ABSTRACT
By the time my father, Samuel Kipkoech arap Mitei, dropped out of school because of distance, he knew how to read and how to write. I think that gave him an advantage and it is why he was selected to be a border guard under the colonial administration. I think during the First World War he was able to see what other people were doing, he was exposed to new things, even though he was just a cattle rustler. You see, he was too young to join the First World War. So during that particular time he was asked to go and collect cattle. These young men were the ones looking for cows and so on to bring them to a certain locality where they could be collected and then processed for meat to feed the 35soldiers. That used to happen during the First World War, and the Second World War the same thing occurred. People, like my father, used to collect cattle from farms, then they are taken to be slaughtered, and then the meat is transported to feed the soldiers in the war. So although my father during the First World War was too young to go to war, he was not too young to be sent as an errand boy. So he was sent to go and collect the cattle and then push them back to a particular place, the Boma. This is what we call the place in Kiswahili. Boma means a corral. Yes, where all the cattle are held and then from there they are taken to be slaughtered and then the meat transported. Yes, the meat could go to various parts of the world. So that was the role of my father during the First World War.
