Situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya. It is the county headquarters of Nyeri County. It is one of the oldest towns in Kenya having been established in the British colonial era. The town was the central administrative headquarters of the country’s former Central Province.
The city is situated about 150 km north of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, in the country’s densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.