Reverend Joshua Matenjura, Kikuyu, Kenya, August 1926

Rev Joshua Matenjura & Naomi". Group portrait of Reverend Joshua Matenjura - one of the senior preachers at the site at Kikuyu - and his family. The Kikuyu Mission had been founded on a temporary site by the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1891, before moving to Kikuyu territory in 1898, under the Rev. Thomas Watson. Located on the ‘lower shamba’, the site stands 12 miles from Nairobi, at a distance of approximately 342 miles away from the coast. The Church of Scotland assumed control of the Mission in 1901. The Hunter Memorial Hospital was opened in January 1908, making it the first permanent building erected at Kikuyu and by the 6th of January, patients were beginning to be admitted. Smallpox and cases of famine were the most common illnesses. The mission church was built as a memorial to Dr Ruffelle Scott who originally began the building of a mission church as a memorial to the Reverend Thomas Watson, who died in 1900. In April of the same year, the first day-school was opened for children. By March 1926, The Alliance High School for older boys was established, principled by Mr G.A. Grieve. Crops were grown (maize, beans and sweet potatoes) in part to provide foods for the school children. ❧ "A Series of Photos illustrating Life and Work at Kikuyu. August 1926. Rev W.B. Stevenson.