History

Kenyatta House located in Maralal, Samburu County in Northern Kenya is a simple house; yet, it holds a lot of historical significance to Kenya’s independence and governance. The three bedroom bungalow is where Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding father and first president, was partly held in detention by the British colonial government after being transferred from Lodwar prison. Kenyatta had been...

Located in Nyeri, about a 3 hour drive from the capital Nairobi, Treetops lodge is famous both locally and internationally. The tree house lodge is located in Aberdare National Park, and it is in this house where Queen Elizabeth II was declared the queen at only 25 years old, following the demise of her father. She climbed up into the lodge as a princess and came down the next day a queen. This...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1729239206936068336 Skyscrapers, concrete behemoths, and monumental architectures aren’t technological marvels peculiar to the modern world.  Since the first man began using sticks and stone as weapons, innumerable human inventiveness has given birth to some famous architectural creations that even many modern marvels cannot compare.  The most spectacular...

The older part of the Kenyan parliament building resembles the Houses of Parliament in London. Besides featuring visible similarities, such as a clock tower like Big Ben, there are also some hidden ones. It was built by the Freemasons. Also, the building’s foundation stone, which had been recovered from the ruins of Westminster Palace after a 1941 air raid, was presented to the Kenyan parliament as a...

1.Mbotela Estate Named after Tom Mbotela who was a councilor in the city before independence. He was killed by the Mau Mau in 1952. He was an uncle to Leonard Mambo Mbotela.       2.Mathare Before Kenya’s independence, Asians owned the area now known as Mathare, a village dating back to the year 1921. When the Emergency was declared in 1952.Mathare Valley was believed to...

Tht day in September, an ugly incident occurred at Luanda Kotieno beach in Kisumu. A vehicle belonging to Agriculture minister Sally Kosgey was ordered off a ferry headed for Mbita Point, to give room for Ida Odinga’s motorcade of three cars. The minister, just like Ida, was heading to Rusinga Island to attend the burial of Hon Millie Odhiambo’s mother.   It was reported that Sally had...

  In a quick rejoinder Mzee Jomo Kenyatta responded, "Nitatuma ndege mbili tu, na hazitakuwa zimekujs kusalimia nyanya yako"   Ugandan President Al-Haji Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada attempted to redraw the boundaries of the two countries. Amin wanted back all Kenyan districts that were part of Uganda before the colonial re-demarcation of the territorial boundaries.  He claimed that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NprLkBEuzsM George Saitoti was one of the most prolific politicians Kenya has ever had. He served as the country’s sixth Vice President from 1989 to 2002 during president Moi’s tenure. At the time of his death, he was serving Internal Security minister deputized by the Late Orwa Ojode. He died on 10th June, 2012 in a horrific helicopter crash on a Sunday morning while...

The historic Kipande House built in 1913 is located at the corner of Kenyatta Avenue and Loita Street in Nairobi’s Central Business District. ‘Kipande’ is a Swahili word that means ‘identification card’. Henry Belfield, who was Kenya’s governor between 1912 and 1917, ordered the building to be used for issuing identity cards only to Africans. Local Africans who wanted to be employed or do...

The first modern flushable toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington. He installed one for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. His invention included a water tank and a flush valve. However, the flush toilet wouldn't become popular for another 250 years. Most toilets in Medieval Europe were either holes in the ground, communal outhouses, or chamber pots.   If you were fortunate and born...

This was the only Kenyan town that ostensibly had a bar that was never manned! Revellers would just go, take beer and leave the money at the counter- and if they needed change they would take the exact amount and stagger to the hyena-laden fields of Farm 64 as the emerging town was known then. The story is told of how two thirsty revellers found that one of their own had accidentally locked the...

We've all heard of Ponzi schemes, but the man they're named after is a mystery to many.In 1903, a penniless Italian immigrant with a gambling problem arrived in Boston with dreams of making it big in America. His name was Charles Ponzi. Standing 5'2 and weighing 60kg, the diminutive man may not have been imposing, but he made up for it with his ambition. Ponzi would ultimately invent the most elaborate...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSe-kDdbVS0   Slain Kabete MP George Muchai was a troubled man by the time he was murdered in a mafia-style execution on the morning of Saturday, February 7 2015.   He had tried to reinforce his personal security before his driver, two body guards and himself were shot dead by a lone marksman suspected to have been either a skilled mercenary, hired...

Mohamed Moti business in Meru is said to have started in the early 1900s. It is now over 120 years since they opened shop. Meru was declared a township by the first colonial District Commissioner Edward Butler Horne on May 13, 1911. By then, Mr Mohamed Moti was an established trader. It is said In 1896, the Indian trader sailed to Kenya from in India, where owned a cotton ginnery at the age of...

Lord Egerton Castle is located in Njoro, approximately 30 minutes drive from Nakuru, Kenya’s 4th largest city. The mansion with fascinating architecture and surrounded by numerous shrubs, canopy trees, and lush lawns was built by Lord Egerton between 1938 and 1952. The story of this castle is one of both love and hate. Lord Maurice Egerton was born in 1874 into the Barons of Egerton, a royal family....

This tattered, nondescript building on Kìrînyaga Road in Nairobi betrays little if any significance to a passer-by. Yet this is the first building in Nairobi's CBD that was owned by a black Kenyan.   But there was more to this building. Acquired by a little known businessman Kiburi wa Thumbi in the late 1940s, Kiburi House was cause for much consternation for the colonial...