Remembering Sergoit

I was born in Sergoit, in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Memories of this place hold considerable importance to me, not only because they form part of my identity but also because they help me focus my attention on the systemic injustices that my family experienced when we lived here as poor squatters.

At the farm of Jan Ernst Kruger's farm where my family lived, in one of the poorest squatter environments, life was difficult and cruel. We lacked basic essentials, including clean running water, housing, and good toilet facilities. I never realized the injustice that existed at the time until I grew up and I began to understand what that really meant—the rich lording over the poor, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty. To put this into perspective, I would like to reflect on my experience, growing up here, and how this could represent a mega injustice in our world today. This piece is my way to remember.

In the beginning

My parents migrated from Endo in Elgeyo Marakwet County to Sergoit in the 1960s to work on the farm as a laborers.

The Kruger family lived at the foot of Sergoit hill, in the Uasin Gishu plateau since 1908. They are said to have moved from South Africa at the height of the British colonial period. In 1957 when blind panic swept through the While Highlands of Kenya as the anti-colonial forces had started brewing after World War II, and the subsequent Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, white farmers, including Kruger panicked and sold off their holdings, fearing that their “handling” of local blacks would invite reprisals. Jan Ernst Kruger is said to have temporarily left for South Africa in 1956 but returned to Kenya where he acquired Kenyan citizenship in 1963, and bought up cheap farmland from the Settlers who were leaving. Jan Ernst died in 1983 and his son Fanie took over the ownership and management of the farm.

Life at the Farm

Housing and general living conditions

Housing at the farm was pathetic. Nearly everyone was landless and had few possessions. Workers' housing units were constructed away from the main farmhouse and were organized in concentrated units or Kambis (camps), as we used to call them. They were Kambi ya Juu, Kaprison, Soin and Kabao. We first lived in Kabao (1975-1978) then moved to Soin, to a large round grass thatched house (1978-1995). All the houses (17) in Soin village were grass-thatched except four three-roomed brick houses that were reserved

Our house in 1976-78 in Kabao

for the farm “managers”. However, most of these houses were small, crowded, and poorly ventilated. The living densities for most families’ averaged 6 people including children.

Restrictions and poor services

It was generally forbidden to keep livestock, except chicken. Cutting trees for the purpose of firewood was also prohibited. Residents depended on maize stocks and dry woods to light fires.

Until 1993, no toilets were available for the residents at the farm. This was the major cause of frequent disease outbreaks in the farm, because of contaminated water sources, especially during the rainy season. When a public health official issued an appeal a communal toilet was constructed. However, many households shared a single facility with one or two other households.

Residents relied on water from a shallow well and from a nearby river that often dried up during the dry season. Water quality was not always guaranteed.

Death rates among the

Farm housing units in Kabao

relatively young were rampant with childbirth difficulties among the mothers posing danger to both the mother and child as many women had no access to medical facilities. Accidents also claimed many lives.

Farm Workers

At the farm, there were two categories of workers: permanent and casual. Permanent workers were provided with a house and a piece of land—often not more than a so-called kitchen garden, for their own use, but they were not totally free regarding its use. Causal laborers had no benefits.

Wheat harvest season at the farm

Farm workers had little freedom. Men worked long, physically draining days. During harvest season, workdays could last seventeen to eighteen hours. They cleaned out the stables, milked the cows, and fed and cared for the livestock. Kruger often required his workers to work six days a week for him and earned very little, leaving many families to operate in a deficit. This increased dependence on him. In those days herdsmen, dairy workers, drivers, and watchmen received a monthly wage that was less than Kshs. 300 per month. This, however, varied according to the type of work that was performed. Dairy managers and farm workers, for example, earned Ksh. 350 and 332 respectively, in both cases. Occasionally, Kruger would give out gifts in the form of food to his workers from the farm's stock. This usually consisted of several bags of maize, meat, which was given mostly during Christmas; and other items. He also gave out free milk. After my father's death, we ceased to receive these gift items.

Women were not employed on the farm except for domestic servants. Many stayed at home and performed traditional female tasks such as caring for the children, mending clothes, tending the garden, and washing the laundry.

Casual workers at work

Vulnerabilities to extreme poverty
Because of the relatively small farms and lack of formal employment possibilities, plus low average educational levels, many of those who completed primary school chose to work on the farm where wages were very low, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty. And because women were not eligible for employment they engaged in illicit Changaa and busaa brewing to cash into the employed populace with a steady income. My mother supported our education through the Chang'aa business. But they would often be raided and arrested by the police, who would also demand bribes to secure their release. Those that were unable to give bribes were arraigned in court. Kruger himself was a police reservist. Living in constant fear of political reprisals directed at him, he gave money to the police to arrest all Chang'aa brewers and all idle youth on his farm and became brutal in the way he managed the farm including his black staff and squatters.

PHOTOS OF THE FARM AT VARIOUS TIMES