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Nyeri
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Nyeri (officially known as Nyeri Municipality) is a town in Kenya, and the administrative headquarters of the country's Central Province and Nyeri District.
The town is situated about 150 km (a two hour drive) north of the capital Nairobi, in Kenya's densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.
The town's population was 98,908 in the 1999 census, but has grown to about 350,000 in 2008.
Nyeri is a laid back country town.
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Encyclopedia
Nyeri (officially known as Nyeri Municipality) is a town in Kenya, and the administrative headquarters of the country's Central Province and Nyeri District.
The town is situated about 150 km (a two hour drive) north of the capital Nairobi, in Kenya's densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.
The town's population was 98,908 in the 1999 census, but has grown to about 350,000 in 2008.
Nyeri is a laid back country town. Its Central Business District is small, with only two buildings being above five stories and none above eight, and its general appearance, owing mostly to lack of sidewalk paving and the basic decoration of its buildings, is dusty and shabby.
It has a relatively low cost of living in comparison to Nairobi and other major towns in Kenya. Being located in Kenya's fertile highlands, food and water are plentiful and relatively cheap.
A number of renowned people have hailed from Nyeri, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004,Wangari Maathai, Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's current president, Dedan Kimathi, a general in the Mau Mau resistance war against the British colonizers, and Catherine Ndereba, Olympic marathon Silver Medalist, world marathon champion, four time Boston Marathon winner and multiple time winner of Chicago and other marathons.
Nyeri is also the burial place of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, a fighter in the Boer War and the founder of the Scouting movement, who once wrote "the nearer to Nyeri the nearer to bliss". He and his wife are buried in the town cemetery, along with legendary hunter/conservationist Jim Corbett,the author of Maneaters of Kumaon (1944) who also spent his final years in Kenya. Baden-Powell's Paxtu cottage, now a small museum, stands on the grounds of the Outspan Hotel.
History
Towards the end of 1902,as the British were establishing their colonial presence, Richard Meinertzhagen marched a strong military column meeting spirited resistance from the native Kikuyu warriors led by Wangombe Wa Ihura. The Kikuyu, whose spears and arrows were no match for the modern European weaponry unleashed against them, were eventually defeated .
After Meinertzhagen's victory, a decision was reached to site a British post close to a little hill on the slopes of Mt Kenya. The Kikuyu called the hill Kia-Nyiri while their Maasai neighbours called the hill Na-aier. The post took its name from the little hill. Thus, on December 18th 1902, Nyeri was born.
Shortly after the establishment of the post, a trickle of European settlers and missionaries and Indian merchants began to migrate into Nyeri and the surrounding areas. The Town soon burgeoned into a trading centre for white settler farmers who produced cattle, wheat and coffee. They also came into town to shop, drink and socialize.
The White Rhino Hotel, Outspan Hotel, and the Aberdare Country Club at nearby Mweiga are relics of those colonial days.
Demographics
The majority of Nyeri residents are black Africans from Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu. The Kikuyu language is therefore widely spoken, along with Kenya's national language, Kiswahili,and Kenya's official language, English. Black Africans from other Kenyan ethnic groups make up a small minority, with the rest of the population being a few Kenyans of Asian origin (most of them being traders) and whites (mainly old settlers and missionaries).
The population is largely literate, well informed, and fairly modern. Dressing is mainly western style, and the culture may be best described as an Afro-Kikuyu-Western-Christian fusion.
The general outlook to life is generally conservative, with the younger generation being more liberal. They will tolerate, and widely practice with the thinnest of veils, things such as abortion and promiscuity. Women will wear trousers and sexy outfits, though revealing to much flesh is frowned upon and has on a few occasions led to embarrassing episodes. Single motherhood is common and accepted. Homosexuality, though, is viewed by the vast majority as abhorrent, criminal, and taboo behavior.
