Tambach: The Last Colonial Headquarters of Elgeyo Marakwet

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 15 August 2025.

The following account is part of and based on oral testimonies collected by me from elders of Elgeyo Marakwet, combined with recollections passed down from those who lived through the colonial and early post-independence era. While photographs and surviving buildings provide physical evidence, the deeper truth of Tambach’s history lives in the stories of its people. This narrative blends eyewitness memory with known historical records to preserve a heritage that is in danger of fading.

Tambach District Commissioner’s Office was the last gazetted colonial headquarters of Elgeyo Marakwet before independence. It stood, and still stands, almost exactly on the border between two clans, the Terik and the Saniak. Located about 6.8 miles from Iten, on the left as you head to Kabarnet, the site was chosen in the 1940s for its warm climate and its pure water source, Kabei.

Kabei water was so pure that children were warned never to play or stir it. The elders told them, half in jest and half in threat, that if they dirtied the spring their heads would be taken under the thick chepkomon shrubs that shaded the source. Such warnings kept the spring pristine.

For a lover of relic photographs, colonial structures, and settler-era establishments, Tambach is a treasure chest. This is my ancestral land, the land of the big elephants, totem of my clan, who came here to the slopes of Rimoi more than 200 years ago.

Among the relics, there is an old brick house, said to have been the chief’s office in the 1960s. The District Commissioner’s office still stands, next to the police inspector’s office. In the 1950s, the DC was Hugh John Simpson, and the District Officer was Walter Levinge Anthony. Later, in 1960, the DC was Gerrard Montfirt Bebb. They were always guarded by colonial police. There was a tin sentry house, prefabricated and functional, still standing today, where guards sheltered on duty.

Before Tambach became the fixed administrative center, Elgeyo Marakwet District had been governed from four other places: Eldoret, Kapsowar, Eldama Ravine, and Kamriny. Then came Tambach, with its main white building, solid and with pillars that have defied the weather as though time itself were harmless.

On one doorway, the word “Communication Office” can still be read. The whole compound was once a fortified headquarters. A rain gauge stands in one photograph, a standard colonial fixture. Rainfall data was vital for agriculture, taxation, and food security, and every DC’s monthly report to Nairobi included the readings.

Not far from that rain gauge is the stump of an East African cedar tree planted by a DC in 1954, 71 years old today if it still stood. These trees were planted as symbols of power, permanence, and as landmarks. People could say, “The DC's office with the tall cedar tree.”

Two flagpoles stand side by side, as they did in every colonial station: one for the Union Jack, the other for the flag of the Kenya Colony.

From the wazees, I heard of a forest in Marakwet called Kamotony, between Kapsowar and Cheptongei. The Marakwet call it Metpo Pkana Yuus, the place of Mr. Hugh’s head. The story goes that Hugh John Simpson, the Tambach DC in the 1950s, was killed there during the State of Emergency. The exact reasons are unclear to me, but the place still bears his name and until recently, there was a headstone.

Tambach is a place of stories, African Government School, the 1931 catholic church, the hospital, the colonial prison, and the headquarters that once were.

One of my favourite memories is of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s visit after independence. Driving down the steep road (around the present Iten abattoir), his motorcade passed a sign: DANGER: You Are Now Entering a Protected District. Kenyatta is said to have laughed, asking, “How can I go to danger when I have already seen a danger sign?” Not long after, a visitors’ book that he was going to sign in Tambach on his tour was brought to him where he had stopped, and the decision was made: Iten would become the new headquarters. The change was later confirmed, once permanent buildings were completed there.

Tambach remains a living museum of colonial history, its walls, trees, and flagpoles whispering the stories of another age.

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 15 August 2025.