From crime hotspots to developers' haven: How Kamiti is changing

For decades, the Kamiti area in Nairobi was a place where few dared to live. It was an area where people passed through hurriedly.

It carried the weight of fear and a reputation as a high-crime zone. To live in Kamiti was often seen as a compromise, not a preference.

It was unsafe, sparsely populated, and undesirable. About eight years ago, Kamiti still bore marks of abandonment, and residents who have lived in the area for more than a decade remember a different reality.

Muggings were common. Some residents were displaced by regular break-ins into their homes. Public transport avoided certain inner routes after dusk. Today, the language has changed. Kamiti has become a holding ground for big-ticket housing projects.

Few imagined that the Kamiti area could host gated communities, prestigious schools and rising land values.

Today, school vans snake through the feeder roads every morning, and high-end apartments stand where vacant plots and coffee bushes once dotted the area. Businesses and social joints also keep sprouting. 

The area is slowly and quietly rebranding itself as a preferred destination for high-end residential homes, apartments and commercial enterprises, owing to improved security.

“About eight years ago, the area was quite insecure because it was sparsely inhabited. The area was covered with coffee bushes, and people would be killed elsewhere and bodies dumped in the estates,” says Peter Karoki, owner of Lifestyle Heights, a gated community and Woodcreek School built within the area.

“I identified the Kamiti area as a place that will be developed in the near future, with the growing urbanisation and population, its proximity to Nairobi, the road network and the beautiful vegetation made it a potential area for future development. I knew sooner or later people would start moving towards this direction,” adds Karoki.

Kamiti’s appeal is also amplified by its strategic location because it sits about 15 kilometres from Nairobi’s Central Business District and lies at the convergence of the three major corridors-Kiambu Road, Ruiru Road and Kamiti Road linking it to Thika Road.

“This makes the area very accessible. The road network, communication and climatic conditions of the area are favourable. There is also ample land for subdivision, and there are no slums around,” states Karoki.

He admitted that selling housing units was initially difficult because of the perception of the Kamiti area. The developer states that he bought land in 2016, started constructing in 2019 and completed about 196 residential units.

Due to the slow uptake, he decided to stop constructing until 2021, when the real estate market improved, and construction went on, pushing his sales to 562 units and more than 600 under construction.

Commercial developments

According to Mairura Omwenga, the chairperson of the County and Town Planners Association, the Kamiti area forms part of a wider development corridor stretching from the junction of Thika Road and Kiambu Road toward Ruiru, Kiambu Town and Tatu City.

“Right from the Thika Road junction, this area has for a long time attracted high-density and low and middle-income housing development,” he says.

“As you move further, you find housing and commercial developments coming up on either side of the road,” Omwenga adds.

He states that earlier industrial activity along the corridor, including leather processing factories, laid a foundation that is now overtaken by residential and mixed-use projects.

However, Omwenga notes that in the long term, development slowed near Kamiti Prison because it is a high-security zone. However, he adds that housing and commercial development projects are spreading outward.

One of the most visible signs of transformation is land-use change. “What were formerly rich, large-scale coffee farms are giving way to real estate development. Coffee is being cut down to give room to housing, institutions and commercial developments,” Omwenga explains.

Elite private schools

For real estate owners, he explains that they increasingly view real estate as offering better returns than agriculture. From Kamiti junction towards Kiambu, Nairobi, and Ruiru, high-end housing estates and elite private schools are now replacing plantations.

This trend is what Karoki describes as a demographic shift.

“In the last 10 to 15 years, the country’s economic situation has changed quite a lot. The middle-income population has increased tremendously. In the same period, other areas such as Kiambu Road and Runda had not been occupied, but today they are fully developed,” Karoki adds, noting that Kamiti is following the same path.

Improved security combined with accessibility has drawn both homeowners and developers priced out of traditionally upmarket areas such as Runda and parts of Kiambu Road.

This shift mirrors a national growth trend in real estate. A HassConsult on the Kenyan Residential Property Market shows that property prices in Kenya rose by 7.8 per cent by June 2025, the highest increase compared to South Africa, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, France, the UK, Singapore and Australia.

According to the report, the growth has been fueled by a surge in high-income earners and rising demand for residential property, particularly in Nairobi’s suburbs and satellite towns. Kamiti is no exception.

