Kiambu: A bad name isn’t all we have

FILE | NATION A street in Kiambu town. The region has produced many prominent leaders.  

In Summary

• For socialisation, Kiambu tycoons can be found at the Kiambu Golf Club or Kiambu Senior Members Club, the only clubs in the town. The middle class normally unwind at Red Nova Hotel, Amani Hotel, Kangangi Bar, Makuti Bar and the recently launched The Office and Kungu’s joints.

By Kiarie Ranji satnation@ke.nationmedia.com

In every corner of this county, Kiambu town – and county – is known for all the bad reasons.

Nothing illustrated this to me more than what I witnessed after college when I was sent to work in the Rift Valley. After a brief struggle, and through the help of a friend, I got a house to rent in Langalanga estate, Nakuru town.

Mid-month, when the landlord, a man from Nyeri, learnt that my ancestral home was Kiambu, he politely asked me to leave. He offered no explanation. He did not even want to be paid for the days I had lived in his house.

Later, he was to tell my friend that he could not house “a thug” from Kiambu because sooner or later the thug would be planning to steal both the house and the plot it was built on.

This is the general attitude towards Kiambu people, hence the famous phrase “Kiambu mafia”. To many Kenyans, Kiambu people are either mikora (thugs) or itonga cia Kiambu (Kiambu tycoons), or both.

For those who know Kiambu people well, this attitude is not far-fetched, for Kiambu people talk money, sleep money, dream money and wake up money.

No one in Kiambu town will entertain you for five minutes if you are not talking about money deals.

Sociologists will tell you that when a certain society is controlled by money and materialism, the result is social stratification. This much evident in Kiambu.

All the super rich live in Runda estate, which is seven kilometres from Kiambu town, or around Village Inn Hotel, where we have Galot and Muthithi estates

.

The middle class of Kiambu live around Kirigiti stadium in up coming estates and in Thindigua estate, off Nairobi-Kiambu road. The lowlies and the rest are congested around Mwandus estate and all around Kiambu town.

SOCIALISATION

For socialisation, Kiambu tycoons can be found at the Kiambu Golf Club or Kiambu Senior Members Club, the only clubs in the town. The middle class normally unwind at Red Nova Hotel, Amani Hotel, Kangangi Bar, Makuti Bar and the recently launched The Office and Kungu’s joints.

Behind Kangangi market and along the main stage, you will find the hoi polloi sipping their favourite keg beer, often laced with cheap spirits.

Their joints include Moonlight bar popularly known as Gatiri or Kwa Ng’ang’a’, The London Eye, The Royal Options (you get the irony, right?) and Safari Dogo also known as Kwa Mararo.

Is there anything good to say about Kiambu? Yes, Kiambu prides itself in having produced prominent leaders. Founding President Jomo Kenyatta and the current President Kenyatta, his son, were born in Gatundu, Kiambu.

Besides, did you know that Attorney-General Githu Muigai, Deputy Solicitor-General Muthoni Kimani are from Kiambu? They come from a small village called Gatitu in Ndumberi location of the county, and so are Mr Kimani Mathu and his wife Eunice Mathu of Parents magazine, and Mr Peter Kahuho, the man at the centre of the recent controversial appointment at the Lands ministry.

Other prominent personalities from the same village are KBC managing director Waithaka Waihenya and former BBC broadcaster Joseph Warungu.

Kiambu boasts the best national schools, namely Alliance High School and Alliance Girls, Loreto School, and Limuru Girls High School. However, its academic performance is pathetic and it is only second to Murang’a county in dismal performance in the whole of the former Central Province. The region’s sleeping giants include Kanunga High School, Kiambu Secondary School, Senior Chief Koinange High School and the famous Kiambu High School. One can only hope that one day they will wake up.

However, one notable educational landmark in Kiambu town is the famous Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) which is now an affiliate of Kenyatta University.