The name Roysambu has been on the lips of Kenyans, with the estate trending mostly for the wrong reasons.
From murders and homicide cases to cybercrime and kidnappings, the area will probably ring a bell to you for an infamous case in the past.
“Roysambu” dates back to the colonial era, when the then-British authorities in Kenya established an estate called the “Royal Suburbs”.
But local communities identified it as Roysambu, which later came to be its permanent name.
Years later, Roysambu sits off the Thika Superhighway and serves as a center for various activities and as a residential area.
It is located 11 kilometers from Nairobi CBD and is known for its opulent lifestyle among the middle-income residents of the area, with a large percentage being a youthful population.
The Thika Road Mall (TRM) has since given the estate a new face alongside several other high-rise residential and commercial properties.
Adjacent to the Mall is the TRM Drive, which connects part of the estate to Thika Road.
A few meters from the TRM Drive is the Lumumba Drive, another important gateway to the popular estate.
The estate has experienced rapid growth with property developers flocking the area to tap into the high demand for housing.
Businesses give Roysambu a new life
Some of the key amenities surrounding the estate are institutions of higher learning, including the Pan Africa Christian (PAC) University, CITAM Thika Road, TRM Mall, the Jesus Winner Ministries.
Owing to the amenities and its proximity to other key facilities, the estate has seen a surge in its population and consequently led to the creation of opportunities.
On each side of the TRM Drive or Lumumba Drive are business and residential apartments forming an almost uniform skyline.
Businesses, including fast-food joints, shoe and clothing shops, barbershops, and liquor stores, have mushroomed on either side of the streets, making it an important economic hub.
Activities here extend into the late hours, as businesses like liquor stores and nightclubs operate until late at night.
Unlike in several other estates, residents in the estate do not have a specific day set for partying. Every day can be a partying day as long as you are well loaded.
I recently walked into the estate at 10 pm and was surprised to find the streets were full of life with cabs taxiing the TRM and Lumumba Drives as passengers alighted or boarded to various destinations.
The estate with a lively nightlife
Loud music and the voices of revelers rent the estate late into the wee hours, regardless of whether it is a weekday.
On the streets, you will often see a group of animated youth holding house parties or partying on rooftops, painting a picture of the nature of the relationships formed by the residents here.
At first, you might wonder how these residents manage to spend time in nightclubs and still wake up for work the next morning.
But on closer inspection of their lifestyle, you realize that people in the neighborhood have switched to remote jobs and online gigs, among other contemporary ways of working.
The number of foreigners, including Nigerians, Rwandese nationals, and Congolese, has been on the rise, with some taking up jobs such as barbershop work.
Also Read: New Twist as CCTV Unmasks Main Suspect in Roysambu Murder
But all these factors have independently led to the current crime rate, where cases of murder, suicide, kidnapping, laundry, and fraud have been reported.
Given the lifestyles of people living in Roysambu and its neighborhood, some of the gigs pay handsomely, hence the opulence seen among the residents.
One of the concerns, however, has been the lack of regulations governing how online jobs work.
This then creates room for fraud, with miscreants targeting unsuspecting newbies to take away their hard-earned money.
The high prevalence of drug abuse has also been attributed to the crime rate.
From time to time, cases of mugging and robbery targeting motorists at night surge to further raise concerns about the safety in the neighborhood.
Recent crime cases in Roysambu
Consequently, Kasarani Police Station, located meters across the Superhighway, has become a common subject in the news.
Also Read: Family of Rita Waeni Murdered in Roysambu Airbnb Speaks
Recent crime cases that caught nationwide attention from the area include the one of Rita Waeni, a university student whose dismembered body was found in an Airbnb on January 14, 2024.
In 2023, detectives had a hard time trying to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of a young man named Jeff Mwathi in the neighborhood.
Circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear to date, with different narratives, including one stating that the victim was murdered and thrown off an apartment in the area, surfacing.
