by Shel Arensen | May 23, 2022 | Christine Nicholls
Now that we are suffering another epidemic, it is interesting to look at the epidemics in Nairobi 120 years ago, when the city was in its infancy. There was an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1902, in the Indian bazaar. There were 69 cases of whom 55 died. Energetic...
by Christine Nicholls | Apr 10, 2022 | Christine Nicholls
Europeans Settle in Molo In 1819 Sir Frederick Jackson was travelling from Naivasha to Sotik. When he emerged from the Mau forest he saw miles of rolling countryside. The first surveys of this area were made in 1903. It was an uninhabited plateau, too cold at...
by Christine Nicholls | Mar 3, 2022 | Christine Nicholls
Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen in Kenya Upon their marriage in June 1947 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip acquired one of their more unusual wedding presents: Sagana Lodge, at Kiganjo near Nyeri, given by the people of Kenya. In 1952 they went to Kenya to stay...
by Christine Nicholls | Feb 15, 2022 | Christine Nicholls
The First Kenya Railway Survey The final routes of the East African Railway Now that the new railway is again under consideration it is interesting to look at the original plans for the first Kenya-Uganda railway. The preliminary surveys were made in 1891 and 1892...
by Christine Nicholls | Dec 11, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
Hunting with Hounds in Early Colonial Kenya Early British settlers in Kenya brought with them a favourite hobby of the upper classes – hunting with hounds. A small pack of English foxhounds was imported from India by George Hammond Goldfinch, who settled in British...
by Christine Nicholls | Oct 21, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
In 1885 the first modern Catholics in Mombasa were encouraged by Monsignor Raoul de Courmont, Vicar Apostolic of Zanzibar, who sent from Zanzibar Father Alexandre le Roy, a Holy Ghost missionary disguised as an Arab to avoid religious rivalry, on an exploratory visit...
by Christine Nicholls | Oct 20, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
The early colonial governors of Kenya were much exercised by the unglamorous subject of sanitation, particularly in the swamp on which Nairobi had inadvisedly developed from the few storage shacks constructed there by the railway builders, before they tackled the long...
by Christine Nicholls | Jul 29, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
Trout Fishing in Kenya Kenya is renowned for its excellent trout fishing, but trout are not indigenous to the country. They were introduced to Kenya rivers during the early years of the 20th century. Lords Delamere and Colonel Grogan purchased a large consignment of...
by Christine Nicholls | Apr 12, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
James Wood Rogers The Prescott Journal Miner, of Prescott, Arizona, reported 21 August 1912 that Representative Norris of Nebraska had introduced a resolution requesting the American President to send to the House of Representatives all information he had about the...
by Christine Nicholls | Jan 31, 2021 | Christine Nicholls
Andrew Rattray and the Training of Zebras Andrew Rattray Zebras are notoriously difficult to train. Any hope that they could be pack animals in Kenya, where horses died speedily, was abandoned after the early years of colonialism, but not until strenuous...
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