Nyeri is a popular destination for relaxation, business, entertainment and cultural tourism.
Tourism is significant as there are many tourist destinations nearby, including the Aberdare and Mount Kenya national parks, and a number of hotels offering conference tourism.
There are now street lights in Nyeri and this has made the town more secure and encourages a 24-hour economy. Businesses have improved and so has lives. Even in the entertainment sector, the lighting of the streets has given this sector a great boost.
Last year, Kenya Slums Upgrading Programme jointly with Nyeri Municipal Council installed 12 high mass security lights in six areas categorized as slums by the council. Nyeri town which shows great potential has ever since been ailed by security concerns but the local administration has made frantic efforts to curb this menace.
The local provincial administration is now confident that the lighting programme will help eradicate insecurity and enable the town to have a 24-hour economy.
To enhance cleanliness, Nyeri Municipal town clerk SM Mulanga gave a strict warning to residents who steal dust bins located at various points in town and sell them to scrap metal dealers that their days are numbered.
Mulanga said more than 50 litter bins have been stolen within a period of six months in Nyeri town resulting to people throwing wastes anyhow.
Mulanga and the town planner Mr. Mwangi noted that the refuse collected is deposited daily at the Asian quarters dumping site, an exercise that is done carefully under supervision of a public health officer. The council has three trucks and one tractor which operate on a daily basis especially along the central business district.
The town has a public/private partnership and the council is calling on residents and businesses to participate in the cleaning of the town.
The clerk urged the society at large to quit the bad culture of littering the town and take individual responsibility of keeping the environment clean instead of always shifting blame to the municipal council.
Currently, the markets in town are been upgraded through the slum-upgrading programme. Soko Mjinga market will now be housed in two storey building. Presently, it is an open market and is in bad state. The second market is the Mtumba hawkers market. This is another big project which will be embarked on.
All hawkers selling second-hand clothes will be moved into a two-storey building which will become the new home of Mtumba market. Finally, the market that overlooks the Dedan Kimathi grounds is in bad shape and whenever there are functions on the grounds; the market make everything look very unappealing. All this will change once the market is completed.
More than 140,000 residents within Nyeri municipality can now enjoy enough supply of treated water through the Nyeri Water and Sewerage Company. Previously, the company could only cater for a population of 50,000 consumers but through its new water treatment works at Kamakwa, it has been able to serve 9,000 more consumers with treated water and with enough capacity to cater for the future projected population of 200,000 consumers by the year 2015.
The company has a gigantic sewerage plant at Kangemi which has resulted to the provision of quality, affordable, reliable and sustainable water sewerage and allied services to their customers while meeting both statutory regulations and stakeholders’ expectations.
On the other hand, Nyeri town is ever a beehive of activity and it is crystal clear that numerous of posh vehicles are driven and owned by industrious women. Moreover, they own a lot of business enterprises and they are spurred up greatly by their persistence and some by micro finance loan programmes.
A large percentage of women in Nyeri county are known country-wide to be good managers in their chores and they exhibit a high level of independence through their hard work.
Late in the evening, they spread their food commodities and clothes in the streets targeting a large catch of customers. Kimathi Street has several tailoring marts where pullovers and other garments are produced. Nyeri is the gateway to Mt Kenya, a relatively cold place.
In a past gathering organized by then Mau Mau war veterans association at Ruringu Grounds in Nyeri early this year, a steadfast freedom fighter Hanna Wanjiku Murogo briefly narrated how she participated in the Mau Mau war. Hanna said that she was among the prisoners who dug deep tombs at Kamiti Maximum prison in 1953 where dead convicts were buried.
“The brutal British militia used to hunt us day and night and therefore we were obliged to fake our real names to hide their identity. At the battle field, my name was Wanjiru Gichakuri while in Kamiti prison, my name was Wanjiru Heho”, continued Hanna.
Hanna resides in Nyeri and she was indeed a force not to reckon during the struggle for Kenya’s liberation from the colonial government.
Nyeri women are known to be courageous, aggressive and don’t take crap from men. That’s where the notion that they beat up their men comes from.
Moreover, a good number of renowned people have hailed from Nyeri County. This include Dedan Kimathi the Mau Mau resistance leader, late Prof Wangari Maathai the Nobel peace prize winner 2004, Mwai Kibaki the current President, Esther Murugi the Minister for Special Programmes and Catherine Ndereba the Olympic marathon silver medalist.
Nyeri is a changing town and is different from what it was tears ago. It is indeed a modern town. It is no longer a dirty, dark town but now it is clean, green and bright town.