Ruiru is a town located in Kiambu County, Kenya, about 22 kilometers northeast of the capital city, Nairobi. The town has a population of approximately 200,000 residents, making it one of the most populous towns in the county. Ruiru is a municipality and sub-county in Kiambu County, Kenya. It sits within the greater Nairobi Metropolitan region.
Map of Kenya, Kiambu County highlighted.
Historical Overview
The first inhabitants of the Ruiru region were the Kikuyu people, who migrated from Central Africa to Kenya over 500 years ago. These early settlers were primarily agriculturalists who cultivated crops such as maize, beans, and bananas.
In the early 20th century, Ruiru became a significant center of commerce and trade in the region. The construction of the Uganda Railway, which connected the interior of Kenya to the coast, led to an influx of people and goods into the area. During the colonial period, Ruiru was part of the White Highlands, a region set aside for European settlers. The British colonial government used the region for large-scale agriculture, primarily for the production of coffee and tea.
The political environment in Ruiru changed significantly after Kenya gained independence in 1963. The new government embarked on a land reform program that aimed to redistribute land from large-scale landowners to landless farmers.
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In the 1980s and 1990s, Ruiru experienced significant urbanization, as people from Nairobi and other towns migrated to the area in search of employment opportunities.
Why Ruiru is Booming: Real Estate Growth Explained
Geographical and Infrastructural Significance
The town's geography has also played a significant role in its development. Ruiru is situated along the Thika-Nairobi highway, which is a major transport artery connecting Nairobi to other towns in the region. Trains also provide transport to Ruiru residents.
Before Kenya's independence, Ruiru was administered under the Nairobi City Council and referred to as the Western Rural District. After independence, the area was put under the administration of the Kiambu County Council before being elevated to a town council in 1986.
Demographics and Urban Development
Ruiru is one of the most populous towns in Kiambu County, with a significant urban population. It has seen a housing boom, with many coffee estates converted into residential areas, including an upcoming multi-billion Tatu Estate.
Two universities have their main campuses in Ruiru: Zetech University and Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology. The Kenyatta University (Main and Ruiru Campuses) is also near the municipality. Danjose Academy, one of the leading academic primary institutions, is located in Ruiru.
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Ruiru was originally part of the greater Juja Constituency until it was hived off and made into an independent electoral area. Esther Gathogo was a Member of Parliament from 2013 to 2017.
Economic Activities
The Tatu City Industrial Park is found within Ruiru and is home to many factories, including BIDCO, Copia, Dormans, Davis & Shirtliff, Tianlong, Stecol, and Dr. Banks. Shopping malls serve the town. This area was a sisal and coffee-growing district with sisal on either side of the river to the right of the main road to Thika. It is now a housing area. There used to be four main manager houses on the estate on the south side of the river.
Agriculture, particularly coffee production, has historically been a significant economic activity in Ruiru. There’s “changeover” loss when mills switch between distinct lots-there’s coffee retained in the system as well as recalibrations that need to be performed. With larger mills-like those in Kenya and those that were endemic to Colombia until the last decade-the amount of loss was greater.
Kenyan Coffee Production: Challenges and Changes
Kenyan coffee holds a special place in the hearts and minds of specialty coffee buyers and roasters. Coffee wasn’t something that was native to Kenya or even traditionally grown there-even as Kenya shares a border with Uganda (home of robusta) and Ethiopia (the birthplace of Arabica). Though first introduced to Kenya in 1893 by John Paterson on behalf of the Scottish Mission from seeds obtained from the British East India Company, the completion of the Ugandan Railway and arrival of European settlers ultimately led to the introduction of plantation agriculture and large-scale cultivation of cash crops like tea, wheat, sisal-and coffee.
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As a colony of the British crown, the settlers were tasked with paying for construction of the railway and the export of coffee was expanded rapidly to settle the debt. Of the larger export companies still operating in Kenya, many have their roots in the colonial period, such as Dorman’s, which was founded in the 1950s, and Taylor Winch in the 1960s.
About 25 years ago, Kenya’s coffee production was about triple what it is today. Kenya’s acreage under coffee production has decreased by over 30 percent from about 170,000 hectares in early 1990s to about 119,000 hectare in 2020. The production of the cash crop has also decreased by a whopping 70 percent from a peak of 129,000 metric tons in 1983-84 coffee year to about 40,000 metric tons currently.
In Kenya, if a producer has less than 5 acres, they legally need a coop or society to process and market their coffees. The best co-ops might have financing available to producers as well as traceability and receipt systems in place to maintain some transparency as coffee passes through the export system. The miller selects and hires the marketing agent, which is, in practice, very often one and the same entity.
This system is lubricated through bribery: marketing agents pay allowance to board members of societies to get them to agree to market their coffee through that agent, which in turn affiliates them with an exporter. From there, the marketing agent markets the coffee on behalf of the society and miller to exporters to earn their 1.76-3% commission. In Kenya, though, the coffee remains the property of the society until its final sale through auction or export, with fees deducted along the way.
