TBT The 5th Edition
- Thread starter Meria
- Start date
After killing Pio Gama Pinto a Kenya politician of Indian,Goan origin, Jomo Kenyatta went on to murdering Tom Mboya a Jaluo.
In all the 2 murders he got away with no consequences.
He rolled on to murdering a fellow Kikuyu, a nationalist and a populist JM Kariuki.
That's when Kenyatta realised he also had a limit.
The old goat fled to Mombasa hid in a merchant ship ready to flee the country .
That's when Charles Njonjo the then Attorney General of Kenya worked out a plan to rally Kenyans behind Jomo Kenyatta and to divert Kenyans from asking for Kenyatta's blood.
Njonjo and McKenzie ( Mackenzie a white Kenyan minister who was later murdered by Amin and Kenyatta ) contacted Idi Amin and begged Amin to lay claim on Eastern Kenya to build up nationalistic feelings inside Kenya to kill off Kenyans' anger towards Kenyatta.
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Jomo Kenyatta bought the Rolls Royce Phantom V at the London Motor Show during the 3rd Lancaster Conference in Oct 1963.It was said that as early as 1960 every Kenyan family and KANU member had to contribute 1shilling for the purchase and it was madatory.
With a price of tag of £ 7,305, the dark blue limo was the most expensive car on display.
It became a symbol of opulence that J Boulton, the head of East African department at the FCO wrote:
"It is not only in Kenya that part of the British community envy Mr Kenyatta's acquisition of an example of a Rolls Royce craft."
On 4th November 1963, Inspector Ndisi who had been selected as the chauffeur, arrived in Britain to undergo a two week course in maintenance at Rolls Royce Centre at Goodwood.
The limo had already been loaded on a ship to Kenya on 1st November 1963, and it was expected that by the time it reached Mombasa Ndisi would have flown back to Kenya to recieve it.
The Americans had already gifted Kenyatta a Lincoln Continental convertible , and the Germans determined not to be left behind, had also organised for a Mercedes Benz to be presented to Kenyatta on independence day.
The British fearing that the German car maker was likely to steal the limelight from British car makers, demanded that officials from Rolls Royce should attend Kenya's independence celebrations, but this was not possible.
Nevertheless, the Rolls Royce limo arrived at the port Mombasa ,albeit with some delay in offloading, and was driven to Nairobi by Ndisi.
Rolls Royce had committed to fly-in replacement parts and a fitter in case it broke down.
With a price of tag of £ 7,305, the dark blue limo was the most expensive car on display.
It became a symbol of opulence that J Boulton, the head of East African department at the FCO wrote:
"It is not only in Kenya that part of the British community envy Mr Kenyatta's acquisition of an example of a Rolls Royce craft."
On 4th November 1963, Inspector Ndisi who had been selected as the chauffeur, arrived in Britain to undergo a two week course in maintenance at Rolls Royce Centre at Goodwood.
The limo had already been loaded on a ship to Kenya on 1st November 1963, and it was expected that by the time it reached Mombasa Ndisi would have flown back to Kenya to recieve it.
The Americans had already gifted Kenyatta a Lincoln Continental convertible , and the Germans determined not to be left behind, had also organised for a Mercedes Benz to be presented to Kenyatta on independence day.
The British fearing that the German car maker was likely to steal the limelight from British car makers, demanded that officials from Rolls Royce should attend Kenya's independence celebrations, but this was not possible.
Nevertheless, the Rolls Royce limo arrived at the port Mombasa ,albeit with some delay in offloading, and was driven to Nairobi by Ndisi.
Rolls Royce had committed to fly-in replacement parts and a fitter in case it broke down.
HOUSING AND GRAFT IN NAIROBI
The town(Nairobi then) was then demarcated around 1905 through racial segregation and land was designated to different races; the Europeans, Indians, and Africans. Africans, who were mainly laborers and generally poor, received urban fringe to the east of the city, popularly known as the Eastlands. This became a low income, high-density area. It is here that one can find numerous institutional-owned housing estates that were developed to house workers.
One of the notable old estates is Ofafa Jericho, an estate which lies 300-hectares north of Makadara and west of Buru Buru Estates. It was developed as from the 1950s by the then City Council of Nairobi, with an aim of housing about 10,000 people. However, this has changed over the years as population continues to grow. The area was set up with a housing scheme in mind, with proper streets to allow circulation within the estate, a community hall, and numerous open spaces. The basic house design comprises of blocks of the same size that are laid out in rows. The aim of the estate was to provide cheap housing and even today, over fifty years later, the Ofafa Jericho residents pay cut-rate rents, despite being in a prime area that is very close to the Central Business District.
