Have you ever been to Ol Kalou? This is the heartland of Nyandarua, a county that has for long been considered to be a sleeping giant! And like its mother county, Ol Kalou has nothing to write home about, leave for its hugely untapped potential, and a hardcore citizenry that remains largely averse to radical development.
Take the town’s closest rival, Nyahururu. The town is currently experiencing renewed infrastructural investments – both private and public. On the opposite extreme, Ol Kalou has not had any key developments over the past donkey years! In this town, it seems development must be forced down people’s throats! Ironically, for the past few years, the leadership in Ol Kalou has been fighting to co-own Nyahururu town. The tag of war between Laikipia County, which runs Nyahururu, and Nyandarua has subsequently pushed Ol Kalou further into oblivion in matters development.
When you walk into Ol Kalou town, what welcomes you at its Central Business District, is a poorly designed and located market. The market is characterized by extensions of makeshift vibandas that have eaten into the tongue-sized tarmac road tearing through the town centre. One corner of the market is dominated by heaps of stinking litter, illicit brew vendors and prostitution dens.
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The town has no towering buildings that can serve as offices or entrepreneurial centres, leave for the Tower Sacco headquarters that are currently under development.
Strikingly, the town’s expansion has been dominated by residential plots. There are many residential houses than there are business rooms! In fact, a visit by Bizna Kenya to the town reveals that the key corporate investors in the town such as KCB, Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank and Family Bank have taken four of the five storey buildings in the CBD. There is no space left! One of the reason behind this lack of space in the town centre is uncontrolled development and old buildings, some of which have no electricity connection, and whose owners are unwilling to develop or sell for urban development.
Although there haven’t been suggestions to have the controversial market moved, there are no doubts among the few proponents of change in the town that proposals to move the disturbing market in order to pave way for urban development will face the full wrath of residents who are known to be opposed to development. It seems that in this town, the population is quite content with things as they are. This is the same wrath that business cartels in the area will unleash should there be a proposal to transform the old buildings at the town’s CBD into proper, modern storey houses, creating larger spaces for growth and investment.
As has happened with previous county authorities in the town, the current county government has failed to make any ground breaking declarations that will steer the town towards refined, fast development. However, for the town to grow and tap its full potential, the market, poorly situated at the centre of the tiny CBD must be moved, and shoddy buildings at the centre of the town demolished and rebuilt afresh.
In its visit to the town over the weekend, Bizna Kenya learned that the majority of country leadership led by the county governor Francis Kimemia, and the regular workforce has opted to reside out of the town. The preferred area of resident is the neighbouring Nakuru County. One of the reasons behind this migration that is often quoted by workers is that the town is too cold. The ripple effect has also been the migration of cash flow. Money earned in Nyandarua is never spent in Nyandarua.