BAHATI RIDGE DEVELOPMENT LTD
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Kenya’s premier gated community
Located a mere 45 minutes drive from Nairobi’s central business district, Bahati Ridge was the first gated community in Thika, Muranga County and presents an exciting selection of townhouses, villas, bungalows and cottages amid beautiful country views and a rural ambiance.
With the promise of providing a refreshing escape from the city chaos, the project broke ground in 2011 where the units were being sold ready for construction of the first phase, which ended in 2014 and consisted of 72 homes.
Bahati Ridge is a family-owned project, built upon land that was purchased in 1974 and has been gradually transformed from a coffee farm, to a horticultural farm and finally has changed quite dramatically to a gated community.
“Around 10 years ago the family sought to preserve the farm and its special appeal, deciding to open it up to other families that might like to have a similar experience,” explains the Bahati Ridge Managing Director, Margaret W Kibe. “The logistical move at that point was to develop a new gated community, filled with carefully planned homes that would enable owners to enjoy the countryside fresh air while being surrounded by acres of farm land, rivers and lush greenery.”
Bahati Ridge offers its residents the chance to experience enchanted country living, combined with the unique feel of a suburban home. The impressive services available for your convenience include common area gardening and cleaning services, internet, Intercom, CCTV security surveillance, 24 Hour guarding services, radio alarm back-up, an electrified perimeter green fence, common area lighting and water, solar water heating, inverter provision and much more.
New challenges
At every level of the project there is a sense of family within it, with many of the current Bahati Ridge team having been there right from the beginning.
“In order to get a job with us, there needed to be a fundamental interest in real estate and green developments,” continues Kibe. “All of our employees are required to know everything about who we are and what our brand and message is.
“I used to be the Marketing and Communications Director before becoming Managing Director of the Company, and subsequently carried out a lot of the training of our current personnel when it came to marketing and brand awareness.”
Now that the first phase of the Bahati Ridge is complete, the Company is carefully managing its workforce increase and has up-skilled many of its current employees in order to take on the new challenges they are faced with.
Kibe adds: “These people have been with us right from the beginning and therefore they completely understand what it is we are trying to achieve both now and in the future.
“We are well aware that at times there is also the need to bring in external experts in order to fulfil certain roles; a prime example of this was finding the right level of security for the people living in our community.
“Customer service training is now paramount in our community given that we now have 100 capacity currently resident in Phase 1 of Bahati Ridge and we continue to train and improve on that front.”
Green living
Based out in the countryside,
Bahati Ridge offers a full picture of tranquillity, complete with birds, trees and rivers, clean air, less hassle and no stress.
“That is who we are, and we are incredibly proud of our past and ongoing work that has led to this point of success,” states Kibe. “We are selling a lifestyle that you aren’t going to receive in the city, avoiding the hectic routine that might be your working life.”
While completely dedicating itself to achieving a tranquil environment for its residents, Bahati Ridge is also focused on becoming completely green in order to achieve long-term benefits for both the development and the country. This effort has included a tireless concentration on monitoring the use of its resources, for example energy and water.
“For us, going green is about considering what we can do to prevent any degradation to our immediate
environment,” Kibe describes. “We have closely studied the ways that we can use energy differently, for example, using solar power to light up our common areas is something that we will be implementing into phase two of our development.
“I want us to get off the grid and stepup our game in regards to energy, and at present we are in discussions to install a solar farm as we have the acreage to do so in the near future. There is no reason why we should not be using solar power energy and we are dedicated 100 percent to achieving this.”
Sustainable development
At Bahati Ridge, ensuring that the estate becomes truly ‘green’ has been vital to plans for development of the second phase, and that need encompasses its new marketing campaign in which it is confident it will become the first green certified gated community in Muranga County.
“When it comes to sustainable developments at both Bahati Ridge and in Kenya on a larger scale, we have to remember that we are a developing country and therefore cannot justify unnecessary expense on developments that won’t be beneficial to the future,” explains Kibe. “With our housing we are closely looking at using sustainable energy to run it, and this is seen at both Bahati Ridge and my own project named Sereneki Ridge.
“If we can start to set the path in this direction, conserving water and energy, we can in turn set the cogs in motion to make ourselves as sustainable as possible as a country and not just singular developments.”
As part of its certification, the Company is utilising materials that are available naturally and which subsequently fit perfectly into Bahati Ridge’s sustainable plans for the future.
Kibe concludes: “That is a factor that is incredibly important to us as I know that we each have our part to play and ours is starting with this project and moving towards the sustainable development of Kenya.”