Edward Powys Cobb fought in the Boer War, after which he came went to Kenya to spy out the land. He acquired 30,000 acres near Molo, where he established Keringet Ranch, initially in partnership with John Hill-Williams. A man with bold, imaginative, and sometimes disastrous ideas, he was soon experimenting with various varieties of cattle and sheep, and he saw the ranch as a training ground for pioneer settlers. His passion for machinery led him to import a pair of enormous steam engines, which he attempted to use for ploughing. He also started a sisal plantation at the coast and attempted to set up a cotton plantation in Jubaland. Then, he imported equipment, which he never used as it sank in the mud on the Juba River banks on arrival. He sold most of Keringet to the European Agricultural Board in 1952, but after his death in 1959, his wife returned to the area to farm and established a church at Molo in his memory.