Gift Shopping

Being a major tourist destination, the town of Nanyuki is littered with curio shops, offering a selection of carvings and tat. However, for local crafts and arts, the Gift Shop at the Lily Pond Arts Centre and the Laikipia Outpost Shop at Nanyuki Airstrip offer a wide selection of hand crafted gifts at a reasonable price.

Nanyuki Airstrip

Located on the western foot hills of Mount Kenya, Nanyuki Airfield lies only 8 kilometres (5.0 mi), south of the Equator. It is approximately 140 kilometres , by air, north of Nairobi International Airport, the country’s largest civilian airport.

The geographic coordinates of this airport are:0° 2′ 42.00″N, 37° 1′ 48.00″E (Latitude:0.045000; Longitude:37.030000).

Situated at 1,905 metres (6,250 ft) above sea level, the airport has a single asphalt runway which measures 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) in length.

Nanyuki Airfield is a government-owned, privately leased airfield, serving both private and commercial air operators. The airfield handles mostly small light single engine aircraft and some larger twin aircraft. Most traffic through Nanyuki is routing from Nairobi, carrying tourists to Mara Serena Airport, Samburu Airport, Laikipia, Lewa and Meru.

The airfield is leased by Tropic Air Kenya, and offers private air charter to anywhere in Kenya and also amazing mountain trips by helicopter.

Nanyuki Hospitals

Without the luxury of a national health service in Kenya, the health care system is very limited and healthcare for most of the population of Nanyuki is nothing more than a wishful dream. Nanyuki General Hospital has 150 beds and 6 doctors attempting to provide care in all specialties.  There is one surgeon, Dr Samuel Ndanye, who provides all the general and orthopaedic surgery.  The hospital relies on a small amount of government funding to sustain the running costs of the hospital. Patients must therefore contribute to their hospital stay and surgery, with orthopaedics being one of the most costly.

Injuries and fractures go largely untreated as treatment is unaffordable for most.  As manual work is the main means to an income, disability can mean a death sentence to these people and their families.

There is a smaller privately funded hospital, Nanyuki Cottage Hospital with 40 beds and one doctor, Dr Abid Butt, who performs all the surgery there. Although these doctors work tirelessly for the benefit of patients in Nanyuki, the sheer volume of patients and lack of resources leaves many patients untreated.

Food Shopping

Nanyuki hosts the largest retail chain in Kenya  - Nakumat , which is bang in the centre of Nanyuki.

For “old timers”, Settlers Stores being the oldest retail shop in Nanyuki., remains a family run business and still sells those unique and specialist items that supermarkets refuse to stock

Equator

Another major feature of Nanyuki town is the equator which crosses Nanyuki at around 2km south of the town. It cuts through the Lily Pond Arts Centre giving visitors a unique opportunity to start with a healthy main course in the southern hemisphere and finish with a sumptuous dessert in the Northern Hemisphere! Guests at the Lily Pond are also invited to make wishes and hang them on the Wish Globe that also sits on the equator.