Exploring Nocturnal Nairobi

Nairobi's Central Business District, or CBD, was once the hottest spot for East Africa's entrepreneurs. A small shop on the corner of Kenyatta Avenue or an office in one of the cities modest skyscrapers was prime real estate in one of the continent's most sophisticated commercial hubs. Recently, however, the downtown area has started to wither in both appearance and esteem.

Rapid rates of urbanization have clogged the CBD's narrow, colonial-era streets. Thousands of minivans, called "matatus," dominate the city's informal transit system, flooding the city center each minute. Infrastructure woes funnel matatus into bottleneck traffic throughout the day. Nairobi's most revered businesses have responded to the decay in unison: They're simply leaving. Emblematic of the area's eroding climate was the Nairobi Stock Exchange's relocation last year to Westlands, a leafy residential area that has quickly become the city's club district.