Dagoretti is an area in the western part 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 ha ...

, the capital of Kenya. It straddles the Nairobi and

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 So ...

boundary with the Dagoretti Road Reserve marking the psychological border point heading Northerly and North-Easterly. Administratively it is one of eight divisions of Nairobi. The Dagoretti division is divided into six

Locations In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

. The former electoral

Dagoretti Constituency Dagoretti South Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is one of seventeen constituencies of Nairobi County. It is located to the west of Nairobi. The entire constituency is located within Nairobi County. The constituency was known ...

had the same boundaries as the now defuct Dagoretti division.

Locations

Administration

Vast parts of the Dagoretti area fall within Nairobi County's administration. Parts of the area among them the Dagoretti Slaughterhouse fall in the Kiambu side of the border under the defunct Kikuyu Municipality area. It is worth noting that the area under the present-day

Dagoretti South Constituency Dagoretti South Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is one of seventeen constituencies of Nairobi County. It is located to the west of Nairobi. The entire constituency is located within Nairobi County. The constituency was known ...

was originally part of the defunct County Council of Kiambu but was moved into the then Nairobi City Commission's administration in the 1970s as part of efforts to expand the city area. To-date, the freehold

title deeds A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

possessed by land owners in the area are labelled as belonging to Kiambu.

Transport

The Main form of Transport is by road, small buses (matatus) and buses (Kenya Bus Service, City Hoppa, City Shuttle and Connection Bus) offer short distance trips to the City Centre. The Dagoretti railway station is on the main line of the national railway system.

Economic activities

The main form of income is in industrial labor, construction, household chores, small scale trading on groceries, and careers in carpentry, masonry and tailoring.also middle class population working in nearby schools, hospitals and other government institutions.

History

It is difficult to say when Dagoretti was first inhabited. But by the late 1890s when Europeans first visited the area, they found a populated and cultivated territory. 19th century Dagoretti was part of the rich food-producing Kikuyu country and was populated with Masai and Kikuyu people as it lay on the edge of Masai Country. Kikuyu farmed sugar cane and banana among other crops while Maasai kept cattle. The two groups cohabited and their lives together ebbed between trade and raid. In fact some Kikuyus spoke Maasai, some Maasai spoke Gikuyu. The prominent Kikuyu leader Waiyaki wa Hinga is believed to have Maasai heritage. In August 1890 Fredrick Lugard departed Mombasa for Lake Victoria on behalf of the

Imperial British East Africa Company The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Q ...

. Part of his mission was to establish treaties with local tribes and build forts along the route to Lake Victoria. Lugard arrived at Dagoertti by October 1890 having walked over 350 miles from Mombasa with his entourage of Sudanese askaris led by Shukri Aga; Somali scouts led by Dualla Idris and nearly 300 Swahili porters. Idris had already visited Dagoretti a few years earlier while serving on Count Sámuel Teleki's 1886 -1889 expedition to Lake Turkana. At Dagoretti Lugard was introduced to local leader and land owner

Waiyaki wa Hinga Waiyaki Wa Hinga, was an Agikuyu chieftain who was the ruler of South Gikuyu. Waiyaki signed a treaty with Frederick Lugard of the British East Africa Company. However, after becoming frustrated with the increasing number of European settlers, Wa ...

with whom he formed an alliance by participating in a traditional blood brotherhood ceremony. Waiyaki helped Lugard identify a piece of land on which to built a fort. The fort at Dagoretti was the seventh IBEAC fort and the first north of Machakos.

References