Karatina is a town in Central Province, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. It hosts a municipal council and the headquarters of Mathira East district. Karatina municipality has a total population of 6,852, all classified as urban (1999 census). Karatina municipality has six electoral wards, all falling in the Mathira Constituency

Mathira Constituency

Mathira Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya. It is one of six constituencies in Nyeri District, Central Province.The constituency was established for the 1963 elections.- Members of Parliament :- Wards :...

. The remaining five wards of Mathira constituency represent Nyeri County Council.

Karatina is on the Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

 – Nyeri

Nyeri

Nyeri is a town in situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya Kenya, which was the administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province...

 highway, 20 kilometres southeast of Nyeri town and south of Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...

. Karatina is at an elevation of 1868 metres.
Karatina is famous for its fresh fruit and vegetable market which operates on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with Saturdays being the busiest day.

Karatina also boasts a university college that is part of Moi University. the college is located 14 kilometers from the Nairobi-Nyeri highway on the slopes of Mount Kenya.
There are two major hospitals in Karatina, the government funded Karatina General Hospital and Jamii Hospital. In addition, PCEA TumuTumu Hospitalhttp://www.pointloma.edu/MICS/FacultyStaff/Zack/TumutumuHospital/TumutumuHospitalHistory.htm is a few miles west of Karatina.

History of Karatina

The name Karatina is a diminutive term for Muratina - the name of a squash/courgette tree. The town was founded before the British Colonization of Kenya by Gikuyu women who used to trade their crafts and food under a courgette (muratina) tree. Women would direct each other on where to sell or buy merchandise under the Karatina.

Mathira means harvest for me. Women from the area would be heard in the market sending each other to harvest something from their farms. The British would hear "Mathira (this and that)" and they thought that was the name of the place.

Karatina and the Kenyan Independence Struggle

Like many areas around Mount Kenya, Karatina was a hot-bed of the Mau Mau independence struggle. Many Karatina residents have real-life memories and have passed on the history of the sufferings meted upon the society during the independence struggle. Being close to the Mount Kenya, the Mau Mau fighters would leave the forests and come to find food in the villages created by the colonialists and many residents will vividly tell of the tricks they used to feed the Mau Mau. Most of the elderly men from this locality were in detention during the Mau Mau reprisals as the authorities feared they would rebel.

Dedan Kimathi, the Mau Mau leader, came from Aguthi, less than fifteen miles from Karatina. To best understand the resistance to colonial rule, find out directly from Karatina people. Watch the "End of the Empire" documentary. Read Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya," by Caroline Elkins

Caroline Elkins

Caroline Elkins is a professor of History at Harvard University. She studies the colonial encounter in Africa during the twentieth century, and the British treatment of the Kikuyu in Kenya....

Regardless, Karatina had its own share of Colonial collaborators. The sons of colonial chiefs were the beneficiaries of the first independence Kenya Government as was so in the rest of the country.

Geography

The town lies on a plateau directly below the southern side of Mount Kenya. It is fed by radially flowing streams running from Mount Kenya towards the lower slopes of the mountain that are marked by the river Tana, the longest river in Kenya. There are many beautiful inter-locking spurs, rapids and caves in the streams in this area. The sky-line is intercepted by hills and steep slopes.

River Tana originates from Mount Kenya and meanders through several districts in Central and Eastern emptying its waters into the Indian Ocean. Its waters have been harnessed for the Kindaruma Hydro-Electricity Power Station downstream. Its waters hosts numerous tropical marine fauna and varied ecosystem ending in a delta at the coast.

You are likely to see some of the most beautiful small scale tea, coffee, dairy and horticultural farms around Karatina. The area has some of the best view points of Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Ranges.

Tourist areas of interest

Nyeri Town and the cemetery of Scout movement; the Tree Tops and Arks Game Viewing are all less than half an hour to the west of Karatina. Mount Kenya Safari Club is less than fifty miles from Karatina. Karatina is only one and half hours away from Nairobi City.

Karatina Culture

Basically, a farming community with one of the most educated population across the gender population in the country. It has generally some of the stable well established community built primary and Secondary schools. Tumu Tumu and Bishop Gatimu Girls Schools that are well reputed in the country. All Boys High Schools including the most reputed were all community developed through the Harambee movement. Harambee means pull-together resources.

PCEA and Catholicism Christianity are the religious faiths but it is also the home of a very strong African Independent Church. Anticoch Independent Baptist Churches also have a great presence with their Headquarters in Karatina.