Graft and the city: How side deals have bogged down Nairobi from its infancy.
Ofafa,The estate was at the centre of a corruption scandal between the city mayor and contractors.
A tarpaulin for a sick cow, an occasional bottle of brandy to soothe an ailing wife and a lorry full of sand was enough to buy the city engineer’s consent.
These gifts by a Nairobi municipal contractor, sweetened with free flow of liquor, ushered the city engineer into the dark world of cartels which would claim the life of a colleague and destroy the careers of many.
The horrors of this dalliance between the city engineer and contractor Stone and Chanan Singh, who was contracted by the Nairobi City Council to build houses, were later exposed by a commission of inquiry.
Nairobi started its journey as a city on a wrong footing. After barely a year into its new status, it was so mired in corruption that in 1955, three commissioners had to be flown from London to unravel the complex web of graft.
Largest development
Singh had won a tender to construct Ofafa and Mbotela estates meant to accommodate 65,000 people in a period of five years.
At stake was the largest housing development ever planned in British colonial Africa, which as David Anderson states in his book, Histories of the Hanged, was an investment of £10 million (about Sh1.3 billion).
The housing project was known as Donholm Triangle Housing, and was to cover Mbotela and the Donholm Neighbourhood Scheme also known as the Ofafa estate.
The ambitious project almost collapsed at one point after 13 councillors rejected it, slightly losing to their 14 counterparts. The feeling was that the colonial government was using a colossal amount of money to cater for native housing.
But when it was approved, corrupt city fathers led by their mayor Israel Somen and his deputy turned it into a cash cow.
It is against this background that Sir Alan Rose, a London based barrister, arrived in the country on December 13, 1955 to a cold reception from the city council which was knee-deep in corruption.
The inquiry began on December 19, 1955 and would listen to 90 witnesses in 66 public sessions which lasted up to March 27, 1956.
The commission learnt that Chanan Singh and his brother Gulchand Singh had been supplying the engineer, Stone, with liquor at his home so that he could give favourable terms.
“Chanan Singh was in the habit of giving occasional bottles of brandy to Mr Stone for the benefit of his wife, who was in poor health, the suggestion being that the brandy in question could only be obtained at a source known to Singh,” reads the report
The contractor had also repaired Stone’s car and provided him with a tarpaulin to cover his sick cow and at one time supplied him with sand and ballast.
There were several other corruption rackets going on in the city at the time. One of the scams involved a group of fire-fighters who syndicated corruption, and had even opened a joint bank account where money realised from sale of stolen property was stashed.
The city fire department was in a shambles as a group of workers led by the fire master, Wallace, had a habit of selling the department’s equipment.
In one instance, the manager of Pitt-More Estate in Kiambu approached the fire master for some pipes for irrigation.
He was referred to a duka behind Victoria street where he got 1,000 feet of the pipe and unwittingly issued a cheque to the fire master of the City Council.
Misplaced cheque
However, on October 28, 1953, the City Treasurer wrote to Howarth, and unwittingly gave away the game:
“Dear sirs, I have received your cheque for Sh3,465 made out to Nairobi Fire Services and will be glad to know what account this is for.”
He followed it up by returning the cheque on November 3, 1953 with a cover letter:
“Our Fire Master assures us that no hosing has been purchased from us, so I return your cheque herewith.”
Meanwhile, the fire master told Howarth that their deal was private as the house was not a council property and instructed him to write another cheque to GM Perrin.
Perrin, who was a firefighter, later explained that he had opened the account on July 14, 1953 with Standard Bank of South Africa and that it was jointly owned by colleagues Anderson and Walker.
They had set up the syndicate after they arrived in Nairobi and had financial problems setting up home for their families.
In yet another daring plot, a water engineer discovered that he could make more money and live a luxurious life if he excavated stones in trenches where there were none and made his employer pay for the excavations.
The engineer, Harold Whipp, thought a befitting gift to Nairobi upon being elevated into a city in 1954 was shallow water and sewer trenches without pipes in some places so that he could pocket some money to finance his lavish lifestyle.
There was damning evidence before the commission showing Whipp had conspired with contractor, Ismail & Company, who was excavating a trench for the water pipeline along Ngong Road.
