to his viewers.

He also served as host on a jazz LP to benefit the American Cancer Society in 1957, Listening to Jazz with Ernie Kovacs. It was a 15-minute recording featuring some of the giants of the art, including pianists Jimmy Yancey and Bunk Johnson, soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, guitarist Django Reinhardt, composer/pianist/bandleader Duke Ellington and longtime Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams. Both the Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada have copies of this recording in their collections.

In print

Kovacs wrote a novel, Zoomar: A Sophisticated Novel about Love and TV (Doubleday, 1957), based on television pioneer Pat Weaver; it took Kovacs only 13 days to write. In a 1960 interview, Edie Adams related that the novel was written after Kovacs' experiences with network television while he was preparing to air the Silent Show. The 1961 British edition was retitled T.V. Medium Rare by its London based publisher, Transworld.

While he worked on several other book projects, Kovacs' only other published title was How to Talk at Gin, published posthumously in 1962. He intended part of the book's proceeds to benefit Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Kovacs also wrote the introduction to the 1958 collection Mad For Keeps: A Collection of the Best from Mad Magazine.

Kovacs and Edie Adams were the guest stars on the final installment of the one-hour I Love Lucy format, known in network airings as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and in syndication as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Kovacs and Adams appeared in the episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache," which filmed March 2 and aired April 1, 1960. It was the last time Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared together before the breakup of their marriage. According to Adams, Lucy and Desi barely talked to each other in between scenes, and divorce proceedings began March 3, the day after the show's filming.

Films

Kovacs found Hollywood success as a character actor, often typecast as a swarthy military officer (almost always a "Captain" of some sort) in such films as Operation Mad Ball, Wake Me When It's Over, and Our Man in Havana. He garnered critical acclaim for roles such as the perennially inebriated writer in Bell, Book and Candle and as the cartoonishly evil head of a railroad company (who resembled Orson Welles' title character in Citizen Kane) in It Happened to Jane, where he had his head shaved and dyed grey for the role. In 1960, he played the off center base commander Charlie Stark in the comedy "Wake Me When its Over". His own personal favorite was said to have been the offbeat Five Golden Hours (1961), in which he portrayed a larcenous professional mourner who meets his match in a professional widow played by Cyd Charisse. Kovacs' last film, Sail A Crooked Ship, was released shortly before his death.

Kovacs had been chosen to appear as Melville Crump in Stanley Kramer's star-packed comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with Adams portraying his wife, Monica Crump. After his death, the role went to comedian Sid Caesar.

Personal life

First marriage

Kovacs and his first wife, Bette Wilcox, were married on August 13, 1945. When the marriage ended, he fought for custody of their children, Elizabeth ("Bette") and Kip Raleigh ("Kippie"). The court awarded Kovacs full custody upon determining that his former wife was mentally unstable. After a long and expensive search, Kovacs regained custody; the 1984 film, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, was based on these real-life events.

Kovacs' first wife made a legal attempt to gain custody of her two daughters shortly after his death. She began August 2, 1962 by claiming $500,000 was her share of Kovacs' estate and charging her ex-husband had abducted the girls in 1955; Kovacs was granted legal custody of his daughters in 1952. On August 30, she filed an affidavit claiming Edie was "unfit" to care for the girls. Both Bette and Kippie testified they wanted to stay with Edie. Kippie's testimony was very emotional; in it she referred to Edie as "Mommy" and her birth mother as "the other lady." Upon hearing the verdict that the girls would remain in their home, Edie Adams broke down, saying, "This is what Ernie would have wanted. Now I can smile." Bette Kovacs' reaction was, "I'm so happy I can hardly express myself.", after learning she and her sister would not need to leave Edie.

