Cara Buxton, and the Buxton Policy

Cara Buxton came to Kenya as a settler a few years after arriving on a shooting excursion in 1910. She first acquired land in Kericho, but in 1920 she moved to Lumbwa and stayed there up to her death. She had a keen interest in many aspects of public life in the Lumbwa district and was instrumental in the establishment of the district nursing service. She was the sister of the late Mr. Edward G. Buxton of Catton Hall, Norwich, a former director of Barclays Bank. She was a woman who was almost constantly surrounded by young people and who showed a remarkable sympathy with the overall viewpoint of the younger generation She also had a great deal of empathy for Africans, was particularly interested in issues pertaining to native development and education, and had multiple times arranged for locals to receive instruction at the Jeanes school. At sixty-one, she passed away in 1936. Her home was reportedly a tiny farm close to Kedowa station, where she also ran a farm school where she taught African women in knitting and sewing.

According to additional reports, Cara Buxton arrived in Kenya at the beginning of the century as a missionary, traveled to Uganda on a mule, and settled at Kedowa. There, she essentially assimilated into the Kipsigis tribe and steadfastly refused to allow anyone under her employment to be punished for any wrongdoing, not even if they were caught red-handed with stolen cattle. She was enthralled with the romance of East African history. She transported Beadoc between the railhead at Lumbwa to Kericho using multiple teams of oxen. Since the planned railway line from Lumbwa to Sotik was never built, Kericho was eventually awarded the first tarmac road upcountry. A component of Buxton Policy’s effort to thwart the Ugandan slave traffic was the railway.

Excerpt from https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/