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Dictionary definition of “Nairobbery”

Nairobbery

n. Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: English, Kenya, Derogatory, Slang, Nickname

Editorial Note: So-named because of its high crime rate. Etymological Note: Nairobi + robbery

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Citations: 1991 Reuters (Jan. 25) “Kenya Police Stations Have Telephones Cut Off In Crime City” (in Nairobie, Kenya): Friday was a bad day to be robbed in Kenya’s capital Nairobi—dubbed “Nairobbery” for its high crime rate. 2003 Aidan Hartley The Zanzibar Chest (June) p. 89: In the gap since my boyhood, Nairobi had been transformed into a dirty, crime-ridden place, surrounded by slums.…The hacks nicknamed it “Nairobbery” (derelict Dar es Salaam was “Dar-Is-the-Slum” and Uganda’s war-devasted capital Kampala was known as “Kampothole”). 2006 Shalini Ramanathan Grist (Seattle, Washington) (Oct. 30) “Home Is Best”: In 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to build a $200 million skyscraper and business complex in the middle of Uhuru Park, one of the few open spaces left in a place once called “The City in the Sun” and now more often called “Nairobbery.

Posted 2 Nov 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

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