Second marriage

Kovacs and his second wife, Edie Adams, met in 1951 when she was hired to work on his WPTZ show, Three To Get Ready. Quoting Kovacs, "I wish I could say I was the big shot that hired her, but it was my show in name only--the producer had all the say. Later on I did have something to say and I said it, 'Let's get married.'" Kovacs' attempts to win Adams' heart included hiring a mariachi band to serenade her backstage at the Broadway musical she was performing in and the sudden gift of a diamond engagement ring, telling her to wear it until she made up her mind. Ernie continued this romantic quest after the show went out of town. Adams booked a six week European cruise which she hoped would let her make up her mind whether or not to marry Kovacs. After only three days away and many long-distance calls, she cut short her trip and returned to say "yes". They eloped and were married on September 12, 1954 in Mexico City. The ceremony was presided over by former New York City mayor William O'Dwyer and was performed in Spanish, which neither Kovacs nor Adams understood; O'Dwyer had to prompt each of them to say "Sí" at the "I do" portion of the vows. Adams, who had a very middle class upbringing in suburban New Jersey, was smitten by Kovacs' quirky ways; that seemed perfect until Ernie went to California for his first movie role in Operation Mad Ball. The experience of the totally different, laid-back lifestyle of Hollywood made a big impression on him. He realized he was working far too much in New York; in California he would be able to work less hours, do just as well or better, and have more time for Edie and his daughters. At the time he was working most of the time and sleeping about two or three hours a night.

Death

Kovacs was killed in an automobile accident in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of January 13, 1962. Kovacs, who had worked for much of the evening, met Adams at a baby shower given by the Billy Wilders for Milton Berle and his wife, who had recently adopted a three-year-old boy. The couple left the party in separate cars. During an unusual southern California rainstorm, the comedian lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning fast, and crashed into a power pole at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards. He was thrown halfway out the passenger side, dying almost instantly from chest and head injuries.

He may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar. A photographer managed to arrive moments later, and morbid images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers across the United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched arm. Years later, in a documentary about Kovacs, Edie Adams described telephoning the police impatiently when she learned of the crash. An official cupped his hand over the receiver, saying to a colleague, "It's Mrs. Kovacs, he's on his way to the coroner - what should I tell her?" With that, Edie Adams's fears were confirmed, and she became inconsolable. Jack Lemmon, who also attended the Berle party, identified Kovacs' body at the morgue when Adams was too distraught to do it. The active pallbearers were Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, Mervyn Leroy, and Joe Mikolas. Ernie's father, Andrew, and brother, Tom, served as honorary pallbearers. Among those in attendance were George Burns, Groucho Marx, Edward G. Robinson, Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Buster Keaton, and Milton Berle. While there was no typical Hollywood-type eulogy, the church's pastor paid tribute to Kovacs, adding that Ernie once summed up his life in two sentences: "I was born in Trenton, N. J. in 1919 to a Hungarian couple. I've been smoking cigars ever since."

Kovacs is buried in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His epitaph reads, "Nothing in moderation—We all loved him." Only one of Kovacs' three children survives: his eldest, Elizabeth, from his first marriage. Kippie, his second daughter, died on July 28, 2001 at the age of 52, after a long illness and a lifetime of poor health. Keigh Lancaster, (son of actor Burt Lancaster), is Kovacs' only grandchild. His only child with Edie Adams, Mia Susan, was killed on May 8, 1982, also in an automobile accident; Mia and Kippie are buried close to their father; when Edie died in 2008, she was buried between Mia and Kippie.

Tax evasion

A frequent critic of the U.S. tax system, Kovacs owed the IRS several hundred thousand dollars in back taxes, thanks to his simple refusal to pay the brunt of them. Up to 90% of his earnings were garnished as a result. In 1961, Kovacs was served with a $75,000 lien for back taxes; that same day he bought the California Racquet Club with the apparent hope of being able to use it as a tax write-off. The property had mortgages at the time of purchase which were later paid by Edie Adams.