Apparently, Whip had ordered his junior Keogh to enter fictitious figures of rock which had been excavated from the trench so that the contractor could be paid. In return, Whipp and Keogh were given goodies including fully paid holiday trips to Mombasa.
Things took a nasty turn when Keogh refused to cooperate and Whip resorted to threats warning him that if he reported the matter, he, too, would be in trouble for he had given fake certificates.
At one point, when the commission went to inspect sections of the trench which had no rock or pipes, Whipps hired firefighters from the city council so that they could cover the trenches. They also discovered that the engineer had tampered with his water meter so that he could pay lower bills.
When the going got too tough and Whipp was arrested and found to have stolen records which incriminated him in the scandal, he committed suicide on learning that he was about to be prosecuted.
“According to the Coroner’s verdict, Whipp met his death by his own hand on the railway line near Nairobi on February 13, having previously been arrested and released on bail on January 30...”
At the time of his death, he had cost the city council about £11,645 (Sh1,630,300) by today’s exchange rate.
The commission also learnt that Somen (mayor) had also supplied 400 substandard flush panel hardboard doors for the Mbotela housing project sold at exorbitant rates.
Two European contractors were also indicted for conspiring with City Hall to be paid Sh16,154 without supplying any goods.
Private swimming pool
The mayor and his deputy, Dobbs Johnson, were put on the spot for failing to declare their interests in companies supplying goods to the council. Somen had used council workers for the construction of his private swimming pool.
It has been more than a half a century since the scandal was unearthed at City Hall, but some of the problems they created still persist.
The houses built in Ofafa and Mbotela still stand, although age and poor workmanship have taken their toll. The Nairobi County Government which has been grappling with numerous housing scandals, is also planning to demolish the old houses to create space for erection of skyscrapper apartments and create more houses.
In its renewal project, the county government intends to redevelop over 2,000 acres in estates such as Kaloleni, Bahati, Ziwani, Mbotela, Jericho and Shauri Moyo where about 80,000 units will be constructed at a cost of more than Sh40 billion, in projects dubbed Nairobi renewal project.
The plight of the people living in the condemned estates is captured by 48-year-old George Magani, who told us: “Although my one bedroom house in Ofafa is in deplorable state, it’s the only home I know. I was born here and I do not know where I will go if we are evicted.”
The town(Nairobi then) was then demarcated around 1905 through racial segregation and land was designated to different races; the Europeans, Indians, and Africans. Africans, who were mainly laborers and generally poor, received urban fringe to the east of the city, popularly known as the Eastlands. This became a low income, high-density area. It is here that one can find numerous institutional-owned housing estates that were developed to house workers.
One of the notable old estates is Ofafa Jericho, an estate which lies 300-hectares north of Makadara and west of Buru Buru Estates. It was developed as from the 1950s by the then City Council of Nairobi, with an aim of housing about 10,000 people. However, this has changed over the years as population continues to grow. The area was set up with a housing scheme in mind, with proper streets to allow circulation within the estate, a community hall, and numerous open spaces. The basic house design comprises of blocks of the same size that are laid out in rows. The aim of the estate was to provide cheap housing and even today, over fifty years later, the Ofafa Jericho residents pay cut-rate rents, despite being in a prime area that is very close to the Central Business District.
Graft and the city: How side deals have bogged down Nairobi from its infancy.
Ofafa,The estate was at the centre of a corruption scandal between the city mayor and contractors.
A tarpaulin for a sick cow, an occasional bottle of brandy to soothe an ailing wife and a lorry full of sand was enough to buy the city engineer’s consent.
These gifts by a Nairobi municipal contractor, sweetened with free flow of liquor, ushered the city engineer into the dark world of cartels which would claim the life of a colleague and destroy the careers of many.
The horrors of this dalliance between the city engineer and contractor Stone and Chanan Singh, who was contracted by the Nairobi City Council to build houses, were later exposed by a commission of inquiry.
Nairobi started its journey as a city on a wrong footing. After barely a year into its new status, it was so mired in corruption that in 1955, three commissioners had to be flown from London to unravel the complex web of graft.
Largest development
Singh had won a tender to construct Ofafa and Mbotela estates meant to accommodate 65,000 people in a period of five years.
At stake was the largest housing development ever planned in British colonial Africa, which as David Anderson states in his book, Histories of the Hanged, was an investment of £10 million (about Sh1.3 billion).
The housing project was known as Donholm Triangle Housing, and was to cover Mbotela and the Donholm Neighbourhood Scheme also known as the Ofafa estate.
