After serving as a Community Development Officer during the Emergency, my father was posted to Meru in December 1958, as a District Assistant for Land Consolidation. At the time, John Cumber was the District Commissioner for Meru while Frank Lloyd was the Provincial Commissioner for Central Province, whose office was in Nyeri.
To keep pace with his now relatively elevated status, my father traded in his antiquated Vauxhall saloon for a spanking new Morris Minor 1000 panel van. In his book “Daunting Journey, he explains that he bought the van because he could carry a few commodities such as beans, potatoes, and cowpeas from Meru to sell in Kibichoi, where his family was living, and that way cover the cost of petrol for the trip.