His tax woes also affected Kovacs' career, forcing him to take any offered work to pay off his debt. This included the ABC game show Take a Good Look, appearances on variety shows such as NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, and some of his less memorable movie roles. He also filmed an unaired 1962 pilot episode for a proposed CBS series, Medicine Man (co-starring Buster Keaton, pilot episode titled "A Pony For Chris"). Kovacs' role was that of Dr. P. Crookshank, a traveling medicine salesman in the 1870s selling Mother McGreevy's Wizard Juice, also known as "man's best friend in a bottle". This was quietly abandoned after his death, which occurred the day after filming some scenes for the pilot in Griffith Park. CBS initially intended to air the show as part of a summer replacement program, The Comedy Spot, but decided against it due to issues with Kovacs' estate. The pilot is part of the public collection of the Paley Center for Media.

Adams, who married and divorced twice after Kovacs' death, refused help from celebrity friends who planned a benefit for the purpose. Saying, "I can take care of my own children.", and being determined to accept offers only from those who wanted to hire her for her talents, Edie managed to pay off all of Ernie's debts. Most of Kovacs' salvaged work is available to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles Library's Department of Special Collections, and there is also some material available at both locations of the Paley Center for Media.

"The first time I was made aware of the willful destruction of videotapes was in 1962, after the sudden death of my husband, Ernie Kovacs. He had been working on two shows for ABC here in Hollywood.

"Three months after his death, several members of his ABC crew came to see me at home and asked if I couldn't do something about the fact that ABC was using the wall of Kovacs's master tapes as used tape to tape over the news, the weather, public service blurbs, or anything, to recoup some of the moneys owed to them by Ernie."

"So, I called up my lawyer and told him to use the modest insurance policy to pay them off and buy back the 12-foot wall of Kovacs' tapes they were "saving money" by using. In all, about 40 hours was there, and by the time it was transferred to my storage facility, only 15 hours of it showed up."

"In the earlier '70's, the Dumont network was being bought by another company, and the lawyers were in heavy negotiation as to who would be responsible for the library of the Dumont shows currently being stored at the facility, who would bear the expense of storing them in a temperature controlled facility, take care of the copyright renewal, et cetera."

"One of the lawyers doing the bargaining said that he could "take care of it" in a "fair manner," and he did take care of it. At 2 a.m., the next morning, he had three huge semis back up to the loading dock at ABC, filled them all with stored kinescopes and 2" videotapes, drove them to a waiting barge in New Jersey, took them out on the water, made a right at the Statue of Liberty and dumped them in the Upper New York Bay. Very neat. No problem."

–Edie Adams, National Film Preservation Board testimony, 1996

The 1984 television movie, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, helped return Kovacs to the public eye, though the focus was on his bid to retrieve his kidnapped children instead of his professional life. Edie Adams appeared in a cameo in this film, playing Mae West; it was one of the impressions she performed in shows with Kovacs. Telecasts of edited compilations of some of his work by PBS (station WTTW, Chicago) under the title The Best of Ernie Kovacs in 1977, inspired the film. These broadcasts are still available in a five volume VHS or two disc DVD set (released in 1992 and 2000 respectively); since these are out of print copies usually have to be acquired used. The DVD set features extras that are not in the VHS set. The series, which was narrated by Ernie's close friend Jack Lemmon, was distributed by Kultur Films (formerly White Star Video).

In the early 1990s, The Comedy Channel broadcast a series of Kovacs' shows under the generic title of The Ernie Kovacs Show. The package included both the ABC specials and some of his 1950s shows from NBC. As of 2008, there were no broadcast, cable, or satellite channels currently scheduling any of Kovacs' television work, other than his panel appearances on What's My Line? on the Game Show Network. On November 18, 2008, it was announced that a box set of new material would be available sometime in 2009; on April 6, 2009, it was reported that this project has been indefinitely put on hold.

On April 19, 2011 Shout! Factory will release The Ernie Kovacs Collection, a set of six DVDs with over 13 hours of material that spans Kovacs' television career. Ordering directly from the website also gives fans an extra disc with material from Tonight! and The Ernie Kovacs Show.

