Wonders of Sergoit Hills

Compiled by Kipkemoi Araap Korir (Barmoiben) of Mombilen, from extracts of Gerrit Groen's PhD dissertation, The Afrikaners in Kenya, 1903 to 1969 (1974). Summarised here; Groen's own words are quoted only where marked. Throughout Uasin Gishu and beyond are scattered Afrikaner settlements and houses, and names like Kapshad, Kapseet, Kapsimit and Kapkruger abound. The most visible Afrikaner legacies are the Wagon Wheel Hotel, Kruger Farm and the Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA). There is also a story about the Standard Chartered Bank in Eldoret: that it was built around a heavy safe full of cash, brought from South Africa by the Boers. At Farm 64, the story goes, the safe fell off the wagon and the few Boers present could not lift it back, so they built a bank around it, a branch of the Standard Bank of South Africa, which at first refused to open in a mud house but later gave in. The Zionist Detour The Uganda Railway, completed to Lake Victoria in 1901, was expensive, an...

Shared by William Kiptoo, adapted from an academic study of settlers and squatter labour in the Kenya highlands. First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 19 October 2022. The first settlers on the Uasin Gishu were Afrikaners. Many trekkers came from South Africa in 1907 and 1908, led by wealthy stock farmers with cattle and sheep. Despite cross breeding with local stock and constant dipping and dosing, their 70,000 sheep fell to a mere 5,000 within five years, and of all the imported cattle only "a very small herd of Africander cattle" was left by 1919. With stock disease rampant, the Boers turned to wheat. That came naturally to the van Rensburg trekkers of 1908, Transvalers who had grown wheat at Ermelo and left soon after the Swaziland partition, which had cost them winter grazing and raised fears that their Swazi labourers would leave for the new reserves. The Uasin Gishu suited them well: far from the seat of government, perfect for wheat, and cl...

By William Kiptoo Francis Tarar is a son of Sergoit. He grew up on Karo Farm, the son of a squatter on a Boer farm, and rose to become one of the best known figures in Uasin Gishu and in Kenya. Growing Up on a Boer Farm Karo Farm, which locals call Kapkaro, was one of the South African farms around Sergoit, later linked to the Emslie family and to today's Emsilies Primary School. Like many Kalenjin families of the time, Tarar's family lived on the farm as squatters, working for the settler in return for a place to live, to grow a little food and to keep a few cattle. Children of squatter families grew up between two worlds, herding on the farm by day and listening to the stories of their elders at night. That world is described in other stories on this archive, such as Kapkaro/Emsilies and The Uasin Gishu Puzzle . Teacher, Businessman and Sports Leader He was a teacher, a businessman and a sports administrator. He chaired Mwangaza Football Club of Eldoret, which played in...