Letter from scenic Ndaka-ini: Why Murang'a needs an economic reset

Scenic tea farmers at Ndaka-ini, Murang'a County. The tea farms can be a tourist attraction beyond the Big Five. [XN Iraki, Standard]

When Kenyans head to Masai Mara to see wildebeest or go “Vasha-ing”, I head to the countryside to see people in their true colours and innocence. Murang'a was my latest visit, Ndaka-ini to be specific. Two visits within a week.

One was from Njabini on the Nyandarua side, looking for an alternative route to Nairobi away from Rironi-Mau Summit Road under construction. The Mau Mau road through pristine forest is breathtaking, though incomplete. It took me to Nairobi through Thika.

The next visit was purposeful to investigate the economic life of the tea country. An old schoolmate, Ngugi Kung'u, a native of that place, was my “guide".

Manicured tea farms are stunningly beautiful.  I keep wondering how someone from the Sahara Desert would react to the sight of such farms. We must diversify beyond the Big Five and beaches.

What did I find in the tea country? First, coffee grows on the lower side of Murang'a. One curious observation is the prolific number of Mabati churches, some with flags in the coffee zone. Such churches are rare in the tea zone. Why?

The road to the tea zone is punctuated by one-street towns that are not as tired as they used to be on a 2020 visit.  Is devolution working?

Have high land prices in urban areas pushed entrepreneurs to rural areas? Could power and other amenities be attracting us to rural areas that now feel like Karen? 

Murang'a towns have funny names: Gatunyu, Gatanga, Gatura, Gataka-ini, Mbari-ya-Ruga, Mukarara, and Ndunyu ya Cege (Cege’s market), among others. Where are Mbari-ya-Hiti and Turuturu?

Our first stop was Gatura, lots of Saccos and upcoming hotels, as well as plenty of pick-ups, mostly Toyota. More on that later.

We then passed by the guide’s homestead, welcomed with tea and eggs. That used to be a sign you are not “a small visitor.” Murang'a is still "innocent".

Our next stop was Ndunyu ya Cege with lots of nyama tayari (ready meat). I noted the same at Gatura. No time to wait? Fundi wa viatu (cobblers) still exist at Ndunyu ya Cege, a link to the past or more innocence?

Like Gatura, more pick-ups at Ndunyu ya Cege; are they a status symbol? Boda bodas are few compared with other rural areas. Have they upgraded to cars? Possibly, there is even a driving school at Ndunyu ya Cege.

This region, I noted, seems above average economically. Tea is the key driver. I visited Njunu Tea Factory. They still use firewood to cure tea; no wonder it’s so tasty.

I bought normal tea, masala and ginger tea. That value addition is a plus for this factory. Other factories? Remember when one could only buy tea in a factory with a “number”?

Beyond tea growing, dairying is thriving in Ndaka-ini; the weather is favourable. Napier grass and milk cooling plants support dairying. Avocados are slowly competing with tea, while bananas and sweet potatoes are for subsistence.  Few homesteads are fenced, a sign of equality and low crime rates?

Some grevillea (mubariti) and eucalyptus dot this land. The glorious days of wattle trees are long gone.

Some observations stood out. Roads, even without tarmac, are well maintained. My Vitz never complained. Tea is picked by "imported" workers who are also housed. 

There are lots of campaign posters for 2027. Who is Plagia?  First-mover advantage or dancing before the guests arrive?

The economic vibrancy of this region is further supported by many Saccos.

I visited two at Gatura, but there were no customers.  I was told borrowing slows down after school fees are paid. But I still saw schoolchildren walking home leisurely; I guessed they had not paid school fees or levies. 

The vibrancy hides a dark side: indebtedness. Many farmers have borrowed with their tea crop as collateral. Unable to pay, the loans are restructured for longer periods. 

I learnt you can even lease your tea farm and get money in advance. A loan here is not seen as debt, but “given money". Employed people can’t commit more the two thirds of their money to loans. 

The law should apply to any other income, even for the self-employed and farmers. Beyond debt, alcoholism is common, with my host treated like royalty to “leave something” small. 

Cege wa Kibiru, the famous seer, lived around Ndaka-ini. Ndunyu ya Cege is named after him.  I was shown the shrine, where he prophesied, next to Giachuki Senior School. It’s a bush.

I was told someone who tried to clear the bush hanged himself. I heard of several cases of suicide unrelated to the shrine in this area. Why? As I headed back to the city, I felt Murang'a needs a renaissance.

Agriculture seems to have reached its limit. Value addition is one route to rebirth; tourism is the other. Why has Cege wa Kibiru, mukùruwe wa nyagathanga, the origin of Agìkùyù, not attracted attention like Jerusalem or Rome?

What of Ndaka-ini Dam and the scenic route through the mountains to Nyandarua and beyond? What happened to the Ndaka-ini Marathon?

The once witch-infested Gaturi can attract visitors! Who wouldn’t want to see arogi (witches) and their tools?

The beauty of tea farms should be very inspirational. Why not build  "thinking spaces”, nice hotels where writers, thinkers and philosophers can gather, exchange and enrich ideas on verandas with tea farms in the background and a cold breeze soothing their nerves? 

Why not use such spaces to develop Kenyan ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other Large Language Models (LLMs)? 

As I sign off, any visit to Murang'a evokes sadness in me. History has been unfair to us.

We lost all our land there during the infamous land consolidation in 1956/7. My bold attempts to re- established links to this beautiful land through genetics failed.

All my proposals to girls from Ndaka-ini and the neighbourhood were turned down! A golfer, Eng Peter Kanyugi, who grew up around the tea zone, recently explained my romantic predicament.

“You expected to marry a girl from a tea-growing area and take her to a potato-growing zone?”  I don’t give up easily; I bought a piece of land in Murang'a near Thika, and my father was polygamous.