1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Kenya
Compare this sourced profile of Ruiru, Kenya before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Ruiru—490,120, Africa/Nairobi, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Ruiru is GeoNames ID 181032. Its recorded administrative path is Kiambu County → Kenya, and GeoNames classifies the place as a populated place. Ruiru occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2021-12-12; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Ruiru ranks 1,166 by recorded population. Inside the 5 selected Kenya entries it ranks 5; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 234. Its 490,120 population value is 0.41 times the 1,208,333 median for the country cohort and 0.54 times the 902,588 regional median. Ruiru is rank 5 among the 5 selected Kenya entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Ruiru's recorded value is materially below the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Ruiru's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Nairobi at 22.09 km with 4,397,073 recorded people; Nakuru at 135.922 km with 570,674 recorded people; Arusha at 248.773 km with 617,631 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 226.683 km. Compared with Nairobi, Ruiru's recorded population is 0.11 times as large. Against Ruiru, Nairobi follows Nairobi County → Kenya in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Kenya cohort, uses the shared Africa/Nairobi identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Ruiru's. Against Ruiru, Nakuru follows Nakuru County → Kenya in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Kenya cohort, uses the shared Africa/Nairobi identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Ruiru's. Against Ruiru, Arusha follows Arusha City → Arusha → Tanzania in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Tanzania cohort rather than Kenya, uses Africa/Dar_es_Salaam instead of Africa/Nairobi, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than populated place. Its recorded population is above Ruiru's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 277 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Ruiru's nearest-coordinate gap falls between the tightest tenth and quarter of the atlas. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 181032, the coordinate pair 1.1467 / 36.9609, country rank 5 of 5, and neighbor GeoNames 184745 at 22.09 km bind Ruiru to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Ruiru's reference point is 1.1467° south and 36.9609° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Nairobi is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPL is shared by 243 rows. Ruiru's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Ruiru's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Ruiru's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Ruiru, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Ruiru's closest other entries in this atlas are Nairobi (22.09 km), Nakuru (135.922 km), Arusha (248.773 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Ruiru, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2021-12-12; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.