Frank Joyce (1888-1959) arrived in Kenya in 1911 and settled at Kilima Kiu, Machakos District, where he purchased land from Captain Arthur Slatter. He entered into a partnership with Archie Lambert and F. O'B. Wilson to farm ostriches. In 1919, he married Mary Early (née Davison) (1886-1962). At the same time, he was given a soldier settler farm but sold it in order to purchase a farm adjacent to the estate.

Gradually, the estate was given over to cattle farming. Initially after the war, Joyce leased in cows from squatters and milked them for sale, but from the early 1920s he gradually brought in grade cattle, mainly from Long and Co., and bred his own herd. Joyce was among the first to go into milk, and it remained the mainstay of the farm. After the death of Lambert in 1934, Wilson and Joyce divided the farm into two estates of 15,000 acres each; Joyce added to his share by buying another former soldier farm. He then began to raise beef as well as dairy cattle, although there was little market until just before the Second World War. Water remained his biggest problem, and the farm was entirely dependent on the conservation of flood water until drilling began in the late 1920s and produced boreholes with limited output; later, dams were built.

From 1938 to 1939 and 1944 to 1948, he sat on the Legislative Council as Acting Member for Ukamba. During this period, his concerns were largely agricultural development and land use, and in 1945, he was one of five members of Legco to be appointed to the African Land Utilisation and Settlement Board (later the African Land Development Board (ALDEV)). He died on safari in 1959. After his death, a combination of drought, weak local administration, and the approach of independence led to a number of problems, including trespass and loss of control of the resident labourers. In 1962, part of the land was sold to the Central Land Board as a settlement area for squatters. Joyce's daughter Anne became farm manager in 1941 and continued to run the farm successfully, attracting educational visits from a range of students and official groups.