ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the author was first inspired to remain in development and of little significance for the subsequent economic, political and cultural changes in Baringo, let alone in Kenya as a whole. Grace Mahboob was the first Baringo woman to have completed two years of post-primary schooling and ran various Maendeleo Ya Wanawake groups. Community work soon expanded into other areas, some involving men more than women. A popular one was protecting water springs. Another most popular activity was literacy classes. One of the responsibilities of the CDO was to organize athletics, and in Baringo this covered the extremes of ability from world-class athletes to the Njemps. In the 1950s and early 1960s the whole of Africa became independent and a new dynamic of national-led development was set loose. The colonial era was ended and is now formally long gone, though influences remain, many negative, some positive.
