Premium

When defiant zebras refused to do the donkey's work

When the East African Protectorate was declared in 1895, efforts had to be made to make the new part of the British empire profitable.

In just a year, the construction of the "Lunatic Express" would begin, further opening up the protectorate to commercial activities. According to the new colonial administrators, the easiest way to make the huge investment count was by bringing in scores of settlers who would try their hands in farming and transport their produce through the railway.

The British, of course chose the best lands for agriculture, which came to be known as the White Highlands. 

But life for the new settlers was not easy in a country that lacked basic necessities. The farmers camped in tents before they could build their own huts out of mud, grass thatch and cow dung.

While the well-to-do could afford some lamps and candles, others had to do with hippo fat as a substitute for fuel. How they managed to bring down the behemoths just to obtain the fat is another story altogether.

"Pioneering was not for those who valued luxury or even comfort," wrote Christine Nicholls in Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya. "Rather it appealed to those proud to produce from virgin soil things to eat or sell; those who enjoyed the battle with nature, that enemy always trying to return the land to its untamed state." 

The farmers, mostly bachelors in their thirties lost more money than they made in their endeavours, years of toil bringing them together in a land where they "shared the common bond of poverty."

They paid no taxes and rode illegally on the new railway which they felt entitled to as it was built using their tax money. But they were egged on by the Colonial director of agriculture, Andrew Linton who set up two government farms, in Nairobi and Naivasha for experimental purposes. In Nairobi, Linton introduced sheep, cattle, pigs and chicken, crossbreeding them with local animals to see which species would survive.

But it was the experiment in Naivasha that would test the pioneers' mettle. Here, Linton tried to domesticate and  hybridise zebras. Out of a herd of 100, only 15 had survived by June 1904 as many died of internal parasites.

His attempts to make zebras pull carts was met by the animals' "ferocity and unapproachable in the stalls or fields." The zebras were not even edible as the settlers felt it was as hard as horsemeat. The government dropped the idea and resorted to importing foreign stock to grade local herds.

Business
Premium Burdened Kenyans walk into Easter weekend broke
By Brian Ngugi 16 mins ago
Business
Premium Looming crisis as top lenders stare at Sh500b in bad loans
Business
Premium Water PS Korir put on the spot over Sh14m dam land
Business
Premium Ruto's food security hopes facing storm amid fake fertiliser scam