Area Code – Donholm Estate, Eastlands, Nairobi

Donholm Estate is the oldest amongst Umoja, Kayole, Greenfields, Savannah , Bururburu and Tena all along Outer Ring Road.

The residential houses project began in the 1980’s and however the vast property development initiated much much earlier by James Kerr Waston, a white settler who christened it Donholm in the early 1900’s.

The estate was initially a 4,600 acre farm in the 1900s, stretching all the way from City Stadium towards to where it now stands; history has it that it was the first place in Kenya to host a cattle dip that was built as part of the battle against East Coast fever.

It was also the place where the first Ayrshire cows – named after Watson’s birthplace, Ayr – were first bred in East Africa earning him many trophies including the prestigious Gold Cup given by the East African Standard.

Its has undergone tremendous changes over the years, with tightly spaced multi-story apartments mushrooming all over the place.

Town houses that were to be the beauty and tranquillity of the Donholm and Savannah have been sandwiched between the tall, story buildings forcing original owners to leave the area. Moreover, every free space has been turned into a market.

Today, music from church crusades booms from loud speakers right in the middle of the estate.

If Watson arose from his grave at City Park to see what has become of his famous Nairobi farm today, he would probably go back to his grave in protest.

Home owners in the Old Donholm estate pay land rates of Sh14,000 for a neighbourhood with no streets lights and blocked drainage that results in flooded houses and roads.

The estate now stands between the sprawling Mukuru slums to the south – which stretch all the way from South B along the banks of the Nairobi River – and Kayole and Soweto to the north.

Watson is said to have been one of the few architects who had a passion to build roads and houses to make Nairobi a unique city.

He’s the man who laid the foundation for Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue, then Sixth Avenue.

It is interesting to consider what has bedevilled Donholm as an estate today, despite its place in history.

As a great farmer who was the only supplier of milk in the city, Watson built the murram road that would become Jogoo Road, to link his farm to the city.

His farm bordered African estates like Kaloleni, Makadara and Jericho, estates that were built to accommodate the African labour force.

Donholm is now inhabited by people that Watson would, perhaps, have fenced out.

Read the original article on the Standard