By Wahome Ngatia
“In the third installment of Nairobi as a diplomatic hub we look back at how the Kenya won the race to host UN-HABITAT’s headquarters. Initially known as United Nations Centre for Human Settlements the UN-HABITAT followed UNEP to be established in the Kenyan capital in 1976. In this article we look into the decision, the lobbying and the personalities involved to make it happen.”
In 1976, the world was waking up to a new problem: cities were growing too fast, and too unevenly. Slums were mushrooming, housing shortages were biting, and the developing world was being reshaped by an unstoppable tide of urbanization. Against this backdrop, a quiet but consequential debate was taking place within the United Nations: where should the new agency charged with tackling human settlements and urban growth be headquartered?
The answer—Nairobi—was not obvious. New York, Geneva, and Vienna all raised their hands. Each had deep UN roots, seasoned bureaucracies, and diplomatic conveniences. Yet, in a surprising twist, the world chose Kenya’s capital, a city barely 13 years removed from independence. It was an audacious decision that would change the destiny of Nairobi, Kenya, and the developing world’s role in global governance.
The conversation begins
The discussion that would lead to UN-Habitat began in the early 1970s, amid the global oil crisis and growing awareness that urban problems—housing, sanitation, transport, and inequality—were inseparable from economic development. The United Nations convened the first Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) in Vancouver in 1976. Delegates from 132 countries gathered to hammer out principles for managing cities in an age of rapid urbanization.
Out of that gathering emerged the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), later known as UN-Habitat. The key question was: where should it live?
Why Nairobi?
The case for Nairobi had two pillars. First, Kenya had already scored a major diplomatic coup in 1972 when the UN General Assembly voted to establish UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi. The UNEP decision had been a landmark: it was the first time a UN headquarters had been placed in the Global South. The symbolism was powerful, and it shifted perceptions.
Second, Nairobi presented itself not just as a host city, but as a living case study of the challenges UN-Habitat was created to solve. With its rapid urban migration, sprawling informal settlements like Mathare, and contrasts between gleaming suburbs and makeshift housing, Nairobi embodied the “urban question.” It was a city where the world’s urban future could be studied in real time.
Moreover Kenya had offered prime land in Gigiri and had committed to build and upgrade the infrastructure of the city.
“Hosting UNEP proved Nairobi could carry the weight of a global institution. Hosting UN-Habitat meant Nairobi would become the world’s urban laboratory.”
The lobbying and the personalities
Behind the scenes, President Jomo Kenyatta’s government, guided by diplomats like Charles Njonjo and foreign affairs officials, lobbied tirelessly. Kenya’s argument was simple: if the UN was serious about addressing the problems of the developing world, it had to anchor its solutions there, not just in Europe or North America.
On the UN side, figures such as Maurice Strong, the Canadian environmentalist who had been instrumental in setting up UNEP, leaned toward Nairobi. Strong had already argued that the Global South needed a stronger voice within the UN system. Meanwhile, sympathetic delegations from the Non-Aligned Movement and African bloc countries rallied behind Kenya’s bid, seeing it as a chance to tilt the balance of global decision-making southward.
There was no dramatic single vote like UNEP’s, but in committee rooms and conference halls, momentum coalesced around Nairobi. By the end of the Vancouver conference, the decision was clear: the new Centre for Human Settlements would stand alongside UNEP in Gigiri.
What UN-Habitat does
UN-Habitat’s mandate is deceptively simple: to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities, with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. In practice, that means working on slum upgrading, affordable housing, sustainable urban planning, and policies that make cities engines of equity rather than exclusion.
For developing nations, UN-Habitat became a crucial ally in shaping policies on land tenure, urban governance, and infrastructure—areas often ignored by traditional aid programs.
Impact on Nairobi and Kenya
Hosting UN-Habitat reinforced Nairobi’s status as the diplomatic capital of the Global South. The twin presence of UNEP and UN-Habitat under the umbrella of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) turned Gigiri into one of only four UN headquarters in the world—alongside New York, Geneva, and Vienna.
For Kenya, the benefits were tangible. Thousands of jobs were created directly and indirectly. Nairobi became a magnet for international NGOs working on urban development, housing, and humanitarian issues. Conferences brought streams of global experts, dignitaries, and donor dollars. The city’s profile rose, and with it, Kenya’s soft power.
On a deeper level, the presence of UN-Habitat forced Nairobi—and Kenya more broadly—to reckon with its own urban dilemmas. The contrast between the glass towers of international diplomacy and the corrugated iron roofs of Kibera highlighted the urgency of the very issues UN-Habitat was created to address.
What it revealed about Nairobi
The decision revealed two things about Nairobi and Kenya. First, that the world was willing to recognize the Global South as not just a subject of development, but a site of solutions. Nairobi became the stage where new ideas about urban equity and sustainability could be tested and broadcast globally.
Second, it underscored Kenya’s ability to punch above its weight diplomatically. For a relatively young nation, securing not one but two UN headquarters within a decade was a masterstroke of statecraft.
The road since
Since 1976, UN-Habitat has been at the heart of global debates on housing rights, urban inequality, and climate-resilient cities. Its global forums have given developing countries—from Brazil to Bangladesh—a platform to influence urban policy at the highest level.
Nairobi, for its part, has continued to embody the paradoxes that make UN-Habitat’s work essential: a city of ambition and innovation, shadowed by sprawling informal settlements, chaos, and poor urban planning.
Conclusion
The story of UN-Habitat’s choice of Nairobi is more than a tale of diplomatic lobbying. It is a story of how the world recognized that the answers to the 21st century’s greatest challenges—urbanization, inequality, sustainability—cannot be found only in the surburbs of Geneva or the skyscrapers of New York. They must also be rooted in the streets of Nairobi, Lusaka, and beyond.
Nairobi’s hosting of UN-Habitat was both a gamble and a statement. Nearly fifty years later, the gamble has paid off. The city stands as a mirror to the world’s urban future: messy, vibrant, unequal, but full of possibility.
