Sagana Lodge

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Sagana State Lodge is a Kenyan state lodge, located in Kiganjo town in Nyeri County, on the foothills of Mount Kenya. The lodge is used by the President when on official tours of the country. [1]

Contents

History

Colonial history

Sagana Lodge was built in 1949–1950 as a royal residence. It was a wedding present in 1947 to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (later the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II respectively) from the colony whilst they were in Kenya. The lodge was leased to the couple by the government of Kenya. [2] [3]

In 1952 the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were staying at Sagana Lodge upon their return from Treetops Hotel. The beginning of the Mau Mau Rebellion had made Kenya less secure and Ian Henderson, of Kenya Police Force Special Branch, was appointed head of the security detail at Sagana Lodge. [4] While staying at Sagana Lodge, Elizabeth received the news that her father King George VI had died and she had succeeded to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. [5] This was a unique circumstance for such an event. She was the first British monarch since the accession of George I to be outside Great Britain at the moment of succession, and also the first in modern times not to know the exact time of her accession (because her father had died in his sleep at an unknown time).

Post-colonial history

The lease to Sagana Lodge was returned to Kenya in 1963. [6] [7]

In 1976, it, along with several other official residences of the President of Kenya, were declared protected zones. [8] The lodge's most prominent use, in independent Kenya's history was when Mwai Kibaki, then the president of Kenya, and Raila Odinga, used the site as a retreat to come to agreement on Kenya's grand coalition government. [9]

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References

  1. ↑ "Uhuru spends Christmas and vacationsat Sagana Lodge". The Standard. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  2. ↑ "Royal Couple at Sagana Lodge". Gettyimages.ca.
  3. ↑ Kenneth Bolton (1962). The Lion and the Lily: – a Guide to Kenya . Bles.
  4. ↑ "Honour for Mau Mau leader who ate victims". London: The Daily Telegraph. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Diary of events in the early life of The Queen". Royal.gov.uk.
  6. ↑ "Did you Know? Sagana State Lodge was one of 2,000 gifts to the Queen". The Standard. Kenya.
  7. ↑ "Sagana: State Lodge with a rich political history". The Standard. Kenya.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ↑ "What is in the New Deal? – KenyaElections". Kenyaelections.com. Retrieved 27 February 2019.

0°21′46.7″S37°04′04.9″E / 0.362972°S 37.068028°E / -0.362972; 37.068028


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