History - The City of Eldoret

Eldoret is the fastest-growing City in Kenya and is the headquarters of North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB). It is also the administrative and largest town in Uasin Gishu County.

A brief history of Eldoret city..

1908

In August 1908, fifty-eight families of displaced Afrikaners left Nakuru for the Uasin Gishu plateau after a journey from South Africa by sea and by rail from Mombasa. Led by Jan van Rensburg, they traveled using wagons that would often get stuck in mud, finally arriving at Sergoit Hill on 22^nd October of that year. Jan Ernest Kruger would later own the 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) Sergoit farm, now owned by Sergoit Golf and Wildlife resort.

The land had earlier been surveyed by a certain van Breda and the new arrivals took up leaseholds of between 320 and 2,020 hectares (800 and 5,000 acres) on condition that they would develop it within five years. Each family built a shack, put up fences, in-spanned oxen to simple ploughs and turned the first furrows. They sowed wheat, maize and vegetables. These actions laid the foundation for the transformation of the Plateau into a prosperous agricultural region. The farms were later officially registered, and each was given a number

1910

Eldoret was founded in 1910 when Willie van Aardt was granted block No. 64 but found it unsuitable to farm. The Post Master General Mr. J. Gosling toured the area and determined that land to be suitable for a post office and set about to construct one. Curiously, the land was also exactly 64 miles from Londiani. And so it was that the place was named Sixty-four.

1912

However, after Governor Sir Percy Girouard came to visit in 1912, the settlers suggested to him that the town be named after him. Some said it should be called ‘Girouardfontein’ maintaining the Afrikaner naming culture. Girouard declined saying that his French name would be difficult for the British (and Afrikaner) settlers to pronounce let alone the natives – (the ‘d’ is silent).

1905 - 1910

The fact that they wanted the town named after him shows that he was an instant celebrity among the Afrikaners many of whom had French Huguenot roots. His wife however, was the reason he was popular. She was Afrikaner by birth. While the name ‘64’ or Sisibo to the locals was quite popular, it was not considered as were the other suggested names – Farm 64, Bado Kidogo and Sosiani. Another popular name was Sirikwa. This was the name of an ancient tribe that once occupied the Plateau, but which disappeared some say into Southern Africa. Their name also failed to be considered. Finally, the town was named after the nearby Eldare River. The name “Eldoret” is based on the Maasai word “eldore” meaning “stony river”; a reference to the bed of the Sosiani River (a tributary of the Nile), that runs through the town.

The settlers however added the letter ‘t’ after the name ‘Eldare’ so as to make it sound more like a Nandi name. The Nandi language ends nearly every noun with the consonant ‘t’, something the settlers found very curious. And so Eldaret it was! A spelling mistake in the gazette notice that appeared in January 1912, gave the town the name Eldoret. Nobody bothered to correct it and so it has been like that ever since.