Many have called Mambere School the cradle of education in Kenya. After all, the name means ‘The First Ones’. The school is noted in Kenyan historical studies between 1907 and 1914 for educating a young Johnstone Kamau wa Ngengi from Ichaweri as well as Musa Gitau, the first African PCEA Minister in Kenya.
But this early school goes back, way back to 1891. The serene place we know today as home to Thogoto Mission (where Mambere School is located) came to the attention of the Imperial British East Africa (IBEA) company. Its officers felt that the interior of the land they were working in was ripe for evangelizing. A call was sent out, and within a year, six missionaries landed in Mombasa from Scotland under the IBEA-sponsored umbrella of the East Africa Scottish Mission.
After the death of most of the party the sole survivor, Reverend Thomas Watson made the wise decision to move further inland to a less mosquito-infested area. By 1898, he had settled in Kikuyu and managed to get about 30 acres of land from the son of Chief Waiyaki to set up a new mission station.
Soon after his mission work continued in the interior, Rev. Watson returned to Mombasa in 1899 and married Minnie Cumming. Together they returned to Kikuyu where the full reality of an ongoing smallpox epidemic met them. Thousands of people from the area fell to the disease. Many in the mission area as they came to seek a cure. And thus, the couple’s first missionary work together was ensuring all the needs of their patients were met.
At the end of 1900, Watson died, leaving his wife to carry on the mission work. She did so in earnest. One of the tasks she undertook was opening a school within the mission grounds to provide basic education to local students. In 1901, Mambere School opened its doors to the first students. The school had only one classroom allowing teaching to be conducted orally. Both boys and girls were educated in this classroom and with time, the mission school at Thogoto grew from strength to strength under Minnie’s stewardship. Later that decade, the Church of Scotland Mission adopted the Thogoto Mission, and a new Reverend was sent to lead the growing flock. The school’s growth was consistent, and it showed in numbers. Boarding dormitories were set up in 1909 and by 1920 the school had offered basic education to over 3000 pupils. In the fifties, the school’s name changed to Thogoto Primary School and finally, in 1975, it was renamed Musa Gitau PCEA Primary School.