Though the depth of belief and dedication to religion varies, most people in Nyeri express belief in God. Christianity is the main religion. Muslims, Hindus and traditional African believers make up a small minority. The main Christian denominations are Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, Pentecostals and indigenous denominations, in that order. The older residents, who tend to attend the mainstream churches, are invariably more religious than the younger ones. Pentecostal Churches, usually led and controlled by one dominant preacher, mainly attract younger better educated congregations.
Economy
Nyeri is, within the wider context of Kenya being a poor third world country, relatively well off.
The general infrastructure, though needs much improvement. The exception is the water infrastructure, with well-distributed clean and safe drinking water being available straight from the tap. Phone and internet services are widely available, generally affordable and reliable, though internet speeds and bandwidth are quite low, and wireless internet hot-spots nonexistent. Electricity provision is also reliable, more so, in fact, than in most of the rest of the country.
The biggest formal employer in Nyeri, as it is the administrative headquarters of Central Province, is the Government of Kenya. The local Municipal Council and utility providers are also significant employers. The various sectors of the service industry, including retail, hospitality, banking, insurance, the charity industry and professionals also provide jobs.
The main industrial plants are a Coca-Cola bottling plant, a water and fruit juice bottling plant, a number of tea and coffee processing factories, a milk processing and packaging factory owned and ran by the Kenya Co-operative Creameries Ltd, and a number of maize millers. There are also a wide range of largely unsophisticated light industries, including motor vehicle repair garages, electronics repair shops, furniture workshops, tailoring shops, and bakeries.
Tourism is also significant, as there are many tourist destinations nearby, including the Aberdare and Mount Kenya National Parks.
The main industry though, is farming, which is mostly unmechanized. The town area is actually part of the surrounding rural greater Nyeri district, and farms within the municipality blend seamlessly into the rural area. The main cash crops are Coffee and tea, grown mainly by smallholders who are organized into quasi-private state-supported and supervised co-operatives or companies for farm input distribution, basic processing and marketing purposes. The main food crops are Maize, the staple food in most of Kenya, legumes (especially beans and peas), tubers (mainly potatoes), and vegetables (especially tomatoes, cabbage, spinach and kales). Livestock, mainly dairy cattle, goats, sheep, and chicken are also widely kept. Food crop and livestock farming are also done by smallholders, with marketing and distribution of surplus produce (after farmers' own consumption) being done privately.
Transport
Nyeri is served by a reasonably well-maintained tarmac road network connecting it to Nairobi, Nakuru, Nanyuki, Othaya and other surrounding towns.
Most transportation of cargo to and from Nyeri is by road, though the town has a largely underutilized railway station at Kiganjo (about five kilometers out of town towards Nanyuki) on the branchline of the railway from Nairobi to Nanyuki, and an Airstrip at Mweiga (about 10 Kilometers out of Town towards Nakuru).
The main mode of public passenger transport to, from, and within Nyeri is by way of fourteen-seater minibus taxis (matatus), though un-metered (but inexpensive) saloon car taxis are also widely used within the town.
Entertainment
Nyeri's main entertainment activity is socialization at the town's many pubs. Groups of friends, both men and women, will sit in pubs, socializing, taking alcoholic beverages (mainly bottled Kenyan beer), watching TV sports, listening to music and enjoying meat dishes.
Most of Kenya's terrestrial TV and radio stations, transmitting mainly from Nairobi, are available in Nyeri. Most homes have at least one TV and radio. Foreign TV stations are also available via satellite. Several entertainment spots, hotels and homes have satellite TV in addition to terrestrial TV .
Movies are watched mostly at home as the only cinema in town closed several years ago. DVDS, mostly counterfeit Hollywood movies imported from Asia , are cheaply and widely available for purchase or rental.
Education
The town has one university, Kimathi University College of Technology, which was recently upgraded from a technical college.
The national state Police Training College is also situated in the town. There is also a Medical Training College, a government nursing school, two polytechnic colleges, and several private and public secondary and primary schools.
The Catholic Church also runs a number of schools and colleges.
Various Kenyan public universities and institutes have satellite campuses within the town.
Catholic Mission
About 5 km from the Town Centre is the Mathari Mission settlement, a complex of several Catholic buildings and institutions.
