The Cooperative Society was housed in such a compound. The British Settler who owned that compound was a Mr. Langwell. I am guessing that was his name because the locals called him Rangwero, and that is what that center is called todate.
The Cooperative Society used Mr. Rangwero’s main house as their offices. Other buildings adjacent to the main house were used for various other activities, including a nursery school, a shop and a restaurant. Huge Barns that housed the Settlers animals were now used for storing crops like pyrethrum purchased from the local farmers.
The once manicured lawns lined with beautiful flower beds were now overgrown and unkempt. If Rangwero made a return trip to his precious home and witnessed how unkempt it was, he would have passed out on the spot. Rangwero had other Settlers neighbors whose names we localized as well. Kibarioni: maybe his English name was Kieffer Lyon, who knows. We had Kabuteni, that was definitely Captain of the Royal British Army. We had Marubani maybe his name was Mulvaney. Sheba where the J.M. Kariuki hospital stands must have belonged to a Chambers.
All the English names I have given these Settlers are my guess work. Maybe somebody who has dug up the OlKalou history of Colonial times can enlighten us and give us their correct names and a bit of their history. That would be some interesting reading.
With the collapse of the Cooperative Society, Mr. Rangwero’s once palatial mansion that housed the Cooperative Society headquarters has since been demolished. I hope somebody took pictures of the Rangwero house in its glory days and can share them with me. It makes for good memories when we were young and carefree.
