TBT 10 out of 300 edition

Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
NAIROBI INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR
Nairobi International Trade Fair
History
The Agricultural Society of Kenya (A.S.K) was founded in December 1901 under the name East African Agricultural and Horticultural Society (EAA & HS). The central objective was to promote agricultural development based on European Settlement. This was the brainchild of John Ainsworth, who was the Sub-Commissioner for Ukambani Province. He believed that the organisation was to be an invaluable institution in the struggle to establish and maintain an agricultural export commodity economy. The shows were to be a very important shop window for prospective buyers both local and International. Nairobi became the Society’s Headquarters with the first show held at the Jeevanjee gardens and market in 1902.
Enhancing Technology in Agriculture and Industry for Food Security and National Growth
Nairobi International Trade Fair (NITF) is the largest Trade Fair in the East African Region. It is a seven day event that runs from late September to early October every year. NITF became a Trade Fair in 2002 and now offers opportunities for regional, continental and global exhibitors to display and demonstrate their services and products. It also offers show visitors an opportunity to meet people from different countries and backgrounds, hence creating a platform for interaction and exchanging of ideas and experiences.
A.S.K Product Line
In order to increase revenues, there is a need to broaden the Society’s product line. Currently, the Society’s primary product is the series of annual exhibitions and trade fairs held throughout the country, namely; Nairobi International Trade Fair, Mombasa International Show, Nakuru National Show, Eldoret National Show, Kisumu Regional Show, Nyeri National Show, Kitale National Show, Meru National Show, Nanyuki Branch Show, Embu Branch Show, Machakos Branch Show, Kisii Branch Show, Kakamega Branch Show, Kabarnet Branch Show, Garissa Branch show and Migori Satellite Show. Additionally, the Society is an umbrella organization for a variety of subsidiary organizations.
Nairobi International Trade Fair
The Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC)
RASC fosters linkages with our external partners and stakeholders.
The Agricultural Society of Kenya (A.S.K) was founded in December 1901 under the name East African Agricultural and Horticultural Society (EAA & HS). The central objective was to promote agricultural development based on European Settlement. This was the brainchild of John Ainsworth, who was the Sub-Commissioner for Ukambani Province. He believed that the organisation was to be an invaluable institution in the struggle to establish and maintain an agricultural export commodity economy. The shows were to be a very important shop window for prospective buyers both local and International. Nairobi became the Society’s Headquarters with the first show held at the Jeevanjee gardens and market in 1902.
Significant Milestones Of ASK
1902
First Show
The first show was held on 26th February at the Jeevanjee Gardens and Market.
1903
Two Shows
Two Shows were held one in Jeevanjee Gardens and the other in Mombasa’s Prince Park.
1949
Name Change
The Society changed its name from A &HSK to Royal Agricultural Society of Kenya (R.A.S.K)
1964
Name Change
The Society changed its name to the Agricultural Society of Kenya and His Excellency the 1st President of Kenya the Late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta became the Patron of the Society.
1969
Society Hosted
The Society hosted the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (R.A.S.C) Conference
1972
Society Honored
The Society was honored to host the All Africa Trade fair
1986
International Recognition
The first Preferential Trade Area (P.T.A) Trade Fair was incorporated during the Nairobi National Show. This was to mark the beginning of the Society attaining International recognition.
1995
World Ploughing Contest
The 52nd World Ploughing Contest was held at Ngongongeri Farm, in Egerton University, Njoro.
Today
Patron Of The Society
Today, His Excellency the President Hon. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is the Patron of the Society.