The ambitious project almost collapsed at one point after 13 councillors rejected it, slightly losing to their 14 counterparts. The feeling was that the colonial government was using a colossal amount of money to cater for native housing.
But when it was approved, corrupt city fathers led by their mayor Israel Somen and his deputy turned it into a cash cow.
It is against this background that Sir Alan Rose, a London based barrister, arrived in the country on December 13, 1955 to a cold reception from the city council which was knee-deep in corruption.
The inquiry began on December 19, 1955 and would listen to 90 witnesses in 66 public sessions which lasted up to March 27, 1956.
The commission learnt that Chanan Singh and his brother Gulchand Singh had been supplying the engineer, Stone, with liquor at his home so that he could give favourable terms.
“Chanan Singh was in the habit of giving occasional bottles of brandy to Mr Stone for the benefit of his wife, who was in poor health, the suggestion being that the brandy in question could only be obtained at a source known to Singh,” reads the report
The contractor had also repaired Stone’s car and provided him with a tarpaulin to cover his sick cow and at one time supplied him with sand and ballast.
There were several other corruption rackets going on in the city at the time. One of the scams involved a group of fire-fighters who syndicated corruption, and had even opened a joint bank account where money realised from sale of stolen property was stashed.
The city fire department was in a shambles as a group of workers led by the fire master, Wallace, had a habit of selling the department’s equipment.
In one instance, the manager of Pitt-More Estate in Kiambu approached the fire master for some pipes for irrigation.
He was referred to a duka behind Victoria street where he got 1,000 feet of the pipe and unwittingly issued a cheque to the fire master of the City Council.
Misplaced cheque
However, on October 28, 1953, the City Treasurer wrote to Howarth, and unwittingly gave away the game:
“Dear sirs, I have received your cheque for Sh3,465 made out to Nairobi Fire Services and will be glad to know what account this is for.”
He followed it up by returning the cheque on November 3, 1953 with a cover letter:
“Our Fire Master assures us that no hosing has been purchased from us, so I return your cheque herewith.”
Meanwhile, the fire master told Howarth that their deal was private as the house was not a council property and instructed him to write another cheque to GM Perrin.
Perrin, who was a firefighter, later explained that he had opened the account on July 14, 1953 with Standard Bank of South Africa and that it was jointly owned by colleagues Anderson and Walker.
They had set up the syndicate after they arrived in Nairobi and had financial problems setting up home for their families.
In yet another daring plot, a water engineer discovered that he could make more money and live a luxurious life if he excavated stones in trenches where there were none and made his employer pay for the excavations.
The engineer, Harold Whipp, thought a befitting gift to Nairobi upon being elevated into a city in 1954 was shallow water and sewer trenches without pipes in some places so that he could pocket some money to finance his lavish lifestyle.
There was damning evidence before the commission showing Whipp had conspired with contractor, Ismail & Company, who was excavating a trench for the water pipeline along Ngong Road.
Apparently, Whip had ordered his junior Keogh to enter fictitious figures of rock which had been excavated from the trench so that the contractor could be paid. In return, Whipp and Keogh were given goodies including fully paid holiday trips to Mombasa.
Things took a nasty turn when Keogh refused to cooperate and Whip resorted to threats warning him that if he reported the matter, he, too, would be in trouble for he had given fake certificates.
At one point, when the commission went to inspect sections of the trench which had no rock or pipes, Whipps hired firefighters from the city council so that they could cover the trenches. They also discovered that the engineer had tampered with his water meter so that he could pay lower bills.
When the going got too tough and Whipp was arrested and found to have stolen records which incriminated him in the scandal, he committed suicide on learning that he was about to be prosecuted.
“According to the Coroner’s verdict, Whipp met his death by his own hand on the railway line near Nairobi on February 13, having previously been arrested and released on bail on January 30...”
At the time of his death, he had cost the city council about £11,645 (Sh1,630,300) by today’s exchange rate.
The commission also learnt that Somen (mayor) had also supplied 400 substandard flush panel hardboard doors for the Mbotela housing project sold at exorbitant rates.
Two European contractors were also indicted for conspiring with City Hall to be paid Sh16,154 without supplying any goods.
Private swimming pool
The mayor and his deputy, Dobbs Johnson, were put on the spot for failing to declare their interests in companies supplying goods to the council. Somen had used council workers for the construction of his private swimming pool.
It has been more than a half a century since the scandal was unearthed at City Hall, but some of the problems they created still persist.
