Molo is a town in

Nakuru County Nakuru County is a county in Kenya. It is county number 32 out of the 47 Kenyan counties. Nakuru County is a host to Kenya's Fourth City – Nakuru City. On 1 December 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta awarded a City Charter status to Nakuru, ran ...

. It is also one of the 11 constituencies in Nakuru County and is served by a branch of Kenya Railways, formerly the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...

, East African Railways Corporation until 1977. Molo hosts a town council. The town has a population of 156,732 (2019 census).

Overview

Molo is along the

Mau Forest Mau Forest is a forest complex in the East African Rift, Rift Valley of Kenya. It is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. The Mau Forest complex has an area of . The forest area has some of the highest rainfall rates in Kenya. Ma ...

which runs on the

Mau Escarpment The Mau Escarpment is a fault scarp running along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The top of the escarpment reaches approximately 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level, and is over 1,000 m higher than the floor of ...

. The town was a settlement established primarily because of its fertility and vast vegetation. It is one of the coldest places in the country. This is a perfect place for growing

Pyrethrum ''Pyrethrum'' was a genus of several Old World plants now classified in either '' Chrysanthemum'' or '' Tanacetum'' which are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flower heads. Pyrethrum continues to be used as a common name for plants form ...

, a cash crop that can be maintained with little resources. There are plenty of other crops that are grown by farmers both small and large scale and attracting settlers, many of them politically empowered. This massive invasion resulted to a high rate of forest destruction and timber poaching. Efforts to reclaim land and grow trees have been outpaced by logging and charcoal making. The Kenyan government has since declared all forests contained from human activity. Only imported timber is permitted from 2002. Molo town has seven wards, five of them (Kiambiriria, Molo, Sachangwan, Turi North and Turi South) are within Molo Constituency, while the remaining two (Koige and Sirikwa) are part of the Kuresoi Constituency. According to the Kenyan National Potato Policy, Molo is the second largest producer of potatoes in Kenya. Baraka Farmers Training College is located just outside Molo. St. Andrews School, Turi, is located in Turi, a railroad station centre about 10 kilometres towards the east of Molo. The 2009 Kenyan oil spill ignition occurred near Molo in Sachangwan. The Molo Bus Park in the town serves as a central hub for vehicles commuting to Nakuru, Nairobi and neighboring regions.

Overview

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