Joseph Maina is 46 today, and he remembers how on April 6, 2001, with Sh45,000 in hand, he entered Thika town from his Sabasaba village — some 45 kilometres away.
The money was proceeds of two bulls he had sold for Sh60,000. He had figured that if he bought a power saw worth Sh35,000, he would make a fortune sawing trees into timber.
Being familiar with Thika, where the British built a monument at the town centre to commemorate its founding — Maina knew where to buy the saw since he had done some window shopping.
“The devil lives in Thika, for even after I had grown up hearing all the stories about men losing their fortunes in this town, I went right ahead and fell into the same trap,” he says.
Maina arrived in the town at 9am, and as he walked down a street near the main stage, he was beckoned by a woman.
“She was beautiful and she asked me to buy her tea. I had also not taken breakfast, so I agreed. We entered one of the hotels and she suggested that I buy her a beer. I was a moderate drinker. I obliged. She pointed out that I was cool and good-looking. I had no wife. As if she read my mind, she said I had all the qualities she was looking for in a husband,” he says.
He dropped his guard.
“The painful story ended with me waking up in an alley, with no money and no power saw. I had fallen victim to a spiked drink, I had been robbed and left to learn the hard way that towns are for men, not boys,” he says.
He bought the power saw five years later, after he sold four pigs.
Today, his favourite song is Nyina wa Mami (My mother’s mother) specifically the line that says Thika has five letters just like Thina (poverty) and now he prefers any town other than this one that baptised him by fire.
The town was given its status in a Kenya Gazette in 1924. When Kenya gained independence in 1963, it was elevated to a municipality, and the first mayor was chosen in 1968.
Thika is home to industries like Bidco Oil Refineries, Del Monte, Kenchick and Jungle Nuts as well as the Volkswagen assembly plant President Uhuru Kenyatta recently inaugurated.
Among its famed residential estates that define Thika’s property market are Kiganjo, Maporomoko, Landless, Kiganjo, Kisii, Makongeni, Kiandutu, Kiang’ombe, Ngoingwa, Section A, Section 2, Witeithie, Muthaiga, Muguga and Posta.
The town’s economic fortunes were given a huge boost by the construction of the Sh32 billion Thika super highway by the Mwai Kibaki administration (2002-2013).
Entertainment joints are plenty in the town. From the legendary club Porkies to Sky Motel, Fulilia and Mc George, Rwambogo, Brilliant, Sunset and Jogoo Kimakia to Thika Greens, as well as Blue Post, just to mention a few of the oldies. Klub Image is a recent entrant into Thika’s nightlife scene, as well as Club Zinc, along with a litany of new generation joints that target the high number of young patrons.
Many developers are opting to operate lodgings.
“A 10 by 10 feet room in low and mid-level estates can fetch Sh300 a day, that is a Sh9,000 income per month. Even when business is lean, you won’t fail to post Sh6,000 from the room in a month,” says David Goko who is a property manager with Orion Properties Management Ltd.
For nature lovers, the town offers the Chania Falls, Fourteen Falls on the Athi River and the Thika Falls. Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park lies to the southeast of the town.
The town has a railway station with limited passenger service because only cargo trains operate, although there are plans to extend the commuter rail system to Thika.
In pursuit of city status, various studies have dug out the challenges that makes Thika a mirage. Key among the challenges is unplanned urbanisation that has resulted in a chaotic public transport system that breeds traffic jams and congestion.
Poor sewerage, unregulated hawking as well as water shortages define the other key challenges.
Land grabbing is also a challenge that is commonly cited, making investment in the property market three a big risk.
Kiambu Governor James Nyoro says the future of the town that was once referred to as Birmingham city, owing to its industries, just like the industrial city in the UK, says Thika needs a master plan to guide its growth for the next 30 years.
“It is only in investing in research-based projections that seek to effect proper planning practice that we will eradicate the issues of hawkers and illegal structures in the town centre, traffic jams, uncoordinated public transport system, waste management and security of buildings,” he says.
