Support the Channel:
-perks:
   / @afrikantraveller  
-Mobile Phone/Mpesa Support: +254 702 805 404
- Patreon:   / afrikantraveller  

Eldoret is a principal town in the Rift Valley region of Kenya and serves as the capital of Uasin Gishu County. The town was referred to by white settlers as Farm 64,64 and colloquially by locals as 'Sisibo'. As per the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census Eldoret is the fifth most populated urban area in the country after Kenya's 4 cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru. Lying south of the Cherangani Hills.

The population was 289,380 in the 2009 Census, and it is currently the fastest growing town in Kenya with 475,716 people according to 2019 National Census. Eldoret was on course to be named Kenya's fourth city,but was edged out by Nakuru in 2021

Eldoret is surrounded by prime agricultural lands and acts as a trading centre for Uasin Gishu's economy which is driven by large-scale grain farming, dairy and horticultural farming. The town is also a local manufacturing hub with a number of nationally recognised manufacturing concerns, including Raiplywoods, Rupa Textiles, Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya Co-operative Creameries as well as corn, wheat and pyrethrum factories all within the town.

The city is home to a large market and is known for the Doinyo Lessos cheese factory, Moi University and Eldoret International Airport. The runners from Eldoret have also contributed significantly to the economy of Eldoret town, primarily investing in small businesses and real estate, from their winnings in races all over the world. supermarket chain and many offices.

The city is host to the Moi Barracks for the Kenya Defence Forces. The barracks has a memorial for Kenyan soldiers killed in battle in Somalia. The city is also home to the Kenya Ordnance Factories Corporation since 1997, a military installation that is the only manufacturer of small arms and ammunition in the region.

The Toyota Tsusho Corporation built Kenya's first full scale fertilizer blending factory at Ngeria on the outskirts of Eldoret. The $15 million plant has the capacity to produce 150,000 tonnes per year which is 25% of Kenya's 600,000 annual requirement

Eldoret has traditionally not been known as a tourist destination and does not have much to differentiate it from Kenya's other highland centres.
The city and surrounding regions has also lately grown into a sports tourism destination thanks to a number of resident, renowned world runners and a high-altitude that makes the local area suitable for athletics training.

Eldoret has a vibrant nightlife with many clubs found in the city centre such as Club Timba, Tamasha, TMT, Area 51, Club 411, Signature Club.

History
Eldoret and the plateau around it had been occupied by the Sirikwa for several centuries prior to the era of Maasai ascendancy.Innovation in weaponry was introduced by the Maasai era of the late 18th and 19th centuries. With new weapons and forms of governance, they swept down from their original homelands in the north, closer to Lake Turkana, down to their present homelands south of Kenya. The Maasai clan that took over the Plateau were known as the Ilwasin Kishu, after whom it is presently named.

In August 1908, fifty-eight families of displaced Afrikaners left Nakuru for the Uasin Gishu plateau after a journey from South Africa by sea and by rail from Mombasa. .

Eldoret was established in the midst of the farms they created on what was known to the settlers as "Farm 64", "64" or "Sisibo" to the locals because at that time it was 103 kilometres (64 mi) from the newly built Uganda Railway railhead at Kibigori.
The official town site started in 1910 with the development of a Post Office at "Sisibo".
The Uganda Railway extension, from Kibigori toward Uganda, reached Eldoret in 1924, starting a new era of prosperity and growth. In 1928, a piped water supply from the Sosiani River was installed. In 1933, the East African Power and Lighting Company installed an electricity generator plant.

In the 1950s the town was literally divided into two, along the main street (now Uganda Road), with the Afrikaans on the north and the British on the south. The former took their children to Highland School, (now Moi Girls High School)and the latter, to Hill School.Recreation was also along the divide – 'Brits' used the Lincoln Hotel and the Race-Course near the now "Chinese Area" while the Afrikaans converged at the Wagon Wheel for recreation.Daniel Arap Moi was born in the neighboring Baringo District, and under his presidency, the town was developed further.

William Ruto the current President of the Republic of Kenya was born in Kamagut Ward of Turbo Constituency that straddles Eldoret town. He has previously represented Eldoret North Constituency in parliament.

Source: Wikipedia