#HistoryKeThread: I’ll tell you a few things about these pictures.
They are 1940s photos of a girls’ school, Loreto Convent Lumbwa (Kipkelion), which was run by Loreto catholic sisters from Msongari in Nairobi.
They are 1940s photos of a girls’ school, Loreto Convent Lumbwa (Kipkelion), which was run by Loreto catholic sisters from Msongari in Nairobi.
See, when World War 2 broke out, the colonial authorities wanted the grounds and buildings of Loreto Convent Msongari School, Nairobi, be occupied by the British army’s Women Service Corps.
And so the school administrators were asked to look for alternative grounds for their school. These they found more than 120 miles away, at Lumbwa. Majority of the exclusively white students at Msongari were therefore moved to Lumbwa for the duration of the war.
However, parents with small girls felt Lumbwa was too far for their kids. Thanks to Nairobi city authorities, the Loreto sisters secured some land near present-day Valley Road on which to set up the school.
Although this other city school school was meant to be a temporary one, it stayed on even after the war. Needless to say, it is the Loreto Convent Valley Road school we know of today.
What I’m curious to know is what became of the Loreto school in Kipkelion. Does anyone know whether it exists - even if by another name?