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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
In 1934, the Overseas Transport Company of London introduced the first local bus in Kenya using a fleet of 13 buses on 12 routes. In 1966 the City Council of Nairobi (CCN) gave United Transport Overseas Services (UTOS) the then owners of Kenya Bus Services Ltd (KBS) a monopoly franchise to operate a bus service in return for a 25% shareholding stake in KBS.
This was and still remains the first form of Private Public Partnership (PPP) in Public Road Passenger Transport (PRPT). KBS remained the sole operator of bus transit till the 1970's when Kenyanization and serious lobbying by the local informal sector (Matatu Vehicles Owner's Association and Country Bus Owner's Association) sort to cover the gap left due to high rural – urban immigration.
1986 saw the state introduce Nyayo Bus Service Ltd (and shortly thereafter, the Nyayo - London look - Taxis) in contravention of the then existing Franchise Agreement with CCN but in 7 years, the heavily subsidized but inefficient bus company folded up leaving the unsubsidized but efficient KBS in serious competition with a deregulated and un-taxed informal sector (Para-transit). Failure to regulate and tax Matatus then, was tantamount to subsidizing the sub sector and in effect allowing it to operate without paying its externalities' true cost. The Para-transit mode which thrived and continues to thrive on illegalities was and continues to be allowed to operate outside labour legislation while KBS was heavily unionized, stuck to the rule of law and therefore bore all the costs of labour as per statutes.Masai passengers ready to board a bus in Kenya 1940s
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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
KIKUYU MEDICINE AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES
The treatment of common ailments like stomach pains, flu, headaches, sores etc. was practiced among the Kikuyu by herbalists using natural herbal remedies. Herbalists used barks, roots leaves and other natural products from the forest as a source of their medicines and most men and women had a working knowledge of the cures. Herbal medicine as a science was shared in the community although certain people became more knowledgeable than others and were consulted as professional herbalists or a medicine-man of a lower category. The practice of professional herbal medicine as a craft, ugo was widespread but its professionals were “not taken to be of high standing in native estimation” like the Medicine man proper (Wambugu, 2006:132). Gathigira (1934) calls such a mundu-mugo a ‘mundu-mugo of the granary divining gourd’, mugo wa muano wa ikumbi. In comparison, the more powerful ‘mundu-mugo of the Nyumba divining gourd’, mugo wa muano wa nyumba, a consecrated diviner priest who used his knowledge to get to the bottom of the problem (Gathigira, 1934:60). “According to them diseases must be cured at the root instead of wasting time studying the effects, one must first find out the causes: when these have been dealt with the effects will disappear of themselves.” (Wambugu, 2006:132). The causes of disease were either 1. The infringement of taboo, thahu; 2. The eating of oneself up or conscience; kwiriyaniria. 3. The effects of evil spirits or curses by enemies. (Gathigira, 1934:59). The first was treated through questioning the patient by the mundu-mugo and if the taboo infringement was known, a specific procedure for reversing the effects of the taboo was undertaken. This was the vomiting out of the taboo. If the cause of the problem was the second, there was very little the mundu-mugo could do as the patient was the power behind the problem. In the third case the mundu-mugo set out his divination paraphernalia and through casting beads from his divination gourd and studying the way they arranged themselves, he was able to find out who or what spirit was vexing the patient and what was to be done to placate the spirit or neutralize the curse. The mundu-mugo occupied a high position in Kikuyu society and was consulted by all and sundry including the high and mighty. Every War Council had a mundu- mugo behind it.Below mundu mugo wa ikumbi casting beads to divine a cause with the elders around.
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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Three Italian PoWs Broke Out of a PoW Camp, Not to Escape But to Climb Mount Kenya For Fun!During WW11
When a prisoner of war concocts a plan to escape the prison camp in which he is incarcerated, his greatest is fear is usually being caught and brought back.
Planning to break out and then return to the prison camp from which he has just escaped must seem like an absolutely insane – if not downright suicidal – plan of action.
Yet that is precisely what three Italian prisoners of war managed to do. They were incarcerated at a British POW camp in Kenya, and the aim of their audacious plan was not to get back to Italy but to climb Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa.
Once they had completed their goal, they returned to the prison camp and handed themselves over to the British.
In times of war, the third worst fate that can befall a soldier (after death or serious maiming) is being captured by the enemy.
Throughout the history of warfare, camps for prisoners of war have been notoriously horrific places in which captured soldiers often died from exposure, starvation, or simply being worked or tortured to death.
