Karuri is a town in

Kiambu County Kiambu County is a county in the former Central Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kiambu and its largest town is Thika. Kiambu County is the second most populous after Nairobi County. Kiambu County borders Nairobi and Kajiado Counties to the S ...

. The town hosts a

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second t ...

. The Council borders the city of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

to the south for about 20 km from

City,

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: * Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...

Town Council to the west,

Limuru Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It is also the name of a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. The population of the town, as of 2004, was about 4,800. In a census taken in 2019 the population had increased to 159,314. Loc ...

Municipal Council to the north and

Kiambu Kiambu is a town in Kiambu County, Kenya within the Nairobi Metropolitan Region. It is from the capital Nairobi. It has an population of 147,870. It is the capital of the Kiambu County, which bounds the northern border of Nairobi. Other proxi ...

Municipal Council to the east. It covers an area of 46 km². with a population of 194,342 (2019 census). The council's main town, Karuri, was established as a meeting centre in the pre-colonial era where Kikuyu

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and ar ...

s would meet for deliberations. The town derives its name from the principal chief Karuri Wa Gakure who would travel from Tuthu in the slopes of

Aberdare Range The Aberdare Range (formerly the Sattima Range, Kikuyu: ''Nyandarua'') is a 160 km (100 mile) long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi with an average elevation of . It straddles across the counties of Nyandarua, Nye ...

to meet his counterparts like Kinyanjui Gathirimu.

Economy

Proximity to the city of Nairobi and adequate transportation has attracted many people working in Nairobi and other neighbouring towns to the few urban centres within the town council in search of cheaper accommodation. In many circles, the Council has always been referred to as the "Dormitories" of Nairobi. The town serves as the divisional headquarters for

Kiambaa Kiambaa Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is one of twelve constituencies in Kiambu County. The constituency was established for the 1963 elections. Members of Parliament {, class="wikitable" , - !Elections !MP !Party !Not ...

division, thereby boosting its growth. It was made an urban council in 1988 under Kiambu County Council with an area of 44.8 km2. The town council was upgraded into a township in 1997 with an area of 46 km2.

Geography

The council falls in the Hinterland, which has fertile soils that are well drained. The council enjoys good climatic conditions as do most areas in Kenya's central region. The council lies in the east highlands of the

Rift Valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear d ...

, enjoying moderate climate, and within a

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

-growing zone, although bordering a

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

-growing zone. Hills, plateaus and high-level structural plains that make it fairly easy for the development of road network characterize Karuri Town Council. The area does not have major rivers. The altitude ranges between 1500 and 1800 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. The soils are developed on undifferentiated tertiary

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

and basic igneous rocks. They are well-drained, shallow, dark reddish brown though in some places they are imperfectly drained, very deep, dark gray to black, with

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

, slightly saline deep sub-soil. They are of moderately high fertility. The crops that are grown are coffee,

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

crops,

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s and

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

. Other physical features include steep slopes and

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

s that are unsuitable for cultivation. Rainfall regime around Karuri is

bimodal In statistics, a multimodal distribution is a probability distribution with more than one mode. These appear as distinct peaks (local maxima) in the probability density function, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Categorical, continuous, and d ...

, with long rains occurring between April and May while short rains fall from October to November. The average temperature, which is determined by altitude range from 20.4 degrees in the upper

highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

to 34 degrees in the lower midland.

Administration

The council consists of four

electoral An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

wards: *

Ward * Muchatha Ward * Kihara / Gachie Ward * Ndenderu / Ruaka Ward The four wards elect one councillor each. The total number of councillors is six with one

nominated A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

councilor and an appointed

public officer Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

. All these wards are part of the Kiambaa Constituency.

Demographics

According to the 1979

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

the area had a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 45,000. In the 1989 census the population had grown to 73,000, and 105,506 in the 1999 census. The population has been growing tremendously as a result of the influx of working-class people from

coming to look for cheaper and convenient accommodation in this township. Many people working in Nairobi reside in the periphery towns like Gachie, Kihara, Ruaka, Ndenderu and Karuri. Market centres attract people because they offer business and employment opportunities. The population growth rate around Karuri stands at 2.87%. The same growth rate has been used to compute the population projection of this council. Population analysis per the LADP 2001 shows that women are more numerous than men, hence a high reproductive capacity. People aged between 0-44 comprise 83.6% of the total population. The population in this category is very needy in terms of social amenities, services and related infrastructure. This is the same population which contributes to the council's revenue; thus the council is embarking on investing adequately in terms of service provision.

References

{{coord, 0, 42, S, 37, 11, E, region:KE_type:city, display=title Kiambu County