Nairobi, Aug. 24 -- Ole Kasasi is a neighbourhood of striking contrasts. The former pastoral settlement in Kajiado is one of the fastest growing Nairobi satellite towns.

Yet even as urbanisation drastically changes the landscape, it has refused to entirely shed the customs that predate the construction boom.

Along roads leading in sit small shops, hardware stores and rental houses. Further inside, newly built apartments and gated communities are emerging among older family homes and open stretches of land.

Students rent modest rooms while families buy four-bedroom houses priced tens of millions of shillings. Developers are putting up apartments as sellers divide former expanses of land into smaller plots.

"Here, when we talk about gat...