This article was originally published in the East Africa magazine, October 10-16, 2011.
While reading the schools chapter in the book ‘Rugby Football in East Africa 1909-1959’, four secondary schools are mentioned: Duke of York School, now Lenana School which started playing rugby in 1949, Prince of Wales, now Nairobi School, (1931), Saint Mary’s School (1939) and Van Riebeck School at Thompson’s Falls, now Nyahururu.
Not having heard of Van Riebeck School before, my curiosity got the better of me. Travelling up to Nyahururu, the first place I went to was Thompson’s Falls, after which the town was previously named, to take in the beautiful view and to ask for directions. Six people later, I still had no clue as to Van Riebeck’s whereabouts. Seven was indeed the lucky number, and I was told to look out for the AIC Church on Rumuruti Road, and the school would be right across the road from it.
Arriving at my destination felt like I had been taken back in time. The AIC Church is a magnificent building with characteristic Dutch architecture. The buildings and grounds are in an immaculate state. The church was originally the Dutch Reformed Church, built by the Afrikaner community that settled in Kenya early last century.
The British gave them farming land on the edge of the Rift Valley in the area in which the modern town of Eldoret was later founded.
The Boers came to be known as “kaburu” by the locals. The colonial government later opened up an area south of Thompsons Falls for the Boer community. By settling the Boers in this particular area, the colonial government intended to use the Afrikaner community as a barrier between the antagonistic Nandi and European settler communities.
As part of Boer life, several congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church were established in Kenya, the first congregation being established at the foot of the Menengai Crater in Nakuru in 1908. Willem de Klerk, a church minister and grandfather of the former South African president FW de Klerk, used to visit some of the congregations.
FW de Klerk visited Eldoret in 1991.
The Boer community made up about half of the settler community in nearby Uasin Gishu and by 1960 were growing 60 percent of Kenya’s wheat.
Two weeks to Kenya’s independence in 1963, the South African embassy in Kenya was closed. An estimated 3,000 Afrikaners left Kenya, leaving about 300 behind. By 1965 postal services with South Africa were stopped, and by 1967, the government stopped issuing visas to Kenyan visitors. In the same year, the last church service was held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Nyahururu.
The British government had given the Kenya government money to buy back farms from settlers at independence; many sold their farms in this way and headed back to South Africa.
The few that remained were determined to stay on, but eventually left as government bureaucracy tightened.
Van Riebeck changed its name to Ndururumo High School. From the size of the football field, with plenty of grass behind the goalposts, rugby was played here.
One of the old buildings has a plaque with the inscription in Afrikaner language,’ TOT EER VAN GOD EN TOT VAN DE OPKOMENDE GESLAG, 7 April 1952’. Translated, it means,’ TO GOD AND TO THE COMING GENERATION’. The Boer community had meant to stay but African independence frightened them away.
The school was built in 1951 by Boer settlers for both boys and girls, and named after Jan Van Riebeck, considered the Dutch Afrikaner founding father who landed in Cape Town, South Africa. The school was managed by the Dutch Reformed Church and followed the Transvaal Education departments curriculum.
In 1963, the school was bought by a group of protestant churches under the name Christian Churches Educational Association and was renamed Thompson’s Falls High School. In 1964, the school was opened to Arican students. The chairman of the board of governors was former President Daniel Arap Moi, then the chairman of the Kenya African Democratic Union
It was one of the first co-educational schools in Kenya besides Nakuru High School, starting with 25 boys and 25 girls, and four missionary teachers. In 1975, the school changed its name from CCEA Thompson’s Falls High School to its current name, Ndururumo High School.
Fanie Kruger, one of the last Boers farming in Kenya, knew of Van Riebeck School. “If you wanted hard core rugby, that’s where it was, at Van Riebeck School. A friend of mine, Robin Elliot. His father was English, and so was not a full Afrikaner. He could only have survived there because he was a strong character. That was a hard core team. They were tough guys.”