Makueni County is a county in the former Eastern Province of Kenya. Its capital town is Wote. It's the largest town in the county. Emali town which is an important market and stop over for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), is another major town in the county. It is multicultural and adds diversity to Makueni County. The county had a population of 987,653 in the 2019 census. The county lies between Latitude 1° 35' and 2° 59' South and Longitude 37° 10' and 38° 30' East. It borders Machakos County to the North, Kitui County to the East, Taita Taveta County to the South and Kajiado County to the West and covers an area of 8,008.9 km2.

Physical and topical features

The county has a number of prominent features in including volcanic Chyullu hills which lie along the South West border of the county Mbooni hills in Mbooni sub county and Kilungu and Iuani hills in Kaiti sub county, Makongo forest and scenic view, Makuli forest and Nzaui hill.

Climatic conditions

The county experience semi-arid climatic conditions with an average temperature range between 15C – 26C and Annual rainfall ranges between 250mm to 400mm per annum on the lower regions of the county and the higher region receives rainfall ranging from 800mm to 900mm.

Demographics

The county has a total population of 987,653 of which 497,942 females and 20 intersex persons. There are 77,495 household with an average household size of 5.8 persons per household and a population density 6 people per square kilometre.

Religion

Religion in Makueni County

Administrative and political units

Administrative units

There are 6 sub counties, 16 divisions, 63 locations and 127 sub-locations.

Sub-counties

Political units

It has 6 constituencies and 30 county assembly wards and 60 sub-wards.

Political leadership

Kivutha Kibwana is the first and former Governor after being elected in 2013 and 2017 general elections. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr is the current Governor and has been senator since 2013. Rose Museo Mumo is the first elected women representative and was re-elected in 2017 general elections. For Makueni County, the County Executive Committee comprises:-

Members of parliament in Makueni County 2017–2022

Education

There are 78 ECD centres 997 primary schools and 375 secondary schools. The county has also 3 teachers training colleges, 37 Youth Polytechnics, 231 adult training institutions, 2 technical training institutions, 3 university campuses.

Health

There is a total of 156 health facilities, 726 hospital beds and 1261 cots in the county. County has 815 health personnel of different cadre. HIV prevalence rate is 5.1% in 2017.

Transport and Communication

There is one air strip and 8 railway lines with total coverage of 140 km. The county is covered by 7670 km of road network. Of this 6,776 km is covered by earth surface, 706 km is murram surface and 188 km of surface is covered by Bitumen. There are twenty post office with 4,850 installed letter boxes, 3,302 rented letter boxes, 1,548 vacant letter boxes and 31 licences stamp vendors.

Trade and Commerce

There are 420 trading centres, 17,390 registered businesses, 153 banking services (including agents & insurance, 882 mobile service providers and 382 agro-vets, chemists& pharmacies.

Universities and colleges in Makueni County

Constituencies

Since 2010, county has six constituencies:

Other Divisions

South Eastern Kenya Region

Urbanisation

Source: OpenDataKenya

Wealth/Poverty Level

Source: OpenDataKenya Worldbank

Villages and settlements

Notable people