The dusty Barut Ward of Nakuru West Sub county was one of the areas where sisal farming used to take place.

The area borders Lake Nakuru National Park on the East, Kapkures on the West and Njoro sub county on the South.

Though a few town service matatus can be spotted through the area, majority of the locals here depend on motorbikes as modes of transport to the neighbouring shopping centres such as Kapkures as well as Mwariki.

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Zacharia Karanja is a bodaboda operator at Barut Centre and he points out that only residents who want to go to Nakuru city will use the matatus vehicles. However, majority do their shopping at the nearby centres.

Joseph Oyawa is a senior citizen of Barut and doubles up as the Parkview Senior Assistant Chief.

In an interview, he reveals to Mtaa Wangu that Barut area used to be part of Rhonda Sisal Land estate that stretched from Kenlands, Shabab, Ronda, Parts of Kaptembwa and Mwariki.

Barut estate used to host vast sisal plantations in the 1920s.

Photo credit: COURTESY

He is however quick to note that in the early 1970s, the Sisal Estate that was owned by a white settler from England was dissolved and the white settler went back to England.

Mtaa Wangu has learnt that the Sisal estate was later sold to two land companies; Kalenjin Enterprise (5,900 acres) and Mwariki Farm Company (4,080 acres) that was then sold to members.

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Interestingly, the factory of the Sisal Estate exactly where used to be, where St. Luke’s School sits since early 1920s when the white settler started sisal farming.

The collapse of the Sisal farm saw many families who had visited from Nyanza, Western and Central regions go back to their ancestral lands.

However, some 120 households decided to buy shares and formed Mwariki Farm company.

Oyawa adds that the other shares were bought by other individuals, forming the Kalenjin Enterprise.

But even as the area tries to grow into maybe an urban set-up settlement, the main challenge facing locals is the insecurity arising from the mushrooming criminal gangs among them, Nyuki, mauki and Watz.

“The illegal fishing in this area of Parkview-Barut has attracted many idle youth who are now a threat to security,” says Oyawa.

Also Read: Troubled waters: Inside the vibrant illegal fish trade in Lake Nakuru

The other menace in the area is the quarry businesses that contributes to degradation of the roads in the area.

Bodaboda operators have to struggle on some roads such as the one connecting Barut and Pwani on the other side of Njoro.

“Something has to be done about the quarry issue here in Barut. The business has seen some roads left in a poor state,” says Karanja.

Another menace in the area is the disaster caused by the rising water levels of Lake Nakuru which impacted negatively on the land in the area as a 50 by 100 plot would be going for up to Sh 2 million, but that is not the case.

One of the gates to Lake Nakuru National Park that is submerged in water.

Photo credit: BRET SANYA/MTAA WANGU

“We had 50 by 100 plots going for between Sh 600,000 and Sh 700,000 but if the rising water levels had not happened, we could be talking of such plots going for up to Sh 2 million here,” says Oyawa.

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Pristone Mambili