Wonders of Sergoit Hills

By William Kiptoo Today, I visited the home of the late Joseph Cheserem of Kapsengerut, whose story we recently featured as “The Grassroots Prophet Who Founded the Modern-Day Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA).”   The home is strategically located along the busy Eldoret–Eldama Ravine Road, just past Naiberi and Straughburg, in Uasin Gishu County. It sits on a gentle rise known as Kapsengerut—literally, “the home of Sengerut.” The late Mzee Joseph Cheserem (Sengerut ) the humble farmworker whose faith and vision gave birth to RCEA WHO WAS SENGERUT?  In this quiet but spiritually vibrant homestead stands a church that Mzee Sengerut himself helped to establish in 1992. He donated the land for its construction, and next to it, a massive modern sanctuary is rising — a cathedral expected to hold close to 10,000 worshippers once complete. According to his family, this was Mzee’s vision: a house of worship that would draw people from near and far to praise God.  Just beside ...

 By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut The Iten Viewpoint did not exist before the tarmacking of the Iten Tambach road. What people today casually call Viewpoint was once a dangerous, uninhabited and rocky natural place. In those days, the only marker at that spot was a huge precolonial and colonial era DANGER sign. The warning existed because of the sheer cliff that drops sharply toward the Nyawa and Anin directions, a silent alert to travellers, locals and adventurous wanderers of the peril that lay ahead. In my upcoming memoir book, I will explain the real source and meaning of the name ITEN, a name originally given by our ancestors. It is completely untrue to claim that Iten was named after Joseph Thomson’s Hill Ten or that the name simply means hill number 10. That narrative is false. The true origin of the name lies in the giant rock beside the present day Viewpoint site, a landmark that predates colonial mapping and continues to define the place. From my research and lived memory, It...

By William Kiptoo Joseph Cheserem, popularly known as Sengerut , is regarded as the pioneer of the movement that led to the establishment of the Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA) in Kenya. As a young boy, Cheserem worked on the farm of a former South African settler, Mr. A. J. Mouton, where he was first introduced to the gospel through his employer’s witness. A turning point came when he experienced a dramatic healing after a near-death illness — an event that deeply transformed his faith. Following this miracle, he gave his life to Christ and was baptized in 1953. After his conversion, Cheserem began evangelizing on local farms, passionately sharing the message of salvation. With the support of fellow believers, he persistently appealed to the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NG Kerk) to send a full-time missionary to serve in the area. His efforts bore fruit with the arrival of Eerwaarde Eybers, marking the beginning of what would eventually become the Reformed Church of East Af...

  Author: William Kiptoo et al.   Abstract  Sergoit Hill, formerly known as Sergoit Rock, is a residual rock outcrop on the Uasin Gishu Plateau northeast of Eldoret, Kenya. This synthesis integrates regional geological mapping, geochronology literature, and local land use studies to present the phonolitic origin, morphology, and recent ecological trajectory of Sergoit Hill. Evidence supports emplacement of plateau-scale phonolite flows in Miocene times with protruding Basement System gneiss and quartzite inliers producing the residual outcrop. Human land use, grazing, fire, and later protection have driven vegetation change from sparse rock-dominated cover toward denser shrub and tree growth in protected areas. Recommendations for targeted field mapping, geochemical and geochronological sampling, and long-term ecological monitoring are provided.   1. Introduction Sergoit Hill is a prominent rock outcrop and local landmark on the Uasin Gishu Plateau northeast ...

William Kiptoo s r o t n p S e d o m l 1 2 7 4 9 7 0 3 9 0 3 l t 3 f t 4     m 4 O m 7 3 l 3 a 0 3 b 9 m 2 g c o 0 7 a 2 e f r 1 9 c 5   · Chepkoilel Chepkoilel is located in Moiben, Uasin Gishu. It is historically associated with the Sirikwa people. Oral traditions and archaeological evidence point to the early occupation and settlement of the area by the Sirikwa. Scholarly work on Kalenjin names and local oral histories suggests that the name  Chepkoilel  may refer to stones, specifically the white stones of the Sirikwa clans. In the early 1920s, the area around University of Eldoret (previously  Chepkoilel campus ) was set aside by the colonial government as an experimental or model farm for agricultural development. In 1946, Chepkoilel was developed into a Farmers Training Centre to provide formal training for agricultural technicians. This agricultural purpose explains the extensive landholdings still associated with the campus area today. In 1984, the...

By William Kiptoo Names are never just labels. They carry history, identity, and memory. In Sergoit, the name Livingstone has outlived generations, shifting its meaning with each new era. To the Dutch Reformed Church missionaries in the 1940s, naming their outpost Livingstone was an act of continuity, a way of linking their new mission in Kenya with their previous work in Southern Africa. To the Boer farmers, it was a symbol of faith and familiarity on foreign soil. For the African community that inherited the land after independence, the name was a reminder of a complicated past; a name they accepted but eventually replaced with Simatwet, drawn from the land itself and its heritage. Yet, decades later, Livingstone returned as the name of the local secondary school. Its revival is not so much about honoring colonial memory as it is about the way history stubbornly weaves itself into the present. A name once borrowed from another land has now become rooted in Moiben’s own story. What th...

 By William Kiptoo Rongai Truckers has had a well-known presence on Kenyan highways for many years until 2023 when the Mauritanian conglomerate Rogers Group acquired it through its subsidiary Velogic Logistics as part of a regional expansion strategy. The logistics firm was founded by the Vanesa Evans family in Rongai in 1947. The introduction of cargo operations by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in 2018 significantly impacted the company including other truckers who provided services from the port of Mombasa to various regional destinations. Until recently, the Rongai Workshop and Transport Ltd remained the second-largest transport company in terms of regional destinations it served. The trucking firm counted Tea Companies among its top clients and operated a fleet of about 160 vehicles while employing 270 people. Other major trucking firms in the country include Anwaraki and Brothers, Bollore Logistics, Acceler, Global Logistics, Siginon Freight Group, and DHL. Local trucking...

By William Kiptoo Eldoret, Kenya’s fastest growing town, is writing its future over the remains of its past. Nowhere is this more visible than at Eldoret Cemetery Number 2, also known as the Christian Cemetery. Families who buried their loved ones there fear that new developments, particularly the expansion of Kipchoge Stadium, are edging dangerously close to the graves, threatening to erase them completely. Overgrown grass, vandalized headstones, and the absence of a protective fence have left the cemetery in ruins. The land around it is being consumed by construction. “Every day we see the cemetery shrinking,”  says one relative.  “Our families are being erased in the name of development.” In 2020, families who had loved ones buried at the Christian Cemetery created a WhatsApp group. At first, it was a space for sharing memories. Soon, it became a platform for activism. Members pooled resources to hire a lawyer to pursue legal redress. But the lawyer, they say, has not been ...