Curtis - p. 117 - 'The Fosters of Kaptagat' - 'Kaptagat, 21 Kms south-east of Eldoret, is largely the creation of the Foster family. Not only did they farm there for many years, but they were also responsible for the prep school and the Kaptagat Arms, now Kaptagat Hotel. They even had a family polo team.

There were 7 brothers and 3 sisters, children of a Norfolk country doctor. 4 of the brothers, George, Robert, Fronny [Francis] and Hugh, came to EA before WW1, and a 5th brother, Charlie, immediately after it. Their early farming was in Uganda. Hugh Foster recalls how this came about: 'My brother George, destined by our mother for the church, had made up his own mind and gone out to EA in 1908. Mr and Mrs Sewell, friends of the family, had started farming a few years before in the Kedong Valley, and George went out to join them.

The Kedong Valley in those days abounded with game and George's letters were full of lion, buffalo and buck of every sort and made me green with envy. George didn't stay long with the Sewells, but got the strangest assortment of jobs. He became an assistant at Wardle's the chemist in Nairobi, but at the end of a fortnight was asked to arrange the window. This annoyed George, and with the remark that he had taken the job as assistant chemist, not as an advertisement, he walked out. Eventually he took the job of guard on the railway. His train was loaded with corrugated iron, bundles of various lengths for stations all up the line. George didn't notice the different lengths specified but just shot out the required number of sheets at each station. By the time he reached Kisumu the complaints were rolling in. This didn't upset him in the least. He just left the train and boarded a boat on Lake Victoria for Uganda, where he obtained work as a road foreman.

Later he took a job as manager of Chikot, a coffee plantation about 15 miles from Jinja. George wrote glowing accounts to us of the fortunes we could make in Uganda, and of the herds of buffalo which were all round Chikot. He wrote to Robert in Johannesburg and fired him with such enthusiasm that he chucked up a job in a prep school and made a bee-line for Uganda. He arrived in February 1913. Fronny and I were also wild to go to Uganda. Fronny left first, threw away all chances of becoming an engineer and joined Robert and George in August. My grandmother turned up trumps, gave me my fare, a .375 rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition, and I sailed for Mombasa in the Gascon and arrived in September 1913.

I was just 19 years old when I arrived, Fronny was 21, Robert 23 and George 25. The brothers were good shots and fascinated by hunting. After their war service Hugh had various game control assignments, and shot in Tanganyika and the Belgian Congo as well as Uganda. Robert was killed by a lion while shooting in the Congo in 1919; his grave is still in existence in what is now the Albert National Park.

The family's own farming operations started with the planting of coffee in Uganda during and shortly after WW1. To this in 1924 they added cotton growing and ginning. They moved from Uganda to Kaptagat in 1931

East Africa & Rhodesia - 10/1/57 - Mr Hugh Gascoigne Foster, who has died in Eldoret, had spent 44 years in East Africa. With three of his brothers, he took up land in Uganda in 1912 for coffee growing. The venture being unsuccessful, he turned to elephant hunting, and then to cotton growing. Throughout the 1914-18 war he served in "German East" and then went back to Uganda. Some 20 years ago he bought a property in the Kaptagat district of Kenya.

Facebook 5 July 2026 posted by Hillary Kosgey Arap Masut They established Kaptagat Prep School in 1936 with 9 pupils. 'Kaptagat Preparatory School continued to grow, attracting many pupils from Uganda following reports of the excellent education being offered in the forests of Kaptagat. As enrolment increased, accommodation for visiting parents during school opening and closing days became a challenge. Hugh Foster had earlier purchased a farm about 1 mile away from Beau and Marjorie Squires. On this property stood a farmhouse and a farm store. In 1937, these buildings were converted into simple self catering cottages, then known as "do it yourself cottages" or "rest houses." In many ways, they represented what we would today describe as an Airbnb. This marked the birth of the Kaptagat Arms Hotel. As owners of the new establishment, Hugh and Zoe appointed Hugh's brother, Fronny, as its first manager. He was remembered as an exceptionally generous man, often offering drinks on the house, with the result that the hotel made little profit. He was succeeded by Shannon, who was equally generous, and again profits remained elusive. One New Year's Day, the hotel barman hurried to wake Hugh and Zoe, insisting they come immediately because there was a problem at the hotel. On arrival they found the 3rd manageress, Hilda Toft, dancing naked on top of a table. According to local accounts, she was a heavily built woman, and the embarrassed barman felt it was improper for him to witness the spectacle. The story became one of the hotel's most colourful early anecdotes. Management of the hotel changed hands several times. At one stage it was managed by Mr. Stitts, the Commandant of the Eldoret Prisoner of War Camp, and his wife. It is believed that Mrs. Stitts, who loved gardening, laid out the beautiful hotel gardens that visitors still admire today. During their tenure, a 9 hole golf course was also established around the hotel and club. From the 1950s through the 1960s the hotel passed through several owners. Fluorspar Company later acquired it and used it as a meeting venue for staff. Ownership subsequently passed to a group consisting of Atanus Kandie, Bill Spencer, Joseph Lesiew and Sadru Nathwani, a well known pharmacist in Eldoret. Under their stewardship, the hotel regained its status as an elegant country hotel and members' club.'