Kericho travel guide

Perched on the top of a hill, the tea plantations stretch for miles on either side of the road, their bright green bushes neatly clipped to the same height with paths running in straight lines in between. At 1800 m above sea level, the tea plantations stretch along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley. The tea bush is an evergreen in tropical climates, so the bushes are harvested throughout the year. An evocative image of this region is of the many hundreds of men and women plucking the tea leaves in the plantations with their distinctive white polythene sacks on their backs. The predictable weather (it rains every afternoon here) and the temperate climate giving a high ground temperature, make this the most important tea-growing region in Africa. Tea was introduced in Kenya in 1903 and it is now the world’s third largest tea-producing nation, after India and Sri Lanka. This is an orderly part of Kenya, very different from the shambas further down the slopes, and very English, exemplified by the Tea Hotel with its lovely gardens that used to be owned by Brooke Bond. Kericho is named after Ole Kericho, a Masai chief who perished in battle at the hands of the Gusii in the 18th century. The town’s main purpose is to service the enormous tea plantations, so it has most of the basic amenities on the main road, Moi Highway: branches of the main banks, post office, market, library, village green, the English-style Holy Trinity Church, War Memorial and cemetery. There’s also an impressive Sikh Temple, which is Africa’s largest Gurudwara temple, and is dedicated to Baba Puran Singh Ji of Kericho, who was an eminent spiritual Sikh figure. He was born in 1898 in Panjab and emigrated to Kenya in 1916, set up Kericho Wagon Works and was a major benefactor to the town. In the 1970s he went to the UK and became a leading campaigner for getting Sikhs protected under the Race Relations Act there.

For tea tours, where the growing and picking procedures are explained, enquire at the Tea Hotel who have a resident guide who will take you for a walk to the hotel’s own estate and explain all about how tea was introduced into the region and the tea-growing process. Tea tasting is included in the excursion and it costs about US$3.50 per person. If you would like to visit a tea-processing factory around Kericho, get in touch with the hotel two weeks in advance and they will be able to arrange this....read more