Rabai is well known in  history as the place where Christianity and modern learning in Kenya started well over 150 years ago.

In 1994 the Krapf Memorial Museum was founded to give formal and a perpetual reminder to monumental events during the advent of early missionaries. Stories about the first missionaries were passed on by word of mouth and are still told today.

Dr. Ludwing Krapf founded the church missionary society station at Rabai in 1846.
Dr.Krapf an explorer, linguistic and traveler wrote the first dictionary of the Swahili language and translated the sections of the Bible into Kiswahili, Kinyika and the Kikamba languages.