The Soldier Settlers of Trans Nzoia, 1919 to 1920

Shared by William Kiptoo. Summarised from Joseph Nabwera's study, European Settlers in Trans Nzoia.

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 25 October 2023.

After the First World War, most of the successful overseas applicants for land in Kenya were former soldiers. In November 1919, 1,500 new settlers came ashore at Mombasa from the chartered ship Garth Castle, opening a new phase of European settlement in the highlands. A sizeable number applied for and were allotted land in Trans Nzoia.

Arthur Champion became the first District Commissioner of Trans Nzoia on 8 October 1920. He first camped on farm 2197 near the southern edge of Kitale township, and on 15 December moved to farm 1802 near the Nzoia River, on land rented from A.C. Hoey. Temporary offices, housing and a prison were built there, and the place became known as the Old Boma.

Captain Pharazyn, one of the soldier settlers, arrived at Mombasa in January 1920. He and his wife took the railway to Londiani, went on to Eldoret by ox wagon, then crossed the Nzoia to take up Cherangani farm in partnership with another European. Major Weller, a Land Office clerk before the war who had served with the King's African Rifles, scouted Trans Nzoia in February 1919 and bought a 3,000 acre farm with two other men.

Pre war settlers sometimes held large estates. A.C. Hoey owned several farms in Cherangani, and Henry Mitford-Barberton, who had grown coffee in Kiambu, bought four Trans Nzoia farms very cheaply at the 1914 land auctions. Most newcomers held 200 to 1,200 acres. Communications were poor, and the government built a bridge over the Nzoia, Hoey's Bridge, now Moi's Bridge, and opened access roads.

Colonial administration was already reaching the African population. In 1920 the DC's court tried 59 Africans under various ordinances, and tax collected in the first quarter came to 10,900 rupees. Yet most of the district was still untouched by European farming. The Konyi used the forests of the Mount Elgon foothills and the fertile west of Trans Nzoia for pasture and crops. Many Bukusu families had crossed the Kisawai and Kamukuywa rivers and settled on alienated land, where the incoming Europeans regarded them as squatters. In the east, the Pokot and Cherangany still grazed freely, though Pokot herders who had moved onto the alienated farms were driven back in November 1919. Settlement, and the measures taken on the settlers' behalf, steadily cut African communities off from land they had always used.

See also Cecil and Gladys Hoey.

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