Drawing on interviews, diaries and letters, The Kenya Pioneers tells the story of the European colonization of the Kenya Highlands in the early 20th century. The author tells how the first white man, John Boyes, penetrated Kikuyuland, how Herzl almost succeeded in founding an African Zion on the Uasin Gishu Plateau, and later how the Boer families trekked up to settle there. She describes Nairobi's growth from a tented camp, as tough, eccentric and courageous people gradually shaped it into a town, and the work of the pioneer farmers as they braved the hazards of disease and disaster with crops and livestock and struggled to become part and parcel of this new land.