Emerging Isinya

Isinya is warming up to take the place that is held by Juja, Kiambu and Riuru townships on the other end of the Nairobi metropolitan area.

“Isinya is an emerging township with so much historical charm to the local residents here. The town is among the top economic arteries of the county with great interest in land from investors that are turning the area into a profitable hub which was previously grazing land,” says Mathew Kiminta, a resident of the area.

For a long time, the town has been predominantly rural; our visit to the township recently indicated how it is growing into the heartbeat of Kajiado with a housing market to rival neighbouring Kitengela.

A decade ago, Isinya was not even a blip on the Kenyan property map with towns like Machakos, Athi River and Kitengela overshadowing it. However, after land in these areas started becoming too expensive and scarce, land buying companies shifted to Isinya. 

“It is only ten years ago when land buying companies started coming into the area. This has transformed the area and also brought in visitors who have changed Isinya’s economy,”says Kiminta.

“Most of the real estate companies bought land here with the hope that one day, people will have interest and start living here,” says Edward Ng’ang’a, a land procurement officer with Diamond Property Merchants limited.

These companies are now releasing the land for sale, attracting interested investors to the area. “We have been bringing people to come and visit the plots,” says Ng’ang’a. “We are now sub-dividing the large tracts of land into smaller plots which economically is manageable, convenient and affordable to a majority of Kenyan investors,” he adds.

One year ago, an eighth of an acre plot was selling at Sh150,000. Currently, the same plot’s price has more than doubled today.

“Similar to many towns that have luckily been opened up by the curious emerging Nairobi middle class who are eager to invest in land in the outskirts of Nairobi, Isinya’s beginning was marked by false starts. There were very few people who wanted to live or even invest here,” says Ng’ang’a.

Interestingly now, urban farmers are being encouraged to establish greenhouses and homes to take advantage of their combined scale and make it easy to bargain for infrastructural development and also attract investors buying farming materials to buy their products from the farms.

In spite of all those challenges, there is now an emerging road network coming up in the area as development sets in, something that will improve the town’s image.  “Any construction or renovation of roads in these areas is being closely monitored and controlled by both the county government and locals to ensure that the whole town centre remains unspoiled by new or inappropriate developments,” says Carol Tiampati, a business lady in the town.

“Kiserian-Isinya road has been earmarked for construction. We will see the rural Isinya open up soon,” says Carol.