County Government of Laikipia

Apart from creating a conducive environment for the growth of businesses, the idea of smart towns is spawning novel activities hitherto witnessed in Laikipia County.

The clean tarmacked streets in the emerging smart towns is capturing the imagination of the younger generation of Laikipia as they try their skills in sports activities that were previously impossible in the county, like skating.

Now there is a skating club in Nanyuki.

The club in collaboration with the County Department of Education, Sports, Youth, and Social Services has come up with skating activities for the community within Nanyuki town.

The revamped Marina Car Park next to the County Commissioner's gate all the way down to GT Bank is normally closed every Sunday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm to create a zone for skating activities by youths.

We had Nanyuki@100 celebrations in December last year and one of the activities marking the centenary was a skating competition in the CBD on a Sunday. That's where we borrowed the idea from says James Mwangi, the chief officer.

Children and youth have been using the newly tarmacked streets of Sipili, Kinamba, Nyahururu, and Nanyuki. This has been quite a risk in terms of their safety so we have seen it wise to create skating zones in our towns starting with Nanyuki as a pilot. he added.

The initiative promotes the development of sports and brands in our towns to remain alive within the streets.

With the upgrade of many towns in Laikipia, the skating activities will be rolled out to other towns by providing skating zones to promote growth in all spheres. This initiative will help develop lively towns with more secure streets since people will always feel safe if the streets in the towns are busy.

The ultimate goal of having skating zones across all towns in Laikipia is to organize competitions that will promote modern sporting activities.

In addition, skating will be of great importance to the participant's health as they will keep fit as well as develop talent. It will also give them a chance to interact with their peers from different households. On the other hand, the activity will create business opportunities as the participants together with the spectators will have to buy food and snacks from business people in the town that in turn improve their economic status.