However, not all prison camps were this awful. During the Second World War, prisoners in British POW camps in Kenya (a British colony at the time) had a miserable time not due to torture, measly rations, or horrific living conditions – but due to boredom.
The Italian prisoners were generally treated well, and fed and housed in decent conditions. However, there was very little to occupy the men, and dealing with the constant boredom was quite a challenge.
Giovanni Balletto, Vincenzo Barsotti, and Felice Benuzzi were three prisoners in Camp 354 in Nanyuki. They came up with a bold, if reckless, plan to combat their boredom: they intended to break out of camp and scale Mount Kenya.
There were three major challenges to overcome in terms of completing their objective, and all were fraught with danger.
The first, obviously, was breaking out of the camp, a risky enough endeavor on its own.
The second was getting to the mountain through enemy territory – and not just any enemy territory, but the wilds of Kenya, full of dangerous animals like lions, elephants, African buffalo, rhinoceroses, and venomous snakes.
The final hurdle was climbing the mountain itself, which was no mean feat, as it rose 5199 meters (just over 17,000 feet) above sea level. It would be extremely challenging even to experienced mountaineers – which these three POWs were certainly not.
Felice Benuzzi was the prisoner who came up with the idea. He first approached a fellow POW who happened to be a skilled and experienced mountaineer.
The man scoffed at the plan, saying there was no way any inexperienced climber could possibly attempt such a feat, especially seeing as they had zero mountaineering equipment.
However, Benuzzi was determined to go through with his plan and did not let the mountaineer’s criticism get in his way.
He next approached Giovanni Balleto and Vincenzo Barsotti, who were eager to join the expedition. Balleto had a little amateur mountaineering experience in the Alps, as did Benuzzi. Barsotti had none, but he was raring for an adventure.
For such a daring plan to succeed, plenty of planning and preparation was necessary. The three prisoners spent eight months getting everything ready.
Using scrap materials, they stitched together their own backpacks. They stole hammers from the prison workshop and cold-forged them into ice picks.
Items salvaged from the trash were used to make crampons. Abunk cot was taken apart, the cords joined together to make a length of rope.
A column of Italian prisoners captured by the British Army.
The men knew very well that they would need a decent supply of food for their expedition, so in the weeks before the planned escape date, they began storing hard-boiled eggs, tinned beef, dried fruit, and cookies.
Some of these were taken from their own rations, the rest they obtained from other prisoners by quitting smoking and trading their weekly cigarette rations.
In a daring move, Benuzzi managed to sneak into the camp commandant’s tent and make an imprint of the gate key in a lump of tar. With the assistance of a fellow prisoner who was a mechanic, he forged a copy.
They used the key to sneak out and bury their food and equipment outside the camp.
The day of the escape was scheduled for January 24th, 1943 – the height of summer in Kenya. They used the key to escape into the camp garden, in which there was a small tool shed.
They hid in the shed until darkness fell, and then they slipped away into the night. Their absence was later discovered, and the escape was confirmed when the commandant found a note addressed to him in which Benuzzi promised that he and the others would return when they had completed their adventure.
Benuzzi and his companions had to cover a lot of ground quickly while avoiding leaving a trail for the British to follow. They did this by moving through the bamboo forests in the foothills of the northwestern ridge of Mount Kenya.
The only map they had to follow was a detailed picture of the mountain they had peeled off an empty food tin they had found in the trash.
Against all the odds, they managed to reach the mountain after a few days and began their climb. Barsotti, a chain-smoker, ran out of breath and had to stop by the time they had gotten 4257 meters (13,966 feet) up the mountain.
They were also beaten back by a heavy snowstorm. Benuzzi and Balleto pressed onward though, determined to reach the summit.
They almost achieved this goal, reaching an altitude of 4999 meters (16,400 feet) – just 198 meters (649 feet) from the summit – where they planted a tiny Italian flag they had made and left a message in a bottle, before turning back.
Eighteen days after they had escaped, they snuck back into the prison camp where they were soon discovered by the guards. After being allowed to have a shower and eat a hot meal, each man was thrown into solitary confinement as punishment for escaping.
They were initially sentenced to 28 days in solitary confinement, but the camp commandant, impressed by the sheer audacity of their plan and the fact they had returned of their own free will, commuted this sentence to seven days each.
The Italian flag they had planted and the bottle they had left on the mountain were later found by British mountaineers. This confirmed that, as unbelievable as it was, these three Italian POWs had almost reached the summit of Africa’s second highest mountain with makeshift equipment, little experience, and no real maps.

