Nyeri

Not to be confused with Nyeri County.

Nyeri
City
A street in the centre of Nyeri
A street in the centre of Nyeri
Nyeri is located in Kenya
Nyeri
Nyeri
Location of Nyeri
Coordinates: 0°25′S 36°57′E / 0.417°S 36.950°E / -0.417; 36.950
Country Kenya
CountyNyeri County
Population
 (2009)
 • Total225,357[1]
Time zoneUTC+3 (EAT)
ClimateCfb

Nyeri is a town situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya. It is the county headquarters of Nyeri County and was the central administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province.[2] Following the dissolution of the former provinces by Kenya's new constitution on 26 August 2010,[3] the city is situated about 150 km north of Kenya's capital Nairobi, in the country's densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.

The city population, according to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, was estimated at 140,338. However, the number is rapidly growing.[1] There is, however, a significant population of primarily Government and corporate workers who ordinarily reside in Nyeri but who, during the census, choose to be counted in their areas of origin or the areas where their families are residents.[4] The town has a relatively low cost of living in comparison to Nairobi and other major urban centres in Kenya. Located in Kenya's fertile highlands, food and water are plentiful and relatively cheap.[5][6]

Nyeri hosts the tomb of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement. It is also the home town of the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. The town is also the home of the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), founded by the local community in the early 1970s as an institute of technology, and converted into a fully fledged university in 2012.

  1. ^ a b "2009 Census Vol 1 Table 3 Rural and Urban Population – Open Data Portal". Open Kenya. Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Kenya". Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  3. ^ "Landmark Moment as New Kenyan Constitution Takes Effect". VOA. 26 August 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  4. ^ "Kenya Open Data". www.opendata.go.ke. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  5. ^ "Kenya Engineer Journal Online". kenyaengineer.or.ke. Retrieved 11 April 2018.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Plans launched to turn Nyeri into 24-hour economy". Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2016.