It was established by Italian missionaries at the beginning of the 20th Century. The mission is home to the Catholic Mission, hosts several convents for nuns, schools, a teacher training college and other vocational colleges.
It also hosts the Consolata Hospital and School of Nursing. It is staffed largely by nuns of the Consolata order.
Tourism
In Town
Nyeri, being an unpolluted country town with a friendly population and numerous serene quiet areas, is a good and popular destination for relaxation, business, entertainment, and educational/cultural tourism.
Its pubs offer lively entertainment, the farms in and around it offer pristine scenery, and the grave of the scouting Movement's founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell and his paxtu cottage are popular attractions.
The Italian War Memorial Chapel, located at Mathari, is a beautiful attraction. It was built in honor of the fallen Italian soldiers and their African recruits from the Second World War. It is used not for regular worship, but only to celebrate a special mass on every September 2nd, the official All Souls Day according to the Roman Catholic Church, in memory of the fallen soldiers. It has beautifully manicured lawns and flowerbeds. On the entire walling of the main church building are memorials for many tens of Italian servicemen who died in the war. Each memorial is in form of a small oblong plaque indicating the name of the soldier, the battalion he served in, and the place where he died. At the far front before the Alter is the grave of a senior Italian army officer. At the beautiful marble grave are his statute and military paraphernalia from the period of the war. The beauty of the architectural design, the authentic Italian décor, the final finishes and the well placed bronze and copper plaques make the church a sight to behold.
Mount Kenya
The most imposing landmark around Nyeri is Mount Kenya, and starting from about twenty kilometers out of town is the Mt. Kenya National Park. Mt.Kenya is an imposing extinct volcano lying strategically astride the Equator which rises to an imposing height of 17058 ft. It is the highest mountain in the country and the second, after Kilimanjaro, in Africa. It has two main snow covered peaks, Batian and Nelion.
Its slopes are cloaked in forest, bamboo, scrub and moorland giving way on high central peaks to rock, ice and snow. Its U-shaped glacial valleys, rugged snow capped peaks, Afro-alpine desert, thirty lakes and eight different natural forest types and a variety of wildlife species make it a convergence of natural attractions. The wildlife found in the park include giant forest hog, tree hyrax, white tailed mongoose, black leopard, bongo, elephant, black rhino, suni, black fronted duiker, mole-rat and over 130 species of birds.
Activities carried out in the park include game drives, nature walks, mountain climbing, wildlife viewing, camping and cave exploration.
The Aberdares
About fifteen Kilometers out of town on the opposite side to Mt. Kenya is the Aberdare National Park.
The Aberdares is an older volcanic mountain range with shorter peaks due to longer erosion.
It offers matchless views of Mount Kenya and the Great Rift Valley. Its unusual vegetation, rugged terrain, deep ravines cutting through its forested eastern and western slopes, clear water streams and waterfalls combine to create an area of great scenic beauty. Its major attractions include the Lesatima and Kinangop peaks and many waterfalls, including the magnificent Karuru falls which drop 300m.
The park is home to many endangered species including the rare bongo, giant forest hog, packs of the now very rare wild dogs, and endemic mole-rat and mole shrew. Other game include a large population of black rhino, leopard servile, endemic bird species, reptiles and insects.
Activities include game drives and nature walks. Both brown and rainbow trout abound in the cool mountain streams and provide excellent angling. Within the Park, the Ark and the Treetops Lodges, which are located next to watering holes, offer close proximity night game viewing.
It was at the Treetops Lodge where the Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne while on a honeymoon retreat.
The park is also famous for freedom fighter hide-outs including the Kimathi hideouts, the Mau-Mau caves, and the Kimathi “post office” where agents used to drop messages for Mau Mau fighters.
Private Ranches
Close to town are several privately owned ranches, many of which also serve as private wildlife sanctuaries/conservancies. They also offer visitors an "exclusive colonial style experience", and a good number of the world's high and mighty, and celebrities, have spent secret private holidays in some of them.
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