HISTORY

Set between two permanent rivers, Chania and Muriggato, the traditional boundary between the Kikuyu and the Maasai peoples, Kirimara was originally established by European settlers in the 1920s.

The earliest known owner of the farm was a settler nicknamed KAIHU- the kikuyu name for Mongoose. He was nicknamed as such because none of the locals understood him due to his foreign language and the fact that he talked very fast, a factor attributed to “having a light tongue.” He paid the colonial government approximately £0.50 per acre. It is said the locals did not understand him, and also the settler community, who later challenged his citizenship. “KAIHU” was forced to sell his property and left the country soon afterwards.

Another settler known as Mr. Vetch, and locally referred to as MUTHEKI (laughter) due to his physical appearance that often portrayed a smile, acquired the farm. His wife was nicknamed NYACIUMA (beads) due to the red freckles that covered her face.

Nyaciuma’s husband died after an illness and she sold off the estate to another settler, N.T Ready. The farm has since changed hands twice to its current owners, a family that acquired it in 1988.