Nairobi - Post Report Question and Answers

Is it easy to make friends with locals here? Are there any prejudices or any ethnic groups who might feel uncomfortable here?

The locals here are genuinely friendly and very pleasant to interact with. It's sometimes hard to form actual friendships though, due to socioeconomic differences. I have heard that people have made local friends through their church. - Jan 2025


We have made friends with locals quite easily, but only by being intentional about getting out of the embassy bubble. The biggest factor for us has been church and the parents of our kids' school friends. We have known others who never made a local friend because they stayed so involved in just the embassy community, and I think that's a really sad missed opportunity. - Mar 2024


Local people are friendly but I didn’t find any local friends here. - Aug 2023


Pretty strict social and racial barriers. - Mar 2022


Locals don't want to be your friend. If you're LGBT, you will have a hard time. When we left, there was a growing animosity toward expats in general, especially diplomats. - Aug 2021


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