Eldoret travel guide

The journey from Kericho due north to Eldoret passes through the Nandi Hills, some of the most spectacular scenery in this part of the country, and the Kano Plains, bleak mountainous scrubland and ravines. Eldoret was originally settled by South African Boers who sailed from the Cape to Mombasa after the Boer War. They then travelled from the coast inland by ox wagon to what was ‘plot 64’, the number of the farm plot that had a post office on it, which was renamed Eldoret in 1912. This pleasant, busy and fairly prosperous highland town is surrounded by fertile countryside growing a mixture of food and cash crops. There is large-scale maize and wheat farming, and cattle keeping of the Ayrshire breed. The market is good and there are some useful shops if you are stocking up on provisions. Eldoret is dubbed ‘home to running’ thanks to a number of Olympic medal-winning athletes that have come from the region. An international airport opened at the end of the 1990s used to transport fresh flowers from the Naivasha region directly to the flower markets of Amsterdam and elsewhere in Europe. It is home to Moi University and this appears to be benefiting the town and expanding its economic potential. It is also home to a large teaching hospital, which attracts many European medical professionals on placements. It is a very busy town, with banks, supermarkets, trading stores and dozens of internet cafés, but there’s no special reason you should stay here, unless en route to the Cherangani Hills. Again, Eldoret is another Western Kenyan town that suffered during the 2007 post-election violence and the worst incident was on New Year’s Day 2008, when a mob attacked and set fire to a church in the town where hundreds of people had taken refuge. As a result, up to 40 people, mostly Kikuyus, were burned to death.