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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Country homes with a modern touch

Real Estate

By The Standard Business | Nov 26, 2009

By Harold Ayodo

A Sunday evening drive along Kerarapon Drive located between Karen and Ngong reveals plush homes for the wealthy. Investors started trooping into this area about three years ago and purchased plots.

The predominant style here is country homes with modern architectural designs. Indigenous trees and hedge fences surround most homes, leaving only a few visible roofs. There are no apartments here. A single entrance leads to the hood.

A home in Kerarapon Drive. Most houses, though country, have modern architectural designs. Martin Mukangu/Standard

The air here is different from that found in densely populated hoods and the only sounds along this drive is that of chirping birds, manual labourers chipping stones in construction sites and the occasional car.

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Kerarapon Drive is one of 19 private drives where "trespassers will be prosecuted" according to several bold signs planted at the gates heightened by the presence of private security firms.

Interestingly, a lot of the residents not only use their compounds to landscape but for gardening and small-scale farming such as keeping cows, chicken, ducks, swans, turkeys and breeding German Shepherds. There are also a few greenhouses.

Views of the nearby Ngong Hills, especially at sunset, add to the scenic beauty of this posh hood. Exquisite manicured lawns obviously designed by professionals and maintained by gardeners are visible through low-hedged compounds.

Judging by the number of mansions under construction, Kerarapon Drive will, in the next few years, be home to exclusive clubs. Most of the roads are yet to be tarmacked but signs indicate speed limits of 30 km per hour.

Public transport does not pass through this hood so residents either drive or walk long distances to get matatus. There are no kiosks and the nearest shopping centre is Karen, which is about five minutes drive away.

Kerarapon Police Station is a stone throw away, which means security is not a problem here. Police cars regularly traverse the neighbourhood, perhaps because it is close to the Prime Minister’s Karen home.

Three years ago, a quarter of an acre was going for Sh900,000. Today, the same plots are selling at Sh2.8 million.

The residents mainly comprise professionals, MPs and senior Government officials who love this neighbourhood because of its serene privacy, which many hope will remain thus for decades to come.