Taveta police station where WWI in East Africa began

The old Taveta police station. The Germans occupied it for 20 months. [Peter Muiruri, Standard]

At the heart of Taveta town lies a dilapidated structure that could do with serious renovations. Its crumbling walls, worn-out roof and eroded floor bear the scars of a battle that pitted European superpowers but that sucked in a local population that knew little about the war.

Located less than three kilometres from the Kenya-Tanzania border, the old police station made history as the site where the first shot signalling the start of the East African campaign of the First World War was fired.