Tharaka District

Tharaka District is one of the seventy-one districts of Kenya, located in that country's Eastern Province. In 1992, it was split from the large Meru District, along with Meru Central District, Meru North District, and Meru South District.

Tharaka District is the home of the Ameru (Meru) tribe, which is sometimes described as being related to other tribes living around the Mount Kenya region: the Kikuyu and the Embu people. The Ameru are generally called "Bantu" people who have been native to the Mt. Kenya area for many, many years — well before colonization of Kenya by Great Britain in the 19th Century. The people of Tharaka District are now predominantly Christian — Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and other denominations, reflecting the work of missionaries — with also minorities of Indian descent, who are mainly Hindus, and African/Arab descent, who are Muslims. Tharaka also has some resident Europeans predominantly British in ancestry.

The district headquarters is at Tharaka (Marimanti). Tharaka district has only one local authority, Tharaka county council and one constituency: Tharaka. The district has a population of 100,992, none of them classified as urban. The district is divided into three administrative divisions:

External links

* [http://www.aridland.go.ke/districts.asp?DistrictID=11 Tharaka District profile]