I will re-live my 1950/60s memories of how quickly Karatina (a transit town on the main highway north to Ethiopia) transitioned from an Asian controlled commerce to what we see today, following President Jomo Kenyatta’s transformational Africanisation policies immediately after independence. And this account can be replicated for most rural towns of colonial Kenya including the bazaar streets of Nairobi where businesses were essentially controlled by Asians.
On your right as you enter Karatina after crossing the railway, there is a shop written R.D. Patel, which is the only Asian owned business remaining in town. In 1950s the pioneer “R.D” was also called “Mwalimu”, the headmaster of Karatina Indian School (renamed Karatina DEB School after independence). There were no schools for Africans in Karatina, and we had to trek for miles to schools in villages outside the town.
