Nanyuki, in Laikipia County, is strategically located on the Equator, and is a famous tourism destination, alongside other economic activities such as splendid ranches, world renowned sanctuaries, large farmlands, and military training bases.
But how does all this wealth of resources tie with investment potential for this pre-colonial urban centre, famed as ‘Mwisho wa Reli‘ out of the 1931 railway connection from Nairobi through Thika and Naromoru, which stopped in Nanyuki?
The Standard journalist Boniface Gikandi in a story titled “Nanyuki’s rise despite loss of headquarters woos investors“, attempted but failed to justify with enough facts and figures, Nanyuki’s investment potential.
The local chapter of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry paints a different picture altogether, decrying what it sees as a negative impact on the once vibrant hospitality sector, following the relocation of Laikipia County headquarters from Nanyuki to Rumuruti.
Apart from the Laikipia chief finance officer saying the number of financial institutions has increased in Nanyuki in the recent past, the journalist ought to have interviewed key business players, including current and potential investors, for more balanced views on the matter.
They say figures do not lie. How much money did Nanyuki municipality generate before the headquarters’ shift to Rumuruti, and how about now?
The journalist ought to have interviewed investment experts and one or two historians on what they think of Nanyuki currently as a place for investment, bearing in mind its long-lived teeming vitality, and as a key entry point to the Northern Corridor.
In addition, the story needed some urban planners to explain how, after getting municipality status last year, infrastructure planning is going to balance socio-environmental factors with industrialisation and other forms of investments.
Including the above information could have authoritatively shed more light on where, predictably, Nanyuki is headed as an investment attraction.