References

Further reading

Adams, Edie (1990). Sing a Pretty Song: The "Offbeat" Life of Edie Adams, Including the Ernie Kovacs Years. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-07341-7

Barker, David Brian (1982). "Every Moment's a Gift": Ernie Kovacs in Hollywood, 1957–1962, a Master's Thesis. Available for viewing at the library at the University of Texas at Austin.

Rico, Diana (1990). Kovacsland: A Biography of Ernie Kovacs. Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, ISBN 0-15-147294-7

Walley, David (1975). Nothing in Moderation. Drake Publishers (ISBN 0-87749-738-9). Reprinted as The Ernie Kovacs Phile by David Walley, Bolder Books, 1978 and Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1987 (ISBN 0-918282-06-3).

External links

Ernie Kovacs Dot Net: A Tribute To Television's Original Genius

The Ernie Kovacs Website

The Ernie Kovacs Blog

Ernie Kovacs MySpace Page

Ernie Kovacs Twitter Page

Watch

Video-Kovacs on the Corner-WPTZ-1952-Internet Archive

Video-Jack Benny Program-Ernie Kovacs Guest-Internet Archive

Operation Mad Ball Trailer-1957-Internet Archive">Video-Operation Mad Ball Trailer-1957-Internet Archive

Category:1919 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American actors of Hungarian descent Category:American comedians Category:American game show hosts Category:American film actors Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:American television personalities Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Mad (magazine) Category:People from Trenton, New Jersey Category:Road accident deaths in California

Name	Burning Spear
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Winston Godfrey Rodney
Born	March 01, 1948
Genre	Reggae
Years active	1969–present
Label	Studio One, Island, EMI, Heartbeat, Slash
Url	www.burningspear.net

Winston Rodney, OD (born March 1, 1948), also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican and a living legend roots reggae singer and musician. Like many famous Jamaican reggae artists, Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.

History

Rodney was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Saint Ann, Jamaica, as were reggae singer Bob Marley and political activist Marcus Garvey who both had a great influence on Rodney's life: Garvey in his philosophy, which Burning Spear greatly took to, and Marley in directly helping Burning Spear get started in the music industry (by some accounts) by introducing him to Clement Dodd. Reggae singer Larry Marshall claimed that it was he, while visiting St. Ann's Bay with Jackie Mittoo, who was approached by Rodney, and gave him this advice, and arranged the introduction.

Burning Spear was originally Rodney's group, named after Jomo Kenyatta, the first Prime Minister and President of an independent Kenya, leading Rodney to set up his own Spear label for future releases where he would have full control, although further releases followed on Island including a dub album (Garvey's Ghost) and the Man in the Hills album. a feat which he repeated with Jah Is Real in 2009.

In the mid 1990s, he set up the Burning Music Production company, handling his own bookings, and in 2002, he and his wife, Sonia Rodney who has produced a number of his albums, restarted Burning Spear Records, giving him a greater degree of artistic control. He signed a distribution deal for the label with MRI/Ryko. Since the mid-1990s, he has been based in Queens, New York.

Burning Spear was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on October 15, 2007.

The Track "We Are Going" was featured in cycling documentary "Roam" by The Collective.

Discography

Awards

Burning Spear has won two Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album; one at the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000 for Calling Rastafari, and one for 2009's Jah Is Real. He has been nominated for a total of 12 Grammy Awards.

Nominations for Best Reggae Album''

1986 Resistance

1988 People of the World

1990 Live in Paris Zenith '88

1991 Mek We Dweet

1994 The World Should Know

1996 Rasta Business

1998 Appointment with His Majesty

2000 Calling Rastafari

2004 Free Man

2005 Our Music

2008 The Burning Spear Experience

2008 Jah Is Real

References

External links

Official site of Burning Spear

Winston Rodney's Blog

Our Music: Past, Present, and Future with Burning Spear - The Music Box, Vol. 12, #11

Live performance images

Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Converts to the Rastafari movement Category:Jamaican Rastafarians Category:Performers of Rastafarian music Category:Jamaican reggae singers Category:Jamaican songwriters Category:Jamaican male singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Saint Ann Parish