The houses built in Ofafa and Mbotela still stand, although age and poor workmanship have taken their toll. The Nairobi County Government which has been grappling with numerous housing scandals, is also planning to demolish the old houses to create space for erection of skyscrapper apartments and create more houses.
In its renewal project, the county government intends to redevelop over 2,000 acres in estates such as Kaloleni, Bahati, Ziwani, Mbotela, Jericho and Shauri Moyo where about 80,000 units will be constructed at a cost of more than Sh40 billion, in projects dubbed Nairobi renewal project.
The plight of the people living in the condemned estates is captured by 48-year-old George Magani, who told us: “Although my one bedroom house in Ofafa is in deplorable state, it’s the only home I know. I was born here and I do not know where I will go if we are evicted.”
The first school for European children in Nairobi was set up by the Uganda Railway in 1900 in a corrugated iron shed, similar to the ones in this photo,near Nairobi Railway Station.
Soon this school decided to accept settler children as well. The teachers, A J Turner, a thin, dour man, and his wife A M Turner, had a total of 38 pupils by 1904. The school roll shows that many of these came from schools in India because their fathers had previously worked on railways there, a few from schools in South Africa and one from the Loreto Convent in Nairobi, a small school begun by Roman catholic nuns and sometimes called St Joseph’s Convent. By the second term of 1904 ten pupils had left Mr Turner’s school out of the roll of 70, but by August 1906 his roll had risen to 99. In January 1903 Tommy Wood’s store announced that a Miss Ellis had opened a day school in one of its upper rooms, but this establishment cannot have lasted long because nothing more is heard of it.
In 1906 another school was added, at Kijabe on the edge of the Rift Valley – the Rift Valley Academy, run by the Africa Inland Mission primarily for the children of missionaries, although many settler children attended in its early days. With the completion of the railway, Mr Turner’s school became the general European school in Nairobi, known as Nairobi School. It became a boarding establishment accepting children from all over the country and was taken over from the railway by the government in 1908. From 14 March to 27 April 1908 it was closed due to an outbreak of typhoid fever. In 1910 the school was moved into the old European police barracks on Nairobi Hill. New buildings of wood and corrugated iron were erected, as boarding blocks for 130 boarders, two miles away by the old Buller’s camp near Nairobi Club. There were now 107 on the roll, including at least one child born in Nairobi – Jean McQueen, born on 9 November 1899. The children’s ages ranged from 6 to 23, the older ones being Boers who had started school much later than their fellows. A few children came to Nairobi School from two new schools established in the past few years – Mrs Pailthorpe’s in Parklands and Miss E B Seccombe’s in Nairobi.
Miss Emily Blanche Seccombe is interesting because she features in the memoirs of two important East African writers – Elspeth Huxley and Beryl Markham, both of whom attended her private establishment. She had travelled alone to Kenya in 1907, at the age of 21. She was born in Clapham in 1876, the eldest child of Henry Lawrence Seccombe, the son of the Assistant Secretary of State for India, Sir Thomas Lawrence Seccombe. Her father was a senior clerk in the India Office. Blanche opened her private school on Railway Hill in Nairobi in 1909, so she must have arrived with some capital. The school was run on English public school lines in a large building. According to hearsay, Blanche was a charming person and first-rate teacher. Breakfasts could include ostrich eggs, large enough to feed twenty pupils. However, Miss Seccombe did not offer Latin, because Elspeth Huxley had to leave her school in 1923 to attend Nairobi School, in order to learn Latin for Cambridge University Entrance (which she failed). As for Mrs Pailthorpe’s, this was a school run by M Pailthorpe, the sister of Wulfred Pailthorpe, Registrar for Land Titles. The pair had come to Kenya, probably from India, in 1904 and M Pailthorpe had been appointed as schoolmistress of Nairobi’s Railway School in 1905, at a salary of 1200 rupees p.a., before starting her own school.
Schools also began to be established elsewhere. In 1911 a primary school for white children was begun at Nakuru, two miles from the town on the slopes of the Menengai crater. And the Uasin Gishu plateau was not neglected. In 1909 Professor Fraser from India was sent to see what the plateau needed. The Boers wanted their children to be taught in Afrikaans, but the government demurred so the farmers set up private farm schools as well as Broederstroom school, founded by Reverend M P Loubser, a Boer pastor. To counter this, the government established the Central School in Eldoret in 1915, with F W Humphries as headmaster.
