On any given afternoon at Kamakis Corner, smoke curls out of busy nyama choma joints, waiters hurry between wooden tables, balancing trays of roast meat and beer. A few metres away, trucks loaded with construction materials squeeze past shoppers and boda bodas before disappearing into new gated estates where workers put finishing touches on new maisonettes.
Just behind one of the modern homes, however, pigs roll in the mud beside a small kitchen garden, and chickens cluck in a nearby coop.
Welcome to Kamakis, a rapidly growing settlement along the Eastern Bypass in Ruiru, which has become one of Nairobi’s hottest property markets, attracting developers, middle-class families, and investors chasing space outside the city.
Yet unlike many satellite towns that have completely shed their rural past, Kamakis still lives in two worlds. Here, multimillion-shilling homes rise beside chicken coops. Glass balconies overlook lush maize gardens. Residents drive top-of-the-range cars through neighbourhoods where livestock still roam behind perimeter walls.
For some of the area’s earliest settlers, the transformation from a muddy farmland to a development hotspot has been almost unbelievable.
Bishop Samuel Mbugua says when he first moved to Kamakis in 1998, the place looked nothing like it does today.
‘There was almost nothing here,’ he recalls. ‘No proper roads, no piped water, no development.’ Life, he says, revolved around farming, land ownership and survival with hardly any public infrastructure and amenities.
Back then, residents fetched water from River Ruiru, while heavy rains often cut off sections of the area completely. Most people grew crops or kept livestock, partly for survival, and partly to protect their land from grabbers.
‘There was a lot of land grabbing at the time,’ Samuel says. ‘If you bought land and left it idle, somebody else could come and claim it. So people farmed it or built small structures to show ownership.’ ‘We focused on farming. My wife and I used to grow maize, beans and sweet potatoes. We made it our home.’
From Sh18,000 to Sh60 million
The land had originally been subdivided by the Githunguri Ranching Company and allocated to shareholders. In 1986, Samuel bought his share for Sh18,000. At the time, he says, it felt like a remote gamble.
Today, that same land sits in one of Nairobi’s fastest-appreciating real estate corridors. Samuel says a one-and-a-quarter-acre roadside share can now fetch as much as Sh60 million.
‘A 50-by-100 plot along the road can go for about Sh45 million,’ he says.
The numbers still surprise even longtime residents.
Samuel Mwai, another early settler, remembers when buyers could still acquire plots for about Sh60,000 in the early 2000s.
Then came the Eastern Bypass.
The road project, which began around 2009, transformed Kamakis from an overlooked farming settlement into a strategic investment zone almost overnight. Suddenly, the area was connected to Nairobi, Thika Road and key transport corridors. Developers arrived. Investors followed. Land prices surged.
‘As you can imagine, it has grown a lot,’ says Mwai.
That growth is now impossible to miss. Along the main roads, hardware stores, liquor outlets, butcheries, mini shopping centres and restaurants compete for space. Construction trucks move constantly through the area, feeding what feels like a permanent building site.
Behind the busy roadside businesses lie rows of gated communities filled with modern homes designed for a growing class of Nairobians searching for what the city increasingly struggles to offer: space.
Many of the houses feature rooftop terraces, paved driveways, high perimeter walls and flat-roofed contemporary designs that sharply contrast with the semi-rural environment that still lingers around them.
Attractive compromise
For many middle-class families, Kamakis offers a compromise between urban convenience and suburban calm. Mwai, popularly known as ‘Mwai wa Tours’ because of his travel company, arrived in Kamakis in 2006.
‘When I came here, there were very few people,’ he says. ‘Most residents were farmers or people keeping livestock.’
Security was also a concern. ‘Livestock theft was common,’ he recalls.
Mwai bought four 50-by-100 plots for Sh600,000, an investment that would later multiply in value many times over. Like several early settlers, he became involved in pushing for development in the area.
‘We were among the first people advocating for electricity and piped water,’ he says.
Today, he watches as estates continue spreading deeper into what was once open farmland.
‘There have been a lot of developments, especially gated homes. Investors are coming in every day.’
Nyama choma identity
Yet housing is only part of the Kamakis story. The area’s nyama choma culture has also become central to its identity.
On weekends especially, hundreds of Nairobi residents stream into Kamakis looking for roasted meat, open-air entertainment and a break from the congestion of the city. ‘People love Kamakis because it feels peaceful,’ says Mwai.
That leisure economy has created another layer of commercial growth.
Anthony Kariuki, a hospitality investor, saw the opportunity early. ‘I started this business in 2020 after retiring,’ he says.
He strategically bought a roadside plot in Kamakis in 2014 for Sh6.2 million.
‘At the time, this place was mostly farmland,’ he says.
Today, his property sits in one of the busiest commercial stretches in the area.
‘Kamakis has really expanded. Hardware stores are doing very well because people are constantly building.’
But despite the rapid urbanisation, farming has not disappeared.
Inside some compounds, residents still rear pigs and chickens even after building expensive modern homes. Small vegetable gardens survive behind electric fences and cabro-paved driveways.
Poor planning
Still, beneath the booming property market lies a growing frustration. Residents say infrastructure has failed to keep pace with development.
‘The bypass opened up the area, but internally we still have very poor roads,’ says Samuel.
During the rainy season, some feeder roads become muddy and difficult to navigate. ‘When it rains, school buses sometimes cannot even access homes,’ says Samuel.
Poor drainage has also become a growing concern as more land is covered with concrete and paving.