How did Kabuchai get its name? We dig into history to uncover interesting facts and information. Get to know your hometown
Kabuchai map and administrative facts
Kabuchai is a constituency that elected its first member of parliament in 2017. It was formed following boundaries review by the electoral body of Kenya. Just like neighboring Kimilili, Kabuchai coincides to be Kabuchai sub-county, a decentralized unit of the devolved body Bungoma county.
Map
What’s in a name? How Kabuchai got it’s name
First, we’d like to put it forth that our search of literature provides two facts. First, there existed an area known us Kapchai somewhere in modern day Bungoma county. Secondly, old news reports from two different leading Kenyan media houses have referred to what we know today as Kabuchai constituency as Kapchai constituency.
If these facts hold, then what we know as Kabuchai today is what our forefathers knew as Kapchai. But why the name Kapchai? There is reason to believe that the name Kapchai came from the Kiswahili word for tea, chai. Kapchai therefore got its name as a result of being the area where colonialists first experimented with planting tea. Needless to say that in modern day Kapchai, no tea is grown, but coffee finds a home.
That said, there is also reason to believe that Kapchai, or Kabuchai, is a name with Kalenjin (By Kalenjin we mean Sabaot) origins, as a place where Sabaot youths were sent for rituals before circumcision. While this maybe a minority view, it is no doubt that a majority of the names of municipalities, towns, and villages in western Kenya presently have Sabaot origin. Examples include: Bungoma, Kiboswa in Vihiga and Kamukuywa in Bungoma along the Webuye – Kitale road.
Did you know?
That Kapchai or Kabuchai was once considered as “scheme”. Scheme if you ask any Luhya, refers to lands previously under colonial rule. These were areas, depending on where one sits, towards the east such as as Likuyani, Kabuchai and the entire modern day Trans Nzoia county. During colonial rule, it is these lands where agricultural SCHEMES were undertaken. Going by the today’s discussion, Kabuchai or Kapchai must have been the scheme were colonialists tried out tea farming.
Famous institutions and paces bearing the Kabuchai name
- As we have seen when tracing how Kabuchai got its name, the name is relatively new. As such, the only notable institution bearing the Kabuchai name that we could find was Kabuchai Health Center.
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