Nakuru City
Nakuru city is the 4th largest city in Kenya and the business city of Nakuru County which was formally known as the former capital city of the Rift valley province. The City is found within the Nakuru city in Nakuru County at 1850 meters above sea level and this explains why the city is mostly cold.
The city is found within the rift valley experiencing the temperate type of climate all the year round however, during the night the temperatures within the Nakuru city drop, and the cold season is experienced within the June up to Augusts.
About Nakuru City
As I earliest said, Nakuru City is the largest and 4th business center in Kenya and it has its history dated back to the prehistoric era where the archeological discoveries were discovered at Hydras hill reserve juts eighty kilometers from the town of the Nakuru. Formerly, Nakuru City was under the administration of the British colonialists and this city was established as the region or form of the white highland. However, the City started growing from white land to a cosmopolitan city and this was in 1904 when it received atone ship and later in 1952, the Nakuru City became a municipality. The growth continues from being Nakuru district town to the city now.
In brief Nakuru, City is important to Kenya historically as the city intertwined and it has become the important political center in the history of Kenya where most of the important Kenyan leaders come from such leaders include Koigi Wamwere, Kihika Kimani, Kariuki Chotara, and the late Kariuki Mirugi. Nakuru City was used as an official resident of Kenya’s first heads of state who lead Kenya from 1963 to 1978 and this was Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi who ruled Kenya from 1978 to 2002.
Nakuru politically saw major highlights in 2006 when the Member of Parliament by then Mirugi Kariuki lost his life and other members of parliament as they were heading to the peace summit when their plane crashed. The elections were held to fill the vacant position and the son of the late Mr. William Mirugi Kariuk won the election and filled the vacant space left by his father. And he was the youngest ever Member of Parliament to represent the constituency of Nakuru at the age of 27. However, his leadership dint lasts long as he was defeated in an election that was organized in 2007 by Lee Kinyanjui. This election was are by violence which affected the integrity and Nakuru as a whole. Some buildings were burnt by the protesting youth especially those who were not in support of Lee Kinyanjui Victory.
Nakuru City’s economy majorly depends on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, Nakuru is known for its agricultural potential as it contains more agricultural enterprises and small farms. The Nakuru City is agriculture fed any the crops around by the local community which include the maize, barley, potatoes, wheat, and coffee among others. These crops are stored in Masibe silos that are located on the outskirts of Nakuru City.
The National Cereals and Produce Board and Lesolo Grain Handlers Limited are the ones responsible for storing the crops.
These cross stored are used as raw materials for the manufacturing industries such as flouring milling industries and grain millers. Most of the major industries in Nairobi include Milk processing plants, Car and general Motorcycle Plant, Ferti plants in East Africa, and many more others. Kenya’s largest retail supermarket is also found in Nairobi and this is called Nakumatt, Tuskys, Gilan’s sup markets which are all found in Nakuru. Various retail businesses provide goods and services to the agricultural sector and manufacturing sectors. The largest public market in Kenya is also found in Nakuru city and it is available for both normal communities and traders living within the city.
Due to the above reasons, Nakuru was recognized as the rapidly growing city in Africa and the fourth in the World based on the studies conducted by the United Nations.
When it comes to transportation, the city is served by very many transport modes that people accessing the city do use and to connect to other towns and these include rail transport, road transport, and air transport. The Lanet airstrip which the government of Kenya hopes to upgrade to an international airport and Kabarak Airstrip enable visitors to do access Nakuru City using Air Transport.
Also, the City is well accessed by the road transport which is well maintained with clear routes and these include the cars that are used, the Matatu, Motorcycles. Some streets and highways do connect Nakuru city to central Kenya and such roads include Eldoret-Nairobi highway that links Nakuru to Usain Gishu county and Nairobi and then Dondori road C08 that connects Nakuru to central Kenya.
Additionally, the City is connected with the rift valley rail transportation with a narrow route or gorge that passes through the city. Nakuru City has got a railway station on the edge of the central business district that is open to connecting cities such as Mombasa, Edolet, Kisumu, and Nairobi.
In terms of tourism, the City is a crucial destination that is known for hosting a lot of tourists because of different tourist attraction potentials that are found within the City and these include the Lake Nakuru which is Soda Ash Lake found within the Rift valley and it is a crucial element of the Lake Nakuru National park. Lake Nakuru is famous for the large concentration of flamingo birds which can be seen on its shores.
Apart from Lake Nakuru, the City also features the Lake Nakuru National Park which forms one of the major tourist attractions in Nakuru City. The lake is known for many bird species and animal species and it occupies the largest space within Nakuru City.
Nakuru also consists of volcanoes such as the Menengai Carter which is a dormant volcano and is ranked as the world’s largest crater volcanoes that have survived and lived to happen, there are small fumaroles and steam vets which one can see from above within the forested caldera. Other tourist attractions that can be found in Nakuru city include the likes of lake Baringo, Bogoria, and the hyrax hill prehistorically site which was found in early 1926.
Socially the City has got a lot of entertainment centers, hotels, such as the luxury legacy hotel, suites, Casatulia hotel, and several suites. There are a lot of sports centers, clubs, and stadiums within the City and some of them include the Nakuru athletics clubs hosting annual rugby festivals and it is called the 10-a-side, Nyayo gardens found along the Kenyatta avenue, Motorsports. Rift valley sports club is located in the middle of the city among other events.
Also, the City hosts a lot of institutions that provide educational services to the people such as the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions of higher learning such as the Kenya training Institute, Kabarak University, Everton University, Moi Academy both secondary and primary and other campuses of the lucrative universities in Kenya such as the Kenya Methodist University, Jomo Kenyatta University, University of Nairobi Laikipia University among others.
Currently, the population of the city is over 307,990 people and the majority of the people are the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin people m with some Kenyan origin. Based on the 2009 census, Nakuru was the 4th largest city with a high population in Kenya.
