The intra-urban distribution of manufacturing industries in Thika town

Abstract

The intraurban distribution of manufacturing industries has received minimal attention from industrial geographers. This paper discusses the distribution of manufacturing industries in Thika town, a medium-sized urban centre in Kiambu District in Kenya. It considers the evolution of the spatial pattern, which has changed considerably since the 1920s, and the factors underlying the pattern both in general and by scale of enterprise. Using the multiple regression forward selection procedure, the study indicates that three variables, price of land, presence of a major highway, and presence of a railway line, in that order, are the most significant variables affecting the spatial distribution of all industries. For large-scale industries the variables are the presence of a railway line, price of land, supply of electricity, and distance from the Central Business District. The distribution of small-scale industries is not influenced by the variables considered in this analysis. Abstr., bibliogr., notes, ref.