Meru, Kenya
| Meru Town | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Meru Town
|
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| Coordinates: 0°03′N 37°39′E / 0.050°N 37.650°ECoordinates: 0°03′N 37°39′E / 0.050°N 37.650°E | |
| Country |
 Kenya
|
| County | Meru County |
| Founded | 1911 |
| Constituencies | |
| Government | |
| • Governor | H.E. Hon. Peter Munya |
| Time zone | EAT (UTC+3) |
| Website | http://meru.go.ke/ |
Meru is a town in eastern Kenya. It is the headquarters of the Meru County, and the sixth largest urban centre in the country. Meru forms a municipal council with a population of 240,900 residents.
The city is located at 0.047035 degrees north and 37.649803 degrees east, on the northeast slopes of Mount Kenya. The Kathita River passes adjacent to the town. The main administrative part of the town is on the north side of the Kathita River. While the south side of the river is where residential areas are situated. Meru Town is situated about five miles north of the equator, at an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet, in an area of mixed forest and clearings, small towns, villages and rural farms. The town is predominantly populated by the Ameru people, a Bantu ethnic group. In addition there are other people having different and diverse religions, cultures and all walks of life who live, trade and work in this agricultural and commercial town.
Meru Town's first District Commissioner was Edward Butler Horne. The Meru nicknamed him Kangangi, meaning the little wanderer due to his short stature and the fact that he traveled around Meru a lot as he surveyed the District. This was at a time when the Meru community lived a fairly settled life in ridge-top communities. The City’s foundation in its present location was as a result of the military limitations of E. B. Horne’s original camp at Mwitari's (homestead).
In 1912, according to Madeleine Laverne Platts, wife of W. A. F. Platts, Meru’s first Assistant District Commissioner:
"Short [E. B.] Horne had laid out a nice little golf course. 500 local girls were paid to cut the grass by plucking it out with their fingers. Next to the golf course stood a large, handsome log house, in which the door opened to reveal mud floors on which a large hat-stand stood gaunt and proud within a pool of water."
As E.B. Horne was settling in Meru, Methodist leaders were seeking expansion. John B. Griffiths, a Welshman minister previously working at the Kenya coast, petitioned the colonial government to grant the entire Embu region to the Methodists as an exclusive religious sphere. The request was denied because the government considered it unsafe. Griffiths then applied a second time, requesting that the comparatively "peaceful" Meru district be regarded as the exclusive sphere of the United Methodist church. In December 1909 the government agreed. Griffiths's party arrived at "Fort Meru" in October 1909, to be met by E. B. Horne who allotted the Methodists a plot of land at Ka-Aga. This was then a spirit forest, known to the Meru as the “place of curse removers [Aga]”, less than two miles north east of his new administrative headquarters.
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Wikipedia