Nairobi is a fictional character in the Netflix series Money Heist, portrayed by Alba Flores. She serves as the quality manager of the group, in charge of printing money in the Royal Mint of Spain in parts 1 and 2 and overseeing the melting of gold in the Bank of Spain in parts 3 and 4. She is widely considered to be one of the show's most popular characters.
Biography
Before getting recruited by the Professor, Nairobi was an expert counterfeiter and forger, which she learned at an early age due to poverty. She had a son named Axel, of whom she lost custody after serving time in prison for drug trafficking and counterfeiting. She has become known for her energetic, charismatic, and motivational persona throughout the show. A born leader, she leads the hostages and her team with joy, passion, and enthusiasm as she uses her popular catchphrase "chikipum chikipum chikipum" to motivate them to work. In a team of hotheads and big egos, Nairobi is level-headed, focused only on accomplishing the job, maintaining peace within the group, and staying alive. She is well liked by the team as well as some of the hostages; Mr. Torres, a hostage assigned to help her print the money in parts 1 and 2, even praised her as the best boss he'd ever had. With her maternal instincts, she was able to sympathize with some of the hostages, such as motivated Alison Parker to stand up to her bullies and say the famous line "Soy la puta ama". Throughout the show, Nairobi has shown disgust over the excessive patriarchy on the team, questioning the leadership of Berlin and Palermo's offensive actions. In part 2, when she overthrows Berlin's leadership and temporarily takes control at the Royal Mint after a heated argument, he had shouted at her and asserted that he was in charge because of patriarchy; after overthrowing him, she proudly declares "Empieza el matriarcado", a now iconic line for her character. In part three, in order to create chaos and vulnerability on the team, inspector Alicia Sierra took Nairobi's son and used him to lure her out. Nairobi, who hadn't seen her son for years, had a moment of vulnerability and peeked out through the window. She was then shot by a sniper through her chest. Lisbon's fake execution and shooting of Nairobi angered the Professor and the team, causing them to retaliate by shooting the Military's armoured van and thereby declare war. Nairobi barely survived the opening of part 4, when the police denied the team a surgeon to help her. Afraid and disoriented, Nairobi begged Tokyo and the rest of the team to hand her to the police, since she wanted to live even it meant she would go to prison, but she was denied by Palermo in the belief that the police would kill her. With the help of a Pakistani surgeon via video call, Tokyo and the rest of the team successfully operated on Nairobi, removing the bullet and cutting a part of her lung. Soon after, the head of security of the Bank of Spain, an ex-mercenary named Gandia, escaped from being a hostage with the help of Palermo, who had been shunned by his own team of robbers. Nairobi, still recovering from her gunshot and surgery, was targeted by Gandia, who took her hostage and tortured her. After several failed attempts at killing Nairobi, Gandia waits until a truce is called between the robbers and the police, at which point he kills her by shooting her point blank to the head. Nairobi's death causes the Professor to declare war on the police, before firing a series of "missiles" at them. Nairobi's body is placed in a makeshift coffin with the label "Nairobi, La Puta Ama" and taken outside by the governor's bodyguards. Everyone outside the building, including the police and protesters, are taken aback by the impromptu funeral. Lisbon, who had been illegally taken into a police tent for questioning, cries upon seeing Nairobi's coffin, as does the Professor and the rest of the team. In the season finale of part 4, after the Professor and the team brought Lisbon back into the Bank of Spain, they all shouted "For Nairobi!" in her honor.
Development
In an interview, Alba Flores revealed that Nairobi did not exist in the original script. Show creator Álex Pina was writing the script and realized that the team only had one female character in Tokyo, so he called Flores, with whom he had previously worked on the series Locked Up and offered to create a role for her if she enjoyed the scripts of the first two episodes.
Reception
Nairobi's quirky yet level-headed bossy character quickly became one of the favorites of the show. After the character's death in part 4, fans mourned another fan favorite being killed. Some grieved saying that Nairobi did not deserve a brutal death, especially since her character was so full of dreams and promises. A behind-the-scene video of Flores tearfully saying goodbye to her character and castmates was included in the 2020 documentary Money Heist: The Phenomenon. For her work as Nairobi, Flores won a Best Actress Award in :es:Anexo:XXI Premios Iris|Premios Iris, as well as three Best Actress nominations on Spanish Actor's Union Awards and two Best Supporting Actress Nominations for Feroz Awards.
