Kaptagat

 Kaptagat area in Uasin Gishu (or is it in Elgeyo Marakwet?) used to be home of colonial settlers, mostly from England. There were around 18 farms up on the Kaptagat ridge, and they even had a fancy hotel (Kaptagat Hotel) with a beautiful garden that the settlers took care of.

One of the first settlers, the Fosters, started up Kaptagat Preparatory School back in 1936 on their farm. At first, the school was for kids aged 5 to 14, mostly white settlers. The Fosters even set up horse riding lessons for the students. Then in 1956, Jim Chitty took over as headmaster and bought the school from the Fosters. He wanted to make it more like a prep school you'd find in the U.K.
Their "Musical Ride" got pretty famous in the Highlands region, and they even performed it for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at the Eldoret show in 1958. But in 1970, Jim Chitty left to start up another school called The Banda in Nairobi. The name originated from Kibanda (Swahili for makeshift) classrooms at he Kapagat Preps school.
By the mid-1980s, the school was sold to the Africa Inland Church. It was a premier school until early 1990s when it started dropping. And that's the story of how Kaptagat Preparatory School changed hands over the years.
Photo and history courtesy of Kaptagat Prep school.



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