2 questions about Nairobi

I'm heading to Nairobi for 1 full afternoon before an early morning flight the next day. 2 questions:

1) Is traffic as bad as I've heard? I have an early morning flight, and my options are an airport hotel or in Westlands. Westlands would be both a better hotel & closer to the city centre, but is that risky if I want to be at the airport by 7am? It's 8 miles away on paper, which seems fine, but I don't know what the traffic is like.

2) My country's travel advisory paints Nairobi as extremely dangerous, which strikes me as hysterical. Is there anything to that? I'm travelling solo and I wouldn't go out by myself at night, but I'd like to explore during the day.