Nairobi being the richest county in Kenya, Nakuru county has been declared the second richest according to the inaugural 2019 Gross County Product report. It is the home of Kenya’s flowers, one of the country’s foremost foreign exchange earners and is eyeing even more. It has fixed its eyes on city status.
It has seen its economic fortunes change dramatically in recent times in what the authors of the 2019 Gross County Product (GCP) attribute to increased agricultural productivity. In 2017, the total value of all goods and services produced in Nakuru was Sh517.4 billion of the national gross domestic product (GDP). This was an improvement from a share of 5.4 per cent in 2013.
A lot of economic activities have been going on in Nakuru County, tourism especially conference tourism being on the rise, with most organizations opting to hold their meetings in Naivasha. It is the efficiency with which the county does its agriculture, complete with mechanization which has raised its productivity, according to Tegemeo Institute, an agricultural policy think tank. The county contributes 10.6 per cent of all agricultural produce in the country.
In September 2017, the Cabinet approved the elevation of Nakuru and Eldoret towns to cities, to bring the total number to five and are expected to receive charters before the end of this year. Governor Lee Kinyanjui says; ”At the county level, we also formed a Nakuru City Upgrade Committee to ensure all departments in the county government play their role to ensure we match the status.”
Last October, the World Bank said Nakuru had been chosen as the county to pilot President Uhuru Kenyatta’s affordable housing project because it had most of the critical infrastructure needed for cheap houses. The national government contracted the Washington-based institution to come up with a road-map that would lead to President Kenyatta’s legacy project.
The houses in Nakuru will be built on a 50-acre parcel along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. World Bank’s Financial Sector Specialist Hadija Kamayo says that, besides its proximity to the road, the area also has energy, water and sanitation, schools and health centres; ”Naivasha is the hot-spot of the many development activities happening right now.”