Eldoret Town Facts: Water, Light, a Town Hall and the First African Mayor

By William Kiptoo

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 24 September 2023.

In 1928 the Railways installed a piped water supply from the Sosiani River, about eight miles away. It was later taken over by the new Municipal Board. The first rates were collected, and the first budget, helped by a government grant of £3,000, allowed some improvements to the town.

In 1933 the Electric Light and Power Company put in an electricity plant, and the main streets could be lit for the first time. Soon after, Eldoret Wattle Estates Limited came into production and supplied the railway with wood fuel for its steam engines right up to 1960.

The Eldoret Town Hall was built in 1956, and in January 1958 the town was raised to Municipal Council status. It then had its first mayor, and in November 1958 the Governor presented the town with its Charter and Mace.

African members had sat on the Board since 1947, and Eldoret was one of the first towns in Kenya to elect an African mayor, Councillor A.N. Oloo, who took office on 2 September 1963.

Some say the first African mayor was Joseph Oloo, as L.S. van Aardt remembered him; others give A.N. Oloo. See Early Days in Eldoret.

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