Ruiru

East African Power & Lighting building at Ruiru on the Nairobi-Thika road taken in about 1960

Ruiru is a town in the Kiambu County of Kenya’s Central Province. Located within three kilometers of Nairobi's city boundary, Ruiru is a dormitory town for the nation's capital, and is connected by both rail and road. The town covers an area of 292 km², and is surrounded by numerous coffee plantations.

In 1999, Ruiru had a population of 100,000, but has undergone rapid population growth in response to shortage of available housing in Nairobi. A 2005 estimate put the population at over 220,000 [1]. The town has struggled to adapt to the influx of people. Ruiru town is also an industrial town with several major factories including Devki Steel Mills, Spinners & Spinners Garment Factory, Ruiru Feeds, etc. It is well served by banks and shopping malls and currently is enjoying some housing boom as many coffee estates are converted into residential areas including an upcoming multi-billion Tatu Estate. ICT businesses are also emerging including SmartEdge PASHA center a digital village by the KICT board where the community can buy computers and get free computer training.

Sources

• Regional Development of Metropolitan Nairobi and the Ruiru Master Plan — Center for Sustainable Urban Development

External links

• Ruiru rehabilitation centre

This area was a sisal and coffee growing district with sisal on either side of the river to the right of the main road to Thika. As can be seen it is now a housing area. There used to be 4 main manager houses on the estate on the South side of the river. The area was given over to an African consortium to be developed into small holdings in the 1970s.