I love these old threads. A true treasure trove of advice and experience. Wazoo should have a "halll of fame" thread section where some like these and the pablo/pennypincher mjengo threads can find comfort in.

I will NEVER, EVER, EVER plant Kayapa anywhere and anytime based on experience and expert advice.

Like a true Kenyan, when I was building my first house, I followed the herd mentality and started planting this South African weed with very sweet fruits (nani alisema ati hizo vitu si tamu?) called Dovyalis Caffra. By the way as an aside, I highly suspect the latter part of that scientific name was a corruption of the Boer "Kaffir" word but that is a story for another day.

At first the benefits seemed to outweigh any negatives; that those two to three inch thorns will be a nightmare for intruders, fruit benefits (said to be closely related in nutrient value to Apricot trees) and takes trimming into a neat square edge quite well. And what I LOVED the most was that it was even more effective securitywise than a masonry wall. Think about it. If you were a thief with a long ladder and some wire cutters for the razor wire resting on the masonry wall, would you rather meet a dense, thorny yet shaky kayafa "wall" that cannot hold your weight on the ladder instead? Unless you are nuts and love pain, of course not.

So the planting began.

Then I realised hizi vitu zinakunywa maji kuuuuu with a very high failure rate, especially for the tiny ones. You literally have to water them daily for several weeks. The day you miss watering is the day many will die. And even when they "shika" you might be dead by the time they reach six feet in height 10 years down the line.

Meanwhile, by some stroke of genius, I decided to plant bougainvillea alongside the terrible Kayafa. 6 months on the bougainvillea was waist high while the kayafa was barely ankle high even though they had "shikad" after many plantings and replantings/additions.

But then the worst happened...

One day I was walking in one of the residential backstreets of Kileleshwa (please do not ask why) and I came across a caretaker kamzeee in official work uniform sweating furiously standing on a step ladder, panga in hand, chopping down aged Kayafa that was 8 foot high and formed the perimeter fence of the apartment complex inside. I stopped, hand on chin and marvelled in great wonder as I watched him hack away with all his strength. His face was contorted in a grimace that almost evinced pain.As I watched him suffer he caught me zubaaring and stopped for a minute.

"Hiyo Kayapa ni ngumu kumaintain, eeeehh?" I grunted in sympathy.

"Ayayayayaya," he responded. Flailing his free hand in the air in disgust.

"Hii kitu ni shida sana, afadhali wangepanda tu bougainvillea kama hiyo," he retorted, pointing at a neatly trimmed nearby fence. "Kukata hiyo ni rahisi saaaaana," he exclaimed as goblets of sweat escaped his forehead.

It is the sight of that suffering man that gave me nightmares about the Kaffir plant.

As soon as I got home, nilizingoa zote. Thankfully, they are such stunted growers, it did not take me more than 30 minutes to uproot them all and happily pile them into the compost heap.

Instead, I planted yellow durantas, which too, make an excellent internal fence when trimmed tight. Since they grow way slower than bougainvillea, growing an outer layer of the latter and a tight inner wall of the former is an absolutely brilliant combi. Today I thank my lucky starts that I planted that way. The fence is beautiful, a nice yellow internal wall 6 feet high (with tiny thorns!) and beautiful blooms of bougainvillea in different shades peeping through the top and outer part of the fenceline. Trimming them is a breeze. A sharp slasher and a 2 hour afternoon is all one needs. Good luck trying to penetrate the fence..close to impossible given the bougainvillea is tightly shonwad into a solid woody lattice over the mesh chain link.

Bottom line, avoid Kaffir-Kayafa like the plague! Even on remote farms!

The best solution for huge remote farms BY FAR is Kariaria/Euphorbia.

Reasons;

1. Tis poisonous - no animals will want it
2. Tis hardy/drought resistant
3. Tis beautiful when mature and well trimmed
4. Nobody will steal it so you can even plant it billa barbed wired and poles
5. Does not need training at all due to its tree like growth habit
6. And by far the most important reason; unlike cactus of various types and other hardy fence plants, it is not invasive!

NIMESEMA!

Correction well taken. Was aware that camels do munch them but quite unaware that goats do as well.
This must mean goats have a very strong and tough digestive system as that poisonous milky sap si mjezo.

Euphorbia is poison. The sap latex is deadly take amorphous suggestions at your own peril. My parents had Kaiyafa planted as a hedge since the 80s and they've farmed all through. Why the hell are you watering the plant?

But this is precisely why you want it planted as a fence on a remote farm. Ndio watu na wanyama wasicheze na wewe
I also love that it stays evergreen, or turns nice shades of reddish..even under very low levels of water. This is another plant that does not have story mingi. Not having story mingi/needless headaches is a property owner's prime concern when it comes to maintenance of a fence IMHO.

Theres nothing absolute in this life... Kila kitu iko na utamu wake na disadvantage and so we have simply shared some experiences of some of these plants for people to decide.So make informed choices...Chaguo ni lako.