Today, 20 years after Maina’s episode, nothing has changed, if anything, the pull to self-discovery, and destruction is stronger than ever.
“This is a town that can make you great and at the same time ruin you. It is a town of industry, enterprise, lifestyles and a wholesome package of hell and heaven rolled into one,” says Julius Gitau.
Gitau is the man whose name was in the headlines recently, accused of staging his own kidnapping to allegedly escape auctioneers after his business ran into financial problems.
“Thika made me — from a hawker to a kiosk owner to a wholesaler — the real bottom-up. The risks I took in real estate, transport and agriculture paid off before the Thika jinx hit me, and I am working hard to recover,” he said.
Careful not to reveal too much, Gitau offers some counsel about the town: “It treats you the way you desire for yourself. If you are here to waste yourself, Thika will be too willing to do you in. If you are here to discover your hidden treasure, you will get it in the shortest time possible.”
Thika West Deputy County Commissioner Mathioya Mbogo says the town’s security agents’ tackle young crudely armed criminals, alcohol spiking and an increase in sex workers.
“I have heard many say that our menu is commercial sex, alcohol and money deals that know no morals. We have women who roam the streets offering prayers for cash, con games, and spiking to rob as well as those near banks preying on men withdrawing money. These women can surround you and one says you refused to pay her last night for illicit service rendered. She can say the pay was Sh5,000. You end up being robbed,” he says.
The administrator says security agents find it hard to deal with these challenges because many victims do not report to police.
“We have been handling these issues of the “ladies of the night” who come from all corners of the country. In fact, most of time they are caught fighting amongst themselves even for space. They have their territorial wars on the streets,” he says.
“They are so well organised that after we arrest them and take them to court and they are fined, mobilisation of cash is done so fast that after we escorted them to court, they escort us back to the stations as free women,” he adds.
Then there is the case of the ‘invisible thief’.
“This man is like the wind. You cannot see or feel him when he is stealing from supermarkets. He specialises in perfumes, toiletries and under garments. Once in the supermarkets, not even CCTV cameras will capture him,” says JackShii, a sex worker.
Thika is home to three universities, tens of middle-level colleges, hundreds of secondary and primary schools and dozens of financial institutions.
Mbogo says the menace of criminals in the town has seen his security committee come up with multiagency patrols so that all security departments can be brought on board.
“Policing Thika is difficult since mostly we are dealing with a very streetwise population. We are dealing with tycoons and youngsters whose adrenalin is at its peak. But we have come up with security packages to address the dynamics,” he says.
The town’s business community leader, Alfred Wanyoike, says Thika is a billionaire’s economy.
“On a daily basis, the cash that is handled in this town is more than Sh1.5 billion. The property deals that are being struck in this town are in a class of their own. Money is readily available in this town and so are opportunities to spend,” he says.
Those who have opted to be spendthrifts have their song about Thika and those who have opted to be diligent have their prayer for the town.
“You only need to work hard and acquire a property or a business in this town. Cash flow and purchasing power are not a big issue. Were it not for the Covid-19 effect on businesses, Thika can easily finance the national economy,” he says, adding that the best three performing sectors are real estate, manufacturing and services.
An on police indiscipline in the streets, where scuffles between various security units have been witnessed, Mbogo says: “It is true that we have reports of officers from all formations of our security system clash more frequently.”
He says some of the officers come from outside his jurisdiction in search of entertainment.
“Impunity thrives and it’s hard to manage such officers who even fight among themselves in bars. We have since effected measures to address the matter. Once you are found misbehaving, you are arrested just like other troublemakers,” he says.
Hospital Ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) Danson Mburu attests to how rough street hooligans can be.
“They attacked me recently and left me with stab wounds and a broken finger. They ran away with my phone,” he said.
The gangsters attacked him and his two aides in 2018, ferried them to Heaven’s Gate Church and slashed them with machetes. BY DAILY NATION