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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Kenya was initially known as the British East Africa Protectorate, or British East Africa and it was not until 1920 that it was officially named Kenya.
Parts of history has it that the name Kenya was coined from the Kamba language pronunciation of Mt Kenya’s traditional name, Kilinyaa and Kinyaa.
The mountain, from afar, appeared black on side and white on its snow-capped glaciers and thus they named it kii nyaa (the place of the male ostrich) which is black and white as compared to the gray female.
According to the Nairobi Railway Museum curator, Maurice Barasa, others believe the name Kenya came from Kirinyaga which means a place with white spot.In kamba language the black and white snow covering looked like ostrich plumage and so they called the mountain "Kiima kinyaa" and the name was adopted to Kinyaa which later became Kenya from the colonial tongue. Kinyaa or Kenia as many international tongues pronounce it,below
Mount Kenya seen from the Nanyuki area, 1936
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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Kenya Bunduki Ltd(Guns and cameras shop) along Kenyatta avenue was the oldest and most preferred gun shop, and had international networks with all firearms and ammunition manufacturers and could supply any quantity.pic taken in 1960s
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Pujo and Volkswagen reigned supreme
 
Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
FROM KWA MASAKU TO MACHAKOS
"Tu-thi Ndunyu Kwa-Masaku"
Centuries before colonial rule, the area occupied by Machakos Town (call it a city if you want) was known as Ulu (high-land). It was an ancient trading centre situated between Iveti, Mua and Kiima Kimwe hills. The first two hills form a U-shaped range and the Kiima Kimwe (one-hill) stands at the mouth of the U to make it look like part of a broken ring. This unique geography rendered the place natural defensive features. The place was also moist and fertile and produced food all year round and became a convenient centre for trade caravans that needed supplies for journeys towards and away from the coast of what was to become Kenya.
The 'One Hill' is significant as it is the home of a sub-clan known as Mbaa-Iluvya of the Atangwa principal clan. The progenitor of this clan was a seer and healer extraordinaire known as Iluvya. The name 'Iluvya' in the Kamba language means 'horn' and may refer to pastoralist Maasai (Ukavi) origins, in whole or part. Iluvya’s earliest known ancestor was Munyaati of Utangwa in Mbooni. Such was the fame of Iluvya that he was consulted by clients coming from Ukambani and beyond. Kamba folklore credits him with magical feats such as levitation. To date, Iluvya clan members are prohibited from playfully tossing their children (kuthaakya) because they may float and disappear to the heavens, like their magical ancestor who could also hummer the weakest medicinal plant to a rock (muvou).
Masaku was Iluvya’s son who inherited the magic trade. Masaku was also well known, thus upon the approach of the twentieth century Ulu was better known as ‘Kwa Masaku’.
In addition to supplies, caravans would congregate at Kwa Masaku to obtain Masaku’s medicine that ostensibly would protect them in the long and perilous journey. Upon their return they would head to the same market for cleansing rites to rid them of the strong protective medicine and any unwelcome spells that may have been cast on them in their travels. Otherwise if one just headed straight home without disabling this magic, it could bring grievous harm to family members.Now since the colonists came to Kwa masaku they couldn't pronounce the full words "Kwa masaku"so they coined their own version of the name "kamachakus" which in a decade or two was adopted to Machakus and later Machakos a name known to Kenyans and Kambas to date...
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Mwalimu-G

Mwalimu-G

Elder Lister
Meria said:
also known as Old Ironsides
Click to expand...
What does it mean when something is ironclad?


unbreakable

1 : sheathed in iron armor —used especially of naval vessels. 2 : so firm or secure as to be unbreakable: such as. a : binding an ironclad oath. b : having no obvious weakness an ironclad case against the defendant.
 
Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Mau Mau insurgency used violent means to try bring an end to colonialism in Kenya. One of the main strategies of the movement was assassinations. Those considered most loyal were on top of the list of targets. Freedom fighters who were moderate were also included in this list. Among those who died was the moderate KAU vice chairman Walter Mbotela, Chief Luka of Lari-Kiambu. Senior Chief Kasina Ndoo of Kitui survived with serious injuries what was perceived as an attack by the Kamba faction of the Mau Mau. All such assassinations were immediately followed by brutal reprisals by colonial forces that would result in the death of numerous innocent people – who had no knowledge of the assassins.
The most significant death at the hands of the Mau Mau was that of Chief Waruhiu which took place on 7th October 1952 at the Junction of Limuru Road and Redhill road at the present Gigiri area of Nairobi. Two weeks after this incident, the colonial Governor declared the State of Emergency that lasted for a bloody 4 years.
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Meria

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
NYAWAWA
Long long long time ago our Ancestors died during measles epidemic and were buried in Lake Victoria. Because of agony and pain that befell our land (Luo) the ancestors in death vow to warn us every time an epidemic is just about to strike, it is believed that they come in weird sounds/whistling wind and funny breeze or strong wind. If you happen to hear them pass near your home you are expected to warn your neighbors by beating a metallic object to produce sound and drive them towards the Lake. These are the those days of the covid and Villagers are literally crying that Corona is just about to strike anytime an unusual breeze is felt in the evening,shaken and moved.They are chased by anything that can make sound,from clapping hands,screams renting the night,African whistles,fossil cries,to sufurias and debes to send them back to the lake;ithie mumbo NYAWAWA, it's a culture that makes the best chasers berserk on the errand at night,a wave comes from a far and the chase can go even for ten miles or more.
Like; Nyawawa okadho ka. Wasegoyo depe seche ariyo motuch!!!!
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