In effect, this means that a farmer whose coffee was harvested and processed in October and exported in March would not get paid until March or April-some six months later, and well into the flowering period for main crop. Commercial financing rates for coffee producers in Kenya are higher than 20%, effectively making them agricultural payday loans. Co-ops often offer lower rates-but still higher than 10%.
In total, at the time of my last visit to Kenya in 2016 there were just 45 export licenses for coffee in the entire country. For example, Dorman’s, which was founded in 1950 and is the oldest exporter in Kenya, used to be a part of Taylor Winch and ED&F Man. By selling cherry through Dorman’s, producers get access to loans and pre-financing below commercial rates, as well as training on good agricultural practices and assistance getting certifications.
At peak production, Kenyan factories faced issues and bottlenecks familiar to many coffee producers around the world-most often as it entered the phase of processing requiring the most space and time: drying. Even if conditions were right and if the coffee were dried in full sun, it could take 7-9 days for coffee to dry enough to move into storage. This means that as cherry was received, it would pile up, awaiting drying.
In Kenya, this meant the introduction of the “double washed” or “double fermented” style of coffee many buyers are familiar with. Coffee would be fermented dry for 12-24 hours, washed, and then sent to a holding tank where it would be soaked in clean, cool water for up to an additional 24 hours or longer (the so-called “secondary fermentation”). In some mills, after the initial 12-24 hour dry fermentation and washing, a second dry fermentation would occur before soaking.
Over the last four years, I’ve noticed a change in the character of the coffees from the coops I bought from-coops of whose coffee I’ve been cupping since 2013 or 2014 and thought I knew quite well. I noted that some changes were made to the way the coffee was processed. Because drying space was no longer in short supply-except perhaps for a short while at peak harvest-the holding pens weren’t in use anymore. The coffee went on the beds and stayed there.
And of course, because in Kenya’s export system a coffee must first pass through a dry mill before auction and export, this means that unlike other countries-where coffee can be stored in parchment to homogenize or stabilize prior to final sale, it’s removed from its protective layer months before shipping and stored in warehouses without climate control dotting Nairobi. And then there was the fermentation: the factories I bought from no longer practiced Kenya’s signature “secondary fermentation” or soak-and they insisted that they weren’t the only ones who’d given up the practice.
While lot sizes passing to auction might be anywhere from 1-100 bags, it was common for smaller lots to be aggregated into larger ones simply as a matter of cost efficiency. There’s “changeover” loss when mills switch between distinct lots-there’s coffee retained in the system as well as recalibrations that need to be performed.
Every export system in the world functions with its own set of rules and challenges and possibilities. I stopped working there not because I don’t love the coffee or think it’s too expensive-but because it’s too opaque, too indirect, too diffuse.
Many of the quality challenges, I think, can be solved through appropriate economic and fiduciary mechanisms and policies. Further, small scale mills and micro mills like those in Colombia and those we’re starting to see in Ethiopia would help producers differentiate their own products as well as establish a level of traceability and separation not accessible through the current system.
A few days after I published this post, Philip Magowan, a PhD candidate at University of Cambridge reached out. As you may well know - British settlers sought to exclude Kenyan farmers from coffee production (and until the 1950s, they had largely succeeded in doing so).
My MPhil thesis research investigated the role of quality in Kenya’s coffee production. I looked at how settlers used European ideas of quality-oriented coffee production to sustain the exclusion of Kenyans from coffee farming. In particular relation to your blog, when in the 1940s, the colonial government were discussing how the first Kenyan-produced coffee crops should be processed and marketed - the settler farmers proposed that coffee from the Kenyan smallholders should be processed together in larger consignments that ignored any distinction between individual farmers’ lots.
In comparison, each settler estate was marketed in sacks marked with the name of the estate, and was processed as an individual lot. This process negated any value of an individual Kenyan smallholder’s efforts, and further disincentivised farmers from working to increase the quality of their coffee.
When writing my thesis, some of the conclusions that you came to in your blog were also apparent to me. The institutional legacy of the coffee marketing structure in the colonial period has chronically pervaded the prevailing structures today. I have never felt like I understood the contemporary industry well enough to comment, but a rewrite of these institutions from a government level does seem to be the only solution.
Key Economic and Social Indicators of Ruiru
The following table summarizes key economic and social indicators for Ruiru:
| Indicator | Value/Description |
|---|---|
| Location | Kiambu County, near Nairobi |
| Population | Approximately 200,000 |
| Key Industries | Manufacturing, Agriculture, Real Estate, Commerce |
| Educational Institutions | Zetech University, Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology, Kenyatta University (nearby), Danjose Academy |
| Infrastructure | Thika-Nairobi Highway, Residential Areas, Industrial Park |
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