Munyaka Estate in Eldoret, Kenya

 (Excerpt from Rose Musyoka 2004)

Munyaka is located on the northeastern side of Eldoret town about 5 km from the town centre. It has developed on part of a 300 acre farm owned by a white settler. This farm was purchased by three individuals in the 1960s, each buying 100 acres (40.5 hectares). In 1983, the 100-acre portion that became Munyaka was purchased from the individual who had initially bought it by a 5-member self-help group, as a business venture. Later the five members subdivided the area into small portions, all of which were sold and buyers started settling on the farm from 1984.

The self-help group that bought Munyaka later purchased the Mwitirithia farm adjoining the area to the south and changed its name to Munyaka-Mwitirithia Land Buying Company.

The subdivision

The self-help group subdivided Munyaka farm into 969 plots measuring about 50 x 100 ft (46.5 sq m) (see Figure 9 below). The resultant layout is regular.

Development was slow initially but gained pace as a result of the infamous 1991/2 ethnic/land conflicts, as imigrants from areas affected by the clashes purchased plots on which to live. As a result, the price of land rose from the initial plot price of Kshs 7,000 (for those buying from members of the 5-member self help group) to Kshs 50,000 or more. The plots are not titled because the subdivision has not been regularized, for two main reasons. First, although according to the rights holders they have made contributions to the cost of regularisation, funds are currently insufficient to finance the process, and the area committee has not explained what has happened to the funds.

Second, during subdivision of the farm, official planning standards were not met so that inadequate land for community facilities such as open spaces and health facilities was set aside. Most of the plots are developed and according to the census, Munyaka had a population of about 4,000 in 1999.

Infrastructure and services.

At the time buyers started settling in Munyaka there was no piped water and people relied on a common well on the southern side of the settlement. Currently piped municipal water is supplied through individual connection to some plots and there are also taps run by water vendors. The settlement has no electricity, although a few relatively rich rightsowners (14 percent) use solar energy. None of the roads leading to the settlement or those within it are tarmacked.

May be an image of blueprint, floor plan, map and text

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lochab Bros family company, Eldoret

Image
Compiled by William Kiptoo Source:  LOCHAB BROS is one of the big names among the pioneer settlers of Eldoret from India. They represent the various business of the family and signifies the strength and unity of the Joint family System to everyone. The unique system in the Lochabs is that they stay with their families under the same roof and eat together from the food of the same kitchen. Family history dates to 1887, when the pioneer, Late Mr Hira Singh Lochab came from Ishapur, Punjab, to make a fortune in Kenya. His son Late Mr Ghumand Singh Lochab joined the Marine Department of Kenya Railways. At that time, Kenya was the HQ of the East African Community, and it was difficult to get a technical job under the colonial system and by dint of his hard work and dedication, he rose to the position of 2nd Engineer, which was generally reserved for the Britishers. He worked for the Railways in Uganda and Kenya till 1939 and started a Sawmill in partnership at Kaptagat. In 1941, he came...
Read more

Early History of the Uasin Gishu

Image
  A few notes on the early history of the Uasin Gishu f rom the Kenya Scrapbook  b y A.C. Hoey. *** PART 1:  (This piece was written about 1956 for a church magazine) Few people had heard of the Uasin Gishu Plateau prior to the year 1900, and the first reference I can find is that made by Major JR MacDonald RE who headed a survey party in the years 1891 1894, exploring a route for a railway to be built from Mombasa to Uganda. In his book "Soldiering and Surveying in British East Africa" he specially refers to the rolling downs and beautiful grass country of the Uasin Gishu when he was making his way from Naivasha to Mumias.  It was in 1905 that I met in Naivasha a very nice Afrikander by the name of Van Breda who was keen on taking up land in the southernmost part of Uasin Gishu Plateau, near the Elgeyo Escarpment. It was about this time, having heard of the wonderful shooting to be obtained in the Uasin Gishu, that I made a safari. I had considerable difficulty in o...
Read more

The Kapbrar Farm in Chembulet

By Dominic Ng'etich The Kapbrar farm in Chembulet, is a vast land located about 35Kms from Eldoret town along Eldoret-Iten Road.   The sprawling 2000 acres land was once inhabited by a white settler named Britham Brar Singh, of Indian origin. He acquired the land in the late 1960s from a Boer farmer who was leaving the country for South Africa after Kenya gained independence.  Brar Singh was a wheat farmer.  In the early 1990s, during the Moi regime, the late powerful Energy and Lands Minister Nicholas Kipyator Biwott acquired the the land and gave it to the Keiyo community, mostly women's groups.  Chiefs from Kaptarakwa, Chebior, Kitany, Kapkoi, Mutei, and Irong asked locals to send their daughters, wives, mothers, and any female who was willing to pay 5000 to own an acre of land.  The northern side of the land was given to the people from Irong, the eastern side to Mutei and Kaptarakwa, and parts of the southern and lower western sides were given to peopl...
Read more