Wonders of Sergoit Hills

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs The Last Horseman My search for the Horseman began with an old 1972 photograph of a man on horseback near Kaptagat Preparatory. I eventually traced him to the outskirts of Eldoret, where he welcomed me for an interview that lasted about two hours. He told me that in those days he earned 118 shillings a month, a salary he considered more than enough to eat, drink, and dress well. His life revolved entirely around horses, handling them, shoeing them, and cleaning them. Those who worked with horses were called syces, and he began as one of the junior syces under Mr. Bergman, guided by rally driver Linda Morgan. With time he rose to become an instructor, proud of the work that defined his youth. He still recalls his favourite horse, a white one named Silver, as well as others with memorable names like Whiskey, Mouse, Ballerina, Soda, Firefly, and Tiger. Through my gallery and his collection of photographs and newspaper cuttings,...

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs. Four related posts from The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group, given here in full, one after the other. First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 5 July 2026. The Fosters of Kaptagat: Pioneers of the Kaptagat Arms Hotel Since 1937 It all began with 10 children born to a doctor and his wife, who shared a great love for birds, in Attleborough, Norfolk, England. As young adults in their twenties, the children moved to Uganda, where they engaged mainly in cotton farming and, to a lesser extent, coffee farming. Towards the end of the 1930s, 4 of the siblings moved to Kenya through various places. One of them, Hugh Foster, settled in Kaptagat with his wife, Zoe Clara Battersby, who had been born in 1904. Zoe had her first child, Neville, in 1926. Robert followed in 1931, Francis in 1932, and Mary in 1936. All 4 children were born in Uganda. By the time Neville, Robert and Francis were 4 and 5 years old...

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs During one of my latest visits to Kaptagat, I paid tribute to two remarkable figures in the area’s early colonial history, Hugh and Zoë Foster. The British settler couple played a pivotal role in shaping much of Kaptagat’s early community life. They developed a productive farm, established the Kaptagat Arms, now Kaptagat Hotel, opened a preparatory school and social club, and introduced horse riding and polo to the region. Today, Hugh and Zoë Foster rest peacefully at a serene cemetery mainly reserved for early Anglican Church settlers. Among others buried there is Tom Louw, one of the early pioneer farmers who cultivated pyrethrum. His farm once occupied the land where the Sisters of Mary Immaculate convent now stands, a site that has preserved its historical link to the region’s agricultural beginnings for more than eighty five years. The main purpose of my visit was to locate and honour the graves of the Fosters. Their bu...

By William Kiptoo First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 24 July 2025. Expanded for this archive with my later research on the March Farm of Kaptagat, the history of the Kaptagat Arms Hotel, and the recollections members shared under the original post. Atanas Kandie was one of the most respected post-independence farmers in Keiyo and Uasin Gishu. His name comes up again and again whenever the old people of Kaptagat, Kaptarakwa and Moiben talk about the Keiyo men who first stepped into the farms and businesses that had once belonged only to Europeans. Yet for a man of his standing, surprisingly little has been written about him. This is an attempt to gather what is known in one place. From Soldier to Trader Atanas Kandie was born in Elgeyo Marakwet during the colonial period. Like many young men from the Keiyo escarpment and highlands, he was enlisted in the King's African Rifles during the Second World War and served overseas. Many young men from this ...

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs As I continued researching for my memoir book, I decided to visit the Kaptagat Waterfall. This waterfall has probably existed for thousands of years. It is deeply connected to Kaptagat Preparatory School, and many of my friends have been eager to know what it looks like today. During several interviews I conducted in Kaptagat and with former residents now living in Europe, the waterfall was mentioned repeatedly. Many former students of the preparatory school recalled visiting it for recreation and adventure. Today, I finally went to see it for myself and to confirm whether the stories matched reality. My host lives near the waterfall and has played a significant role in protecting the area since Mr. Edwards and Tax Green left in 1968. The surrounding trees have been carefully maintained. Some appear to be more than sixty years old, standing tall and healthy despite the passage of time. The air around the falls is remarkably f...

A summary of an excerpt from the memoir of Janet Forsy, who spent over five years at Kaptagat Preparatory School in the years before independence. The excerpt was published in the Daily Nation (DN Sunday) on 15 September 2013, updated in 2020, and was later shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group. Because it is a published piece, it is summarised here. The settler Janet Forsy came to know best was Laura, the matron at Kaptagat Preparatory School. Laura and her husband had come to Kenya after the Second World War with their three boys, but they had divorced, and she was left to run a small farm about ten miles away on the Plateau on her own. A woman farming alone was unusual at the time. She found it hard to sell cattle at the Eldoret market, and to make ends meet she took the matron's job in term time, leaving the farm in the hands of her Nandi headman. Because she could not pay him well, he and the other workers kept their families and their own cattle on the farm a...

By William Kiptoo   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 ma...

By Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut, from An Anthology of Memoirs. Shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group. Full text. First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 15 August 2026. Still in lovely Kaptagat, there is an old farmhouse that sits on a farm of over 750 acres. Before 1932, the farm is said to have belonged to a Dutch farmer, although I have not yet been able to establish the identity of the owner. The owner who followed was Mr Hugh Cecil Walter, who arrived in the area around 1933. I am told that he renovated the house to the beautiful state in which it remained until he eventually sold the farm to Atanus Kandie, with the help of his nephew, Joseph Lesiew, who was about 22 years old at the time. I have always had a passion for old houses and structures, those forgotten pieces of history that can still be assembled, piece by piece, to tell a story. This is one such place. There is one person who has become particularly important to this story, Mar...