Juja

Juja is a town in Kiambu County in Kenya. It is the home town for Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). It is also a constituency in Kiambu county, currently represented in parliament by Hon Francis Munyua Waititu. Juja is also home to The Juja City Mall, Juja Preparatory School, Mang'u High School and parts of Thika superhighway.

The town is located about 30 kilometers North of Nairobi between Thika and Ruiru towns. The Nairobi Business Park is found in the environs of this town. One should keep in mind that Juja is under the Nairobi Metropolitan Authority as envisaged in the Vision 2030 of Kenya.

History of Juja Town

Private records from McMillan Memorial Library indicate that sometimes in 1900 when he arrived in Nairobi he was carrying two statues he had bought in West Africa. He had been told that one was Ju and the other was Ja and had been asked to preserve them – otherwise he would perish at sea. (He actually died at sea!)

McMillan then settled on the road to Thika where he bought some 19,000 acres, at a time when nobody was allowed to own more than 5,000 acres. Privately, he attributed it to the powers of Ju and Ja idols and as a result he named the large expanse Ju-Ja Farm.

Because of the numerous superstition that surrounded Juja Farm, it became a no-go zone and locals used to fear entry into a land they always heard had been jinxed. As a result, McMillan’s wife took the two idols from the house and buried them in Ndarugu valley, near Thika Town. As a result, the name Juja started entering into annals of colonial history in Kenya and interestingly refused to give way to its former name ‘Weru wa Ndarugu’, the Ndarugu plains. (Courtesy: The Business Daily Newspaper)

More Functions of Juja Town

Juja also serves as the Main Headquarters to a couple of organisations such as Straight Security, a private security company that provides manned security all over Kenya, Senate Hotel, a 3 star Hotel, Ryanada Limited, A Software Company with popular software products like ESACCO, NadaERP and TrueHost, The Ksh. 1.7 Billion Juja City Mall that is still under construction and Ruiru Juja Water and Sewerage Company (RUJWASCO), a service company that provides piped water and sewerage services to Ruiru, Juja and its environs within Kiambu County.