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MOMBAASA
The founding of Mombasa is associated with two rulers: Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita. According to legend, Mwana Mkisi is the original ancestor of Mombasa's oldest lineages within Thenashara Taifa (or Twelve Nations). Families associated with the Twelve Nations are still considered the original inhabitants of the city. Mwana Mkisi was a queen from the pre-Islamic era, who founded Kongowea, the original urban settlement on Mombasa Island. Importantly, both of these names have linguistic and spiritual connections with Central Africa. "Mkisi" is considered the personification of "ukisi" which means "the holy" in kiKongo. "Kongowea" can similarly be interpreted as the Swahili locative of "kongo" which denotes the essence of civilizational order in central Africa. These legends can be read as an acknowledgment of the Bantu-speaking origins of the Swahili people. Shehe Mvitaff superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and established the first permanent stone mosque on Mombasa Island. Mombasa's oldest extant stone mosque, Mnara, was built c. 1300. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim of great learning and so is connected more directly with the present ideals of Swahili culture that people identify with Mombasa. The ancient history associated with Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita and the founding of an urban settlement on Mombasa Island is still linked to present-day peoples living in Mombasa. The Thenashara Taifa (or Twelve Nations) Swahili lineages recount this ancient history today and are the keepers of local Swahili traditions.
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya. Located on Kenya's Eastern coastline bordering the Indian Ocean, it’s original Arabic name is Manbasa. In Kiswahili, it is called "Kisiwa Cha Mvita", which means "Island of War" due to the many changes in its ownership.
The history of the city is a mixture of African, Persian, Arab, Portuguese and British influences which contributed to the rich cultures found in the city today. Mombasa, a great trading centre with several items such as glass, brass, copper, iron and rhino horn passing through the coast, was originally inhabited by the African Bantu people. The city was then visited by Jordanians in 6th century, Persians in the 9th and 10th century and thereafter Arabs. In this period the Arabs and Persians developed trading routes, commercial centers and contributed to a flowering of civilization reflected in the glorious architecture of their grand houses, monuments and mosques.
Over the centuries Mombasa struggled with numerous foreign invaders and hostility. The Portuguese, the ferocious Zimba tribe, and the Omanis have all laid claim to Mombasa since the 12th century.
By the 15th century, Mombasa was a thriving, sophisticated city with established trade routes to China, