Did you know that Juja Town in Kiambu County got its name from West African idols?
A story is told of this prolific British settler Lord William Macmillan who arrived in Kenya in 1901 accompanied by his wife Lucie on a big-game-hunting safari.
The former British soldier-cum-businessman had not planned to settle in Kenya but it is reported he 'fell in love' with what he saw on arrival in the country and decided to make it his home.
It is then that the MacMillans decided to buy an expansive 19000 acres of land at OK Donyo Sabuk. At the time, settlers were only allowed to buy a maximum of 5000 acres. How MacMillan was able to acquire almost four times of the allowed maximum, remains a mystery. But hold on...
Before the MacMillans came to Kenya, they had visited West Africa and left with two statues of lions representing the idols “Ju” and “Ja”. The West African witchdoctors had told MacMillan that if he did not preserve them he would die at sea.
MacMillan who is said to have ever been superstitious believed what he was told. He attributed his vast land acquisition to these two idols.
The story goes on to say how MacMillan developed an obsessive fascination with the idols and the entire farm became wrapped in a feeling of superstition. This led to Gikuyu neighbours and workers to christen it as “Ju Ja” farm. The name Juja farm is still in common usage today to refer to the area Macmillan's farm covered then.
MacMillan's wife who is said not to be as superstitious as her husband at one point became fed up with her husband's idols, and secretly had them buried somewhere in the farm where they have never been recovered from.
MacMillan's efforts to retrieve them hit a dead edge as he never found them despite having a brawl with his wife over the same.
#historynow