In 1910 the government appointed an official with the title Director of Education, to oversee the Board of Education, but by 1918 the Nairobi Chamber of Commerce was complaining that the state of education in Nairobi was unsatisfactory. Nairobi School was criticised for its inadequate buildings and sports facilities, and the lack of space for boarders. Consequently many people were sending their children to South Africa for their education. The Governor appointed a Commission to examine the requirements of the country’s education system, and from this stemmed the great expansion of European schools in the 1920s.
Soon this school decided to accept settler children as well. The teachers, A J Turner, a thin, dour man, and his wife A M Turner, had a total of 38 pupils by 1904. The school roll shows that many of these came from schools in India because their fathers had previously worked on railways there, a few from schools in South Africa and one from the Loreto Convent in Nairobi, a small school begun by Roman catholic nuns and sometimes called St Joseph’s Convent. By the second term of 1904 ten pupils had left Mr Turner’s school out of the roll of 70, but by August 1906 his roll had risen to 99. In January 1903 Tommy Wood’s store announced that a Miss Ellis had opened a day school in one of its upper rooms, but this establishment cannot have lasted long because nothing more is heard of it.
In 1906 another school was added, at Kijabe on the edge of the Rift Valley – the Rift Valley Academy, run by the Africa Inland Mission primarily for the children of missionaries, although many settler children attended in its early days. With the completion of the railway, Mr Turner’s school became the general European school in Nairobi, known as Nairobi School. It became a boarding establishment accepting children from all over the country and was taken over from the railway by the government in 1908. From 14 March to 27 April 1908 it was closed due to an outbreak of typhoid fever. In 1910 the school was moved into the old European police barracks on Nairobi Hill. New buildings of wood and corrugated iron were erected, as boarding blocks for 130 boarders, two miles away by the old Buller’s camp near Nairobi Club. There were now 107 on the roll, including at least one child born in Nairobi – Jean McQueen, born on 9 November 1899. The children’s ages ranged from 6 to 23, the older ones being Boers who had started school much later than their fellows. A few children came to Nairobi School from two new schools established in the past few years – Mrs Pailthorpe’s in Parklands and Miss E B Seccombe’s in Nairobi.
Miss Emily Blanche Seccombe is interesting because she features in the memoirs of two important East African writers – Elspeth Huxley and Beryl Markham, both of whom attended her private establishment. She had travelled alone to Kenya in 1907, at the age of 21. She was born in Clapham in 1876, the eldest child of Henry Lawrence Seccombe, the son of the Assistant Secretary of State for India, Sir Thomas Lawrence Seccombe. Her father was a senior clerk in the India Office. Blanche opened her private school on Railway Hill in Nairobi in 1909, so she must have arrived with some capital. The school was run on English public school lines in a large building. According to hearsay, Blanche was a charming person and first-rate teacher. Breakfasts could include ostrich eggs, large enough to feed twenty pupils. However, Miss Seccombe did not offer Latin, because Elspeth Huxley had to leave her school in 1923 to attend Nairobi School, in order to learn Latin for Cambridge University Entrance (which she failed). As for Mrs Pailthorpe’s, this was a school run by M Pailthorpe, the sister of Wulfred Pailthorpe, Registrar for Land Titles. The pair had come to Kenya, probably from India, in 1904 and M Pailthorpe had been appointed as schoolmistress of Nairobi’s Railway School in 1905, at a salary of 1200 rupees p.a., before starting her own school.
Schools also began to be established elsewhere. In 1911 a primary school for white children was begun at Nakuru, two miles from the town on the slopes of the Menengai crater. And the Uasin Gishu plateau was not neglected. In 1909 Professor Fraser from India was sent to see what the plateau needed. The Boers wanted their children to be taught in Afrikaans, but the government demurred so the farmers set up private farm schools as well as Broederstroom school, founded by Reverend M P Loubser, a Boer pastor. To counter this, the government established the Central School in Eldoret in 1915, with F W Humphries as headmaster.
In 1910 the government appointed an official with the title Director of Education, to oversee the Board of Education, but by 1918 the Nairobi Chamber of Commerce was complaining that the state of education in Nairobi was unsatisfactory. Nairobi School was criticised for its inadequate buildings and sports facilities, and the lack of space for boarders. Consequently many people were sending their children to South Africa for their education. The Governor appointed a Commission to examine the requirements of the country’s education system, and from this stemmed the great expansion of European schools in the 1920s.
WHY NBO AND NOT NRB OR NBI
Driving down Waiyaki Way within Nairobi City, you are likely to notice the phrase 'I Love NBO' emblazoned on the upcoming Global Trade Center Towers.
