British settler whose idols gave Juja town its name

The Governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, makes a presentation to Lady Mcmillan founder of the Mcmillan Memorial Library, at the opening of the Library's silver jubilee exhibition. Sir Richard Woodley is on Lady Mcmillan's right. October 29, 1956. [File, Standard] 

If you live in Juja, the urban enclave near Thika, you ought to thank one William Northrup McMillan for giving your hood a name. Like the early settlers, McMillan came to Africa from St Louis, Missouri, in 1904, first on a hunting expedition, first in Sudan and Ethiopia, and as it always turned out, to try and eke out a living in the continent.

It was in Ndarugu plains where McMillan set up a farming venture. The new settler came to Kenya with two images he had collected from West Africa — Ju and Ja — hence the name Juja. But African were not amused by these idols that some felt would bring misfortunes, including having their owners die at sea. Lady Lucie McMillan had to bury them in some corner of the 19,000-acre Juja Farm “but she never disclosed where,” according to the Pioneers’ Scrapbook edited by Elspeth Huxley and Arnold Curtis.

McMillan’s efforts to farm ostriches, pig, cattle and sheep were frustrated by diseases despite the huge capital expenditure in constructing a slaughterhouse, bacon, dairy and cheese factories. Ever an adventurer, McMillan set aside a corner of the farm as camping grounds for safari expeditions. One of the most famous guests to be hosted by McMillan was former American president Theodore Roosevelt in 1909.

At the farm, McMillan had become a frustrated farmer and decided to sell the estate to a rich Englishman, F N Nettlefold. He relocated to Ol Donyo Sabuk House which he had recently constructed and where, like Juja, wild parties that characterised the larger settler community were the order of the day. The brazen, lavish parties consisted of wife swapping and echoed similar parties in the “Happy Valley.” He also bought Chiromo House (now part of Nairobi University) from Ewart Grogan. 

He was knighted for his efforts in helping the British during World War 1. 

Today, his former castle-like home hosts the offices of Muka Mukuu Cooperative Society and apart from the structures, the environment bears little semblance to McMillan lifestyle. He died in 1925 and efforts to bury him on top of Ol Donyo Sabuk were thwarted by his big size. He was 300 pounds.

As the two writers report in the Pioneer’s Scrapbook, a good number of vehicles burned their clutches in their attempts to drive to the summit. As Judie Aldrick writes in the book, Northrup: The Life of William Northrup McMillan, the big-bodied McMillan is among key settlers “whose input was so important in shaping the future of Kenya.”