Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-001-002
Thomas (Tom) Bruyneel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. He was part of the first group sent to Kenya, one year after the country gained independence. His training at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee focused on the Swahili language and featured lectures by well-known African scholars. In Kenya, Bruyneel worked for the Ministry of Lands and Settlement to administer settlement schemes where native people were being resettled on farmland previously held by British colonialists. He was first stationed at the Lietego scheme outside the town of Sotik, where he worked with the Kisii tribe. After about six months, he also assumed management of the much larger Manga scheme. Bruyneel's duties as settlement officer included cooperative development, agricultural outreach, crop management, and general administrative tasks. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 18, 2001. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).