Several colonial-era houses, a railway station, a golf course, exotic trees and an old cemetery leave no doubt that Nakuru was once the playground of British settlers before independence. 

A few of their descendants are still around. Like a bowl, the town has a lake in the middle, Menengai to the east, Mau Hills to the west and other hills to the north and south. 

Its warm and humid weather may have attracted the early settlers whose names are inscribed in the neglected Nakuru North cemetery. 

Kenyan politics is often depicted as a battle between different ethnic “Big Men” who can mobilise their supporters with a click of their fingers.