30/07/2026
How a simple post office on “useless” land started a city
In 1910, the Uasin Gishu Plateau was still mostly open farmland. One plot — Farm 64 — was considered so rocky and poor for crops that its owner, Willie van Aardt, had little use for it.
Kenya’s Postmaster-General, J. Gosling, came on a survey tour looking for a central place to serve the scattered settlers. He chose that very piece of “useless” ground because it was well-positioned for the farms around it.
There, the first permanent structure in what would become Eldoret was built: a modest post office. It opened in 1910 and also doubled as a small shop. Mail arrived by runner from Kibigori, and the little building quickly became the meeting point for the whole district.
Two years later, in 1912, Governor Sir Percy Girouard visited and held a luncheon right there in the post office and store. That same year the place was officially declared a township and given the name Eldoret.
From that single, practical building on land nobody else wanted, the town grew — first a few shops and a bank, then the railway in 1924, and eventually into the city we know today.
Sometimes the most important foundations are the simplest ones
