Over the past 10 years, Ongata Rongai, a satellite town on the edge of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has experienced uncontrolled development and exponential population growth. Because of its appealing location close to the city, it’s jumped from just under 40,000 residents in 2009 to a population of over 172,000 in 2019. The most recent census data showed a high annual population growth rate of 16%.
The rapid increase in population, and accompanying development of residential buildings, has led to huge pressure on the environment, including its waterways.
There are two main rivers flowing through Ongata Rongai: the Mbagathi River and the Kandisi-Kiserian River. These rivers are important historically and, to an extent, today. People fish in them, use them to wash their clothes and collect water from them to use at home. Children and adults swim and bathe in them. Pastoralists water their livestock here and graze animals along the riverbanks. They were also the place where neighbouring clans would meet or where the Agikuyu community would come to pray at the towering mugumo (fig) trees. Indigenous plants growing on the riverbanks were harvested to make medicines.
