Kibwezi

Last updated

Kibwezi
Kenya adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Kibwezi
Location of Kibwezi
Coordinates: 2°25′S37°58′E / 2.42°S 37.97°E / -2.42; 37.97
Country Kenya
County Makueni County
Time zone UTC+3 (EAT)

Kibwezi is a town in Makueni County, Kenya.

Kibwezi town is the headquarters of Kibwezi division, one of 15 administrative divisions in Makueni County. The division has a population of 80,236, of whom 4,695 are classified urban. The division has four locations: Kikumbulyu, Kinyambu, Masongaleni and Utithi. [1] Kibwezi town is located within Kikumbulyu location.

Contents

Kibwezi is also named for Kibwezi Constituency, the local electoral constituency. Kibwezi town does not seat a local authority but is part of Makueni County. [2]

Education

Kibwezi Bethel Church located with the Kibwezi Educational Centre Kibwizi Bethel Church.JPG
Kibwezi Bethel Church located with the Kibwezi Educational Centre

The largest school is the Kibwezi Educational Centre, a partnership between the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and Burke Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). It contains a polytechnic offering two-year vocational programs in carpentry, masonry, welding, and tailoring. There is also a secretarial department which requires students to have graduated from secondary school. A primary school and preschool are for grades one though eight. Scholarships are available for need based students such as orphans. There are around thirty children in the greater Kibwezi area supported and sometimes under scholarship for educational costs. Students from very needy families benefit from the government disbursed bursaries.

Banking and local economy

There are four banks and two credit unions in town. The largest bank is the Kenya Commercial Bank followed by Equity Bank Sidian Bank And Post bank .The Largest Credit Union is the Sidian Bank.

One Microfinance program, run by Empowering the Poor in Development(EPID) - Kenya partnered with the United States–based, 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Walking with Africans Foundation (WAF) focuses on organizing and providing initial funding to Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) groups. EPID and WAF jointly oversee 5 ROSCA groups totaling 120 members in the greater Kibwezi area. The program provides initial loans without collateral, allowing members of peer groups the opportunity to co-guarantee repayment of loans and assume management of the revolving fund. The small interest collected from loans is reinvested into lending to more participants. To qualify and remain in the program, participants must meet strict monitoring criteria and pay back the original loans through small weekly repayments and contributions to joint savings. Qualified participants who own small businesses or who seek to establish small business enterprises are extended loans on a short-term repayment cycle (3 to 6 months). WAF was founded by James Munthali, a retired economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other members of Burke Presbyterian Church in the suburbs of Washington D.C., United States of America.

M-Pesa is a branchless banking service, meaning that it is designed to enable users to complete basic banking transactions without the need to visit a bank branch. The continuing success of M-Pesa in Kenya has been due to the creation of a highly popular, affordable payment service with only limited involvement of a bank. [3] [4]

Religion

There are several religions represented in the town. There is a mosque for the local Muslim community and several churches of varying Christian denominations. The two largest congregations are Catholic and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA).

African Brotherhood Church

ABC church is represented in Kibwezi township With many Branches including East Africa. Since its inception in 1945, The Africa Brotherhood Church has grown in leaps and bounds not only in all parts of the country including Nyanza province, as well as in other East and Central African Countries. ABC has active ministries and churches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and still continues to grow its reach in mission.

Support for education

ABC Primary Schools Include; ILALAMBYU ITHENGELI KAKETI KAKULI KALULUINI (KOMA) KAMUTISYA KANGONDI KANYONGO KANZAUWU KASEVI KATHANGATHINI KAVINGO KEAA KINGONGOI KISEKINI KISOLE KISOVO KITHIMA KITONGUNI KITULU KWA KASAU KWAKATHEKA KWAKATIA KWAMINGIO KWANGENGI KYAANI KANGUUTHENI KYAMUSIVI KYANDA KYANGUNGA KYANGUYU MAKUMBI MALUMA MASAANI MATHUNZUU MITHINIMALATANI MUKAA MULUTI MUSUKINI MUUA MUUKUNI MUUNGUU MWAMBUNI NZATANI OBUOR SEEKEA SIKA SYOMBUKU WAMUNYU

ABC Partners & Affiliates Undugu TV Eastern Kenya Integrated College Manee Kenya Discipleship International ABC SACCO National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) World Council of Churches (WCC) All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Canadian Baptist Ministries https://www.africabrotherhoodchurch.org/

Presbyterian

Kibwezi is defined by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa as a Nendeni Area, a region for church growth. There is one church located inside the Kibwezi Educational Centre. This has been named the Bethel Church. Furthermore, there are approximately 14 smaller congregations in the surrounding villages near Kibwezi. The village churches are served on Sunday by evangelists (not pastors) employed by the Kibwezi Bethel Church. A few of these areas are:

Kibwezi has also other churches e.g. Seventh Day Adventist Church near Kambua guest house and opposite to Kibwezi Teachers college, the Kenya Assemblies Of God located at Muthaiga estate, the Redeemed Gospel Church also at Muthaiga, the Pentecostal Assemblies Of God, the African Brotherhood church at Maweni and the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya. These are the Pentecostal Churches Of Kibwezi.