For years, residents and visitors of the city in the sun have often differed on what the abbreviation of its name should be, with locals insisting that it should be 'NRB' and not 'NBO'.
The abbreviation of the city's name is directly linked to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and its standing on International Air Transport Association (IATA) codes.
To understand the difference, we need to look back at the history of the leading East Africa's Airport and a major connecting point for flights.
Plans to construct the airport date back to 1945 but actual construction kicked off in 1953. By 1958, the construction work was completed and the facility then named Embakasi Airport.
In 1964, its name was changed to Nairobi International Airport and after further expansion to its terminal beginning 1972, the facility was renamed to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in honour of the country's founding President Jomo Kenyatta.
By the time Embakasi Airport, which was the sole airport connecting Nairobi to the outside world, was being constructed, another airport, Naval Station Mayport (NS Mayport), in Florida had already been assigned the NRB code by IATA.
NS Mayport, which is a military base in Florida, US, with the capacity of handling aircrafts, was built in 1942, three years before the idea of constructing an airport in Kenya was conceived. Kenya then had to be assigned NBO.
What are IATA Codes
An IATA Airport code is a three-letter geocode used by the organisation in designating airports and metropolitan areas.
The organisation is tasked with working together with airlines across the world to promote their reliability and safety. It was founded in 1945 and had a membership of only 57 airlines but has since expanded to 290 airlines in 120 countries.
IATA was also responsible for abbreviating Kenya Airways to KQ instead of KA. Kenya Airways was converted from East African Airways after Korea Airways had already been assigned the KA abbreviations.
An aerial view Nairobi, Kenya's capital city
And the new Global business center building.
Driving down Waiyaki Way within Nairobi City, you are likely to notice the phrase 'I Love NBO' emblazoned on the upcoming Global Trade Center Towers.
For years, residents and visitors of the city in the sun have often differed on what the abbreviation of its name should be, with locals insisting that it should be 'NRB' and not 'NBO'.
The abbreviation of the city's name is directly linked to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and its standing on International Air Transport Association (IATA) codes.
To understand the difference, we need to look back at the history of the leading East Africa's Airport and a major connecting point for flights.
Plans to construct the airport date back to 1945 but actual construction kicked off in 1953. By 1958, the construction work was completed and the facility then named Embakasi Airport.
In 1964, its name was changed to Nairobi International Airport and after further expansion to its terminal beginning 1972, the facility was renamed to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in honour of the country's founding President Jomo Kenyatta.
By the time Embakasi Airport, which was the sole airport connecting Nairobi to the outside world, was being constructed, another airport, Naval Station Mayport (NS Mayport), in Florida had already been assigned the NRB code by IATA.
NS Mayport, which is a military base in Florida, US, with the capacity of handling aircrafts, was built in 1942, three years before the idea of constructing an airport in Kenya was conceived. Kenya then had to be assigned NBO.
What are IATA Codes
An IATA Airport code is a three-letter geocode used by the organisation in designating airports and metropolitan areas.
The organisation is tasked with working together with airlines across the world to promote their reliability and safety. It was founded in 1945 and had a membership of only 57 airlines but has since expanded to 290 airlines in 120 countries.
IATA was also responsible for abbreviating Kenya Airways to KQ instead of KA. Kenya Airways was converted from East African Airways after Korea Airways had already been assigned the KA abbreviations.
An aerial view Nairobi, Kenya's capital city
And the new Global business center building.
Dolorosa Waldron was a 17-year-old clerk in the GPO when, on Easter Monday 1916 she was confronted by Padraig Pearse and the rebels of the Rising. Determined to start a revolution, the rebels told her to run home to her mother.
Later, Dolorosa entered the Sisters of Mercy and was assigned to their mission in Nairobi where she founded the Matter Hospital, the first Catholic inter-racial hospital in Kenya and now one of Kenya’s most respected hospitals.
Mater Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, founded by witness to the 1916 Easter Rising
Perhaps, if the 1916 Rising hadn’t happened, Dolorosa’s destiny might have been different. God only knows. But this is just one story of a fascinating collection the Irish community in Kenya have unearthed to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
Below mater hospital in 1960s
Later, Dolorosa entered the Sisters of Mercy and was assigned to their mission in Nairobi where she founded the Matter Hospital, the first Catholic inter-racial hospital in Kenya and now one of Kenya’s most respected hospitals.
