Meru County
Position, Location and Size. Meru County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya, located in the former Eastern Province. The county lies between 0° 6′ North and 0° 1′ South and between latitudes 37° West and 38° East. It borders Isiolo County to the North, Tharaka/Nithi County to the East, Nyeri County to the South West and Laikipia County to the West. It covers a total area of 7,006 Km2 out of which with part of it 972.3Km2 being gazetted as forest. It has a population of 1.55 million people. Meru County  is the home of the Ngaa people (Meru), who are related to other ethnicities living around the Mount Kenya region: the Kikuyu, Embu people and to some extent the Kamba people Also, peoples from the east coast of Kenya, along the Indian Ocean, like the Bajuni, Swahili, Mijikenda, and further inland, the Taita, Taveta and westwards to the Lake Victoria coast, the Kisii and Maragoli as well as other Luhya people, are all related to the Meru. The county headquarters is in the town of Meru. The current governor of Meru County is Hon. Kiraitu Murungi of Jubilee Party. The  deputy governor is Titus Ntuchiu and the women representative is Kawira Mwangaza. Physical and Topographic Features. Mount Kenya (now politically divided between Meru and other counties) has been greatly influenced by the climate of the coast especially the eastern slopes of the mountain with Altitude ranges from 300m to 5,199m above sea level. Many rivers have theirs streams originating from the mount Kenya and Nyambene streams. Tana and Ewaso Nyiro Rivers are highly depended for domestic and agricultural use. Climatic Conditions. The county experience an average temperature range between 8c at the minimum and 32c being the highest . Annual rainfall ranges between 300mm per annum on the lower midlands to 2500mm in the South East. Long rains fall from mid-March to May and short rains begins from October to December. Demographics. The county has a total population of 987,653 of which 489,691 are males, 497,942 females and 20 intersex persons. There are 244,669 household with an average household size of 4.0 persons per household. Administrative and Political Units. Administrative Units. There are nine sub counties, thirty five divisions, one hundred and sixty one locations and three hundred and eighty six sub-locations. Political Units. It  has nine constituencies and forty five county assembly wards. Political Leadership. Kiraitu Murungi is the second governor and was first elected 2017 general elections after Defeating the Peter Munya the first governor. Peter Munya was later appointed by president Uhuru Kenya into his cabinet as Ministry of Trade and Industrialization and later transferred to Ministry of Agriculture to replace the Mwangi Kinjuri after being sacked. His deputy is Titus Ntuchiu Mutea. Franklin Mithika Linturi is the Senator and replaced Kiraitu Murungi in 2017 after the latter opted to run for governorship position. Kawira Mwangaza is the second elected women representative  and she won in 2017 against Florence Kajuju who was the first elected women representative. For Meru County, the County Executive Committee comprises: Source Education. There are 1,437 ECD centres 1,030 primary schools and 372 secondary schools. The county has also 7 tertiary institutions, 6 special schools 7, 483 adult education centres and 7 university campuses. Meru university of science and technology and Meru national polytechnic are the largest education centers in Meru county Health. There is a total of 460 health facilities, 995 hospital beds and 73 cots in the county. County has 1325 health personnel of different cadre . HIV prevalence rate was 2.9% in 2017 lower than the national rate of 5.9%. Transport. The county is covered by 1,259.9 Km of road network ac. of this 767.5 km is covered by earth surface, 266.7 km is marram surface and 225.7 km of surface is covered by Bitumen. However, during the rainy seasons, some sections of gravel and earth surface roads are impassable. The major tarmac roads in the county includes: Embu-Meru -Maua; Meru - Nanyuki; Meru - Mikinduri; Meru- Githogo; and Meru-Ruiri -Isiolo roads. The county is served by one airstrip; Gaitu airstrip in Meru Central which has  been improved to serve more flights. Posts and Telecommunications. There are six post offices and four sub-post offices with 7,600 installed letter boxes, 5,937 rented letter boxes, 1,663 vacant letter boxes with numerous registered stamp vendors in the county. The six post offices are in Meru, Maua, Nkubu, Timau, Muthara and Laare towns which offer mail services and parcel delivery among other services. Most private and public organizations have embraced ICT in the day-to-day operations. Private entrepreneurs have continued to set up cyber cafes in major towns and trading centers due to high demand for internet services  among others. Most of the areas in the county are covered by mobile phone network with the coverage being 95per cent. Areas without mobile network coverage are mainly areas of Tigania bordering Isiolo. Most of the community members rely on radio, Television and Newspapers as the major sources of information. History. In 1992, the former Meru District was split into Meru Central District, Meru North District, Meru South District, and Tharaka District In 1998, Tharaka District was again split into Nithi District and Tharaka District. A Supreme Court decision in September 2009 ruled that the split had been unconstitutional, and  the first two of these were re-amalgamated into Meru District, which became Meru County in 2010. The same ruling amalgamated Meru South, Tharaka and Nithi districts into Tharaka-Nithi District, which became Tharaka-Nithi County in 2010.