Languages spoken are predominantly Kikuyu, Swahili and English. Even in the most rural areas any of these languages will work because the average person on the farm has been at least to primary (elementary) school.

Commuters use car, bicycle, motorbike and foot even though there is a rail service from the City and Nanyuki Town. It is a slopey area with some areas at almost 80 degrees gradient.

Karatina Market

This was the largest open market in Africa South of the Sahara i.e. in sub-Saharan Africa. The market has been brought down and is currently being renovated.

In April 2009 over 20 people died at Mathira Massacre

Mathira Massacre

The Mathira Massacre was a sequence of unanticipated stonings and hackings which occurred in Karatina, Nyeri District, Central Province in Kenya on 21 April 2009...

 between the mungiki

Mungiki

Mungiki is a politico-religious group and a banned criminal organization in Kenya. The name means "A united people" or "multitude" in the Kikuyu language. The religion, which apparently originated in the late 1980s, is secretive and bears some similarity to mystery religions. Specifics of their...

 sect and local residents in Karatina.

University

Karatina University College which was established and launched in 2007 is located 15km North of Karatina Town and boasts the spectacular view of the snow capped peaks of Mount Kenya. The serene, cool and green environment makes it conducive for academic work.

Karatina University College offers a range of market driven degree, diploma and certificate programmes. Its runs daytime as well as evening classes in Karatina Town. It is a constituent college of Moi University

Moi University

Moi University is a Kenyan public university located in Eldoret, western Kenya. It is one of seven fully fledged public institutions of higher learning in Kenya...

.

Karatina University College as currently constituted, replaced KTDA Kagochi Training Institute which was first built in the early 1960s to train tea farmers and managers. The institute was upgraded in 1998-2001 by construction of modern infrastructure aimed at training senior KTDA staff.

Primary

• D.E.B. Chehe (Forest) School
• Kiamwangi Primary School
• Kiarithaini Primary School
• D.E.B. Primary School
• Mathaithi Primary School
• Gikumbo Primary school
• Gatondo Primary School
• Gatundu Primary School
• Gathaithi Primary School
• Gathugu Primary School
• Gatina Primary School
• Giakabei Primary School
• Gikororo Primary School
• Hombe D.E.B. Primary School
• Kibira
• Icuga Primary School
• Ihiga Primary School
• Ihwagi Primary School
• Unjiru Primary school
• Kanjuri Primary School
• Kiangurwe Primary School
• Kianjeneni primary school
• Kiamabara Primary School
• Kieni Primary School
• Itiati primary school
• Itundu Primary School
• Kahuru Primary School
• Kariki Primary School
• Kihuro primary school
• Magutu Primary School
• Miiri Primary School
• Ngandu primary
• Ngandu Boys Primary School
• Gathogorero primary school
• kabiru-ini primary school
• Future Leaders Academy
  Future Leaders Academy, Kenya
  Established in the year 2000, the Future Leaders Academy is a private, mixed, day and boarding school in the Nyeri District, near Mt. Kenya. It is owned by Evanson Mundia and Martha Nyaruruii Mundia who are both retired teachers....
  
  
• Kanjuri Primary School
• Kangocho Primary School
• Kiangoma Primary School
• Tumutumu Primary School
• Ngurumo Primary School
• Kahuti-ini Primary School
• Ndima-ini Primary School
• Kiangi Primary school
• Rititi Primary school
• Ragati Primary School
• Gacuiro Primary school
• Ngaini Primary school
• Rising Star Academy
• Unjiru Primary School

Secondary

• Tumu Tumu Girls' High School
• Tumutumu School for the Deaf
• Tumu Tumu Hospital Nursing School
• Kiangoma secondary school
• Kiamabara Secondary School
• Kiarithaini Secondary School
• Karatina Secondary School
• Pan African Girls' School
• Mathaithi Secondary School
• Kirimara Secondary School
• Gatondo Girls Secondary School
• Gikumbo Secondary School
• Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls High School
  Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls High School
  Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls High School was founded in the 1960s by the late Bishop Caesar Gatimu and was run by the Comboni mission in Karatina, Nyeri, Kenya. It took the name of the area where it was situated, i.e. Ngandu Girls' High School, and the name was later changed to honour its founder....
  
  
• Kangocho Secondary School
• Kirimara High school
• Pan-African girls school
• Mount Carmel girls Gathugu
• Kanjuri High School
• Ruthagati Secondary School
• Itundu Secondary school
• Icuga Girls' Secondary School
• General China Secondary School
• Rititi Secondary School
• Kabiruini Girls' Secondary School
• Ngorano Secondary School
• Kiamariga Secondary School