Since the completion of Thika Superhighway a couple of years ago that opened Thika town to the outside 'world', the pineapple town as Thika is popularly known, has witnessed a booming and flourishing nightlife.
Visiting Thika at any time of the night you will realize that the town is a beehive of activities as residents, businesspeople and what have you, go about their activities with little regard to the engulfing darkness thanks to street lights that illuminate the town at every corner and turn.
However, the flourishing nightlife is perhaps facing the biggest challenge ever occasioned by the recent and massive infiltration of the town by 'chokoraas'.
Many Thika residents can admit that the town, just like many others across Kenya, has always had 'chokoraas' but it has never been infiltrated by 'chokoraas' as it is the case now.
Walking around the town from as early as 8pm, you will find 'chokoraas' scattered everywhere. This menace has gotten out of control to an extent that these street urchins are storming hotels where they forcefully steal clients' food right from the table.
"Last night at around 11pm they beat up an employee at Atam Fast Foods cafe near Thika Arcade after he denied them entry.
I do not think these are hungry street kids looking for something to eat but criminals who should be dealt with as such," James Kamau, a hotelier in the town said on Wednesday.
Benson Kimani, a motorbike rider in the town notes that the seemingly bold 'chokoraas' have also resorted into forceful begging.
"I do not know whether it is because of the ongoing hunger in the country or what, but these street kids are nowadays even begging using force. Less than a week ago we had to chase a group of them away when they almost beat up a lady who failed to give them money," he says.
During the day, Jane Ndinda, a second-hand clothes hawker next to Thika's Kassmatt Supermarket, says that marauding street children have become a nuisance to people taking rest at the nearby Christina Gardens.
Ndinda says that the garden has had several incidences of the same kids grabbing food from old people and women especially nursing mothers before escaping into thin air.