Hidden Histories - Njoro
by Andrew Nightingale
" I loved Njoro from the first. There was a freshness in the air, an exhilarating sparkle
in the sunlight. To wake each morning to regard that great, spreading view across the
Rift, was a delight daily renewed." - Elspeth Huxley
Njoro is a shambling little town set in the foothills of the Mau above Lake Nakuru. Driving through its streets it’s seems like any other up country agricultural town, but it isn’t. There’s something different about it, it is an old town hiding a fascinating history behind its modern day goats, clapped out tractors and reams of dust. Nobody would imagine that it was Lord Delamere’s ambition to turn Njoro into the capital of the Kenya/Uganda Protectorate, the hub of East Africa but it was not to be.
In 1904 Delamere received his first grant of land in the highlands to the north of Mile 464 of the newly completed railway. He was awarded a stretch of land between Njoro (so named from the massai word ol-corro meaning spring) and north to the Molo river which covered 100,000 acres. He called his land Equator Ranch. Here he laid the foundations of modern farming in East Africa, through trial, error, and tremendous financial risk. The local Maasai never grazed their livestock in the area as over time they withered away and died, anyone else who brought livestock in suffered the same misfortune. (It was later discovered that a total lack of colbalt was the trace mineral the herbivores were lacking, and once discovered was supplemented into their diet making future livestock farming possible).
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Live like you might die tomorrow,
Farm like you’re going to live forever.
Having survived the Boer War in South Africa, a young adventurer called Powys Cobb wandered north to spy out the land and look for a place to settle down. He found his dream spot on the edge of the Mau mountain range near Keringet, at an altitude too high for the Maasai to use. He invited his wife to join him and in 1908 he collected her off the train with his ox wagon. Their entourage consisted of their two small daughters, a nanny, four bulls each of a different breed, six thoroughbred mares and a stallion, two bloodhounds, two kittens, an assortment of ducks, geese, turkeys and hens, and trunk loads of clothes, furniture, saddlery, tools and general possessions. Arriving on the farm, Mrs. Cobb realized that the substantial home she was expecting to furnish had not left her husband’s imagination and was yet to become a reality. She had even bought soft furnishings from Heales in London.
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FARMSTAY IN KENYA
by Andrew Nightingale
When the “Lunatic Line” at last reached the shores of Lake Victoria, scores of adventurers traveled through the highlands of British East Africa, looking for a new life. Among these was the Fey family who found they were not officially allowed to own land and settle, until it had been surveyed by HM’s government. However they did find a loophole in the law, they were allowed to peg out a mining claim anywhere one saw fit to do so. In this way such ‘miners’ had to start farming to subsidize their ‘barren’ claims. This they did, until the government surveyor eventually put them on the map and they then officially became farmers.
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