Transport

The most common form of transport is public minivans and buses. Within the town and its adjacent areas, motorbikes and bicycles bodaboda are commonly used.

It has a station on the Uganda Railway between Mombasa and Nairobi. There is also a station for the new Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway a few kilometers from the town centre.

The town is located along the Nairobi – Mombasa highway. Another road connects Kibwezi with Kitui.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mombasa</span> City in Mombasa County, Kenya

Mombasa is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is known as "the white and blue city" in Kenya. It is the country's oldest and second-largest city after Nairobi, with a population of about 1,208,333 people according to the 2019 census.

Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machakos County</span> County in Kenya

Machakos County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya, which came into being because of the devolved system of governance occasioned by the 2010 constitution of Kenya. The country's first administrative headquarters are in Machakos Town, which is the largest town in the county. The county had a population of 1,421,932 as of 2019. The county borders Nairobi and Kiambu counties to the west, Embu to the north, Kitui to the east, Makueni to the south, Kajiado to the south west, and Muranga and Kirinyaga to the north west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arthur (missionary)</span>

John William Arthur was a medical missionary and Church of Scotland minister who served in British East Africa (Kenya) from 1907 to 1937. He was known simply as Doctor Arthur to generations of Africans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Church of East Africa</span> Religious organization in East Africa

Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) is a Presbyterian denomination headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. In Kenya, 10% of the population is Presbyterian. It was started by missionaries from Scotland, most notable of whom was Dr John Arthur. It has its headquarters in Nairobi South C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kikuyu, Kenya</span> Town Council in Kiambu County, Kenya

Kikuyu is a town in Kiambu County, Kenya, which grew from a settlement of colonial missionaries. The town is located about 20 km (12 mi) northwest of central Nairobi. It is about 20 minutes from Nairobi via a number of routes, including a dual carriage road, and has a railway station on the Mombasa – Malaba Railway Line. The town is named after the Kikuyu/Gĩkũyũ people, the major ethnicity that settled in the area. As of 2019, the total population was 323,881.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makueni County</span> County in Kenya

Makueni County is a county in the former Eastern Province of Kenya. Its capital town is Wote.The largest town is Wote town followed by Emali town which is also an important market and stop over for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Emali town is multicultural and adds diversity to Makueni county.The county has a population of 987,653. The county lies between Latitude 1° 35' and 2° 59' South and Longitude 37° 10' and 38° 30' East. It borders Machakos County to the North, Kitui County to the East, Taita Taveta County to the South and Kajiado County to the West and covers an area of 8,008.9 km2.

Emali is a town located along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway in Kenya straddling the Makueni County and Kajiado County boundaries. It is a popular resting place for truck drivers ferrying goods from the Mombasa port to inland destinations such as Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali and even the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is known as "the town that never sleeps" due to its vibrant night life. The town is inhabited by the Kamba and Maasai tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makindu</span> Place in Makueni County, Kenya

Makindu is a town in Makueni County, Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chase Bank Kenya</span> Commercial bank in Kenya

Chase Bank Kenya Limited(CBK), commonly referred to as Chase Bank, was a commercial bank in Kenya, licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, the central bank and national banking regulator.

Sidian Bank, formerly known as K-Rep Bank, is a commercial bank in Kenya, licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, the national banking regulator.

Access Bank Kenya (ABK), whose complete name is Access Bank (Kenya) PLC, formerly Transnational Bank Kenya PLC, is a commercial bank in Kenya. It is licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya, the national banking regulator.

Makindu Airport is an airport in Makindu, Kenya.

The real estate sector in Kenya has seen a boom that began somewhere in the mid to late 2000s because the property market is responding to increased demand.

The Kibwezi–Kitui–Kandwia–Usueni Road, also B7 Road (Kenya) is a road in Kenya, the largest economy in the East African Community. The road connects the town of Kibwezi in Makueni County to the community of Usueni in Kitui County. Since its upgrading, the road has opened up many villages and rural-urban settings to business and agricultural activities.

The Anglican dioceses of Mombasa are the Anglican presence in and around Mombasa and south-east Kenya; they are part of the Anglican Church of Kenya. The remaining dioceses of the Church are in the areas of Maseno, of Mount Kenya, and of Nakuru.

Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is a postgraduate-only public university established in 2021. The establishment of the university was aimed at meeting the shortage of highly skilled engineers, needed in the country and the region, to drive Kenya into an industrialized nation by 2030.

References

  1. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Kenya): Geographic Dimensions of Well-Being in Kenya
  2. ↑ Electoral Commission of Kenya: Registration centres by electoral area and constituency Archived 2007-06-28 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Dial M for money. (2007, June 28). The Economist. Retrieved December 6, 2007
  4. ↑ "Sagentia - News and events". www.sagentia.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23.

02°25′00″S37°58′00″E / 2.41667°S 37.96667°E / -2.41667; 37.96667

Masongaleni high school, 124-90136 Nzeeka. A mixed secondary school. The school has a population of 350 students.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.