Mater Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, founded by witness to the 1916 Easter Rising
Perhaps, if the 1916 Rising hadn’t happened, Dolorosa’s destiny might have been different. God only knows. But this is just one story of a fascinating collection the Irish community in Kenya have unearthed to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
Below mater hospital in 1960s
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries or the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA or MoA) is a government ministry of Kenya. Its head office is in the Kilimo House in Nairobi.It is one of the neglected ministry which is core and the backbone of any country to prosper and eradicate poverty,who among these ministers tried to run it to at least a level worth to note;for a fossil with a full tummy is a fossil of exploits.
List of Ministers of Agriculture
Michael Blundell (1955–59)
Bruce Mackenzie (1959–61)
Michael Blundell (1961–62)
Bruce Mackenzie 1963-1970* (2)
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (1965 Reappointment) [3]
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (1966 Reappointment) [4]
Jeremiah J.M. Nyagah 1971-1979
Gilbert Kabere M'mbijiwe 1980-1982
Munyua Waiyaki 1982-1984
William Odongo Omamo 1984-1987
Elijah Mwangale 1987-1992
Simeon Nyachae 1993-1996
Darius Msagha Mbela 1997
Musalia Mudavadi 1998
Christopher Obure 1999-2001
Bonaya Godana 2001-2002
Kipruto Rono Arap Kirwa 2003-2007
William Ruto 2008-2010
Sally Kosgei 2010–2013
Felix Koskei 2013-2014
Willy Bett 2014-2017
Mwangi Kiunjuri 2017- 2019
Peter Munya 2019 to present
Below is a group of women carrying a wooden food basket in the old days before the advent of sacks, then it was meant to get full to the brim and a family had several of these for storing food crops for family use,today it's a different story with climate change,GMOs, harmful pesticides and farm imputs.
List of Ministers of Agriculture
Michael Blundell (1955–59)
Bruce Mackenzie (1959–61)
Michael Blundell (1961–62)
Bruce Mackenzie 1963-1970* (2)
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (1965 Reappointment) [3]
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (1966 Reappointment) [4]
Jeremiah J.M. Nyagah 1971-1979
Gilbert Kabere M'mbijiwe 1980-1982
Munyua Waiyaki 1982-1984
William Odongo Omamo 1984-1987
Elijah Mwangale 1987-1992
Simeon Nyachae 1993-1996
Darius Msagha Mbela 1997
Musalia Mudavadi 1998
Christopher Obure 1999-2001
Bonaya Godana 2001-2002
Kipruto Rono Arap Kirwa 2003-2007
William Ruto 2008-2010
Sally Kosgei 2010–2013
Felix Koskei 2013-2014
Willy Bett 2014-2017
Mwangi Kiunjuri 2017- 2019
Peter Munya 2019 to present
Below is a group of women carrying a wooden food basket in the old days before the advent of sacks, then it was meant to get full to the brim and a family had several of these for storing food crops for family use,today it's a different story with climate change,GMOs, harmful pesticides and farm imputs.
Mixed Passenger Freight Train No 62 Down traverses the Laikipia Plateau for Gilgil. The fossils used to call all trains "mixi"for mixed passengers and cargo haul.
@QuadroK4000 now you know where jina Mugithi came from.
to add on this jina "Kieya" came from the word Share.
@QuadroK4000 now you know where jina Mugithi came from.
to add on this jina "Kieya" came from the word Share.
Nyaturu heads a passenger excursion from Nairobi to Naivasha into Kijabe while a freight for Nairobi waits in the loop. The three aspect semaphore signal is vertical, indicating mainline clear - (green at night). 45 degrees (amber at night) indicates "proceed with caution"; horizontal (red at night) is stop.
7204 used in the 70s and 80s with its rake of Swedish coaches and brake van at Naro Moru 2004 before going on to Nanyuki where it arrived at 1745. The train left Nanyuki for the return working at 8am on the Sunday. The routine was similar stopping frequently for groups of people to get on or off. Going back down the 4% grade the smell of burning brakes was very strong, and a CXR stop at Sagana confirmed the brakes were indeed red hot. On schedule back at Nairobi at 1730
With the Ngong Hills as a backdrop and Delamere Avenue (running up the right of the picture),shows Nairobi in the late 40s.It was the view of the city that passengers could see from flights on finals to Eastleigh and indeed an almost identical movie shot features in the 1950s film Simba which opens with the daily Argonaut flight from London and Entebbe landing in Nairobi