HassConsult data shows that land prices across Nairobi suburbs and satellite towns have risen by more than 30 per cent over the past decade. “In the eight years to June 2023, land prices rose by 14 per cent. In the two years since then, they have climbed a further 14 per cent,” the report notes.

Developers say rising land prices are both a signal and a consequence of growing confidence.

However, Kamiti transformation comes with possible consequences, as Karoki acknowledges that the area’s rising land values make it less accessible to those looking for affordable housing.

For instance, Bustani, a high-end gated community, another housing project developed along Kamiti road and an upcoming Johari housing project.

With housing prices ranging between Sh9 million and Sh36million per unit in the area, Karoki projected that Kamiti will soon be an affluent area.

He notes that with the influx of homeowners buying land and constructing residential houses in the area, the prices of land skyrocketed further, effectively locking out people looking for affordable houses in the area.

“So many people have settled and also bought land for residential development all around. Soon, the prices of land will be quite high. People looking for affordable houses will find the area quite not affordable,” he adds.

He envisions Kamiti evolving into a high-end neighbourhood dominated by gated estates and low-density developments, largely catering to moneyed people and middle-income families.

As security improved in Kamiti, investment followed quickly.

At first, it was small-scale developers who eyed the area as a residential destination, medium-scale development projects followed, then gated estates.

As a result, social amenities such as Kikao located at Kamiti corner, supermarkets, salons and schools are also set in. Woodcreek School, for instance, was established in 2018 with just about 15 learners. Today, it has over 700 students.

“I knew it would be a matter of a very short time to reverse the old perception about the Kamiti area. Immediately after the school was operational in 2018, we began noticing the change,” said Karoki, adding that the rising residential development has directly increased demand for schooling. Prices of land have skyrocketed. As a result, the prices of housing property have gone up, but he says it is compensated by the development of social joints, good roads, institutions and better infrastructure.

A quarter-acre price in Kamiti Corner has gone up to about Sh15 million.

According to the HassConsult report, the increasing value of property is also being driven by the surge in population, which grows at about two per cent annually, with a predominantly young demographic entering the housing market.

Higher income

This demand, the report says, has given Kenyan property “an exceptional outlook for growth ahead.” Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) says the demand has also been fueled by an increased number of high-income earners.

It shows that there has been a steady rise in the number of Kenyans earning between Sh100,000 and Sh400,000 across various sectors since 2016. HassConsult access to mortgages has automatically expanded owing to higher income.

As a result, the emerging middle and upper-middle class increasingly started looking beyond traditional high-end neighbourhoods.

This pushes demand into areas like Kamiti that combine proximity from the city, security, habitability and relatively lower costs.

“It has taken time for this area to transform because the big estates around here were not ready to subdivide. Now the city has come calling because of population increase and the need for a middle-class neighbourhood,” Karoki says.

However, with the rapid growth in Kamiti, Omwenga cautions that such a trend, if unmanaged, risks producing exclusionary urban spaces contrary to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 on inclusive and sustainable cities.

“When we talk about integrated and sustainable development, we must also integrate middle-income and low-income housing. You cannot only cater for high-end housing. Cities survive because of social mix,” he says.

He argues that industries and commercial hubs rely heavily on low and middle-income workers, emphasising the need to have integrated communities.

“High-end areas such as Muthaiga, the commercial movement coming up in Tatu City and other areas cannot survive unless housing that caters for all income groups is integrated,” Omwenga adds.

Further, the planning expert warns that Kamiti’s transformation cannot be left solely to market forces, raising two major concerns about food security and water resources.

Large parts of the corridor currently act as water catchment areas supplying Kiambu, Ruiru and Nairobi.

“Growth of real estate without adequate water supply is a serious problem, and those pockets of dams and water sources must be protected,” Omwenga says, arguing that urban development does not have to eliminate agriculture.

“Agriculture and coffee can be blended into urban development, and this makes cities greener and environmentally attractive,” he adds.

For him, Kamiti’s future hinges on integrated land-use planning by national and county governments that incorporates real estate development and agricultural food production development.

“Nairobi City County and Kiambu County governments should work together to ensure that we actually develop well-integrated land-use development plans that are able to bring that balance.”

“We must avoid a situation where it is just a concrete jungle and not take into account the very important element of food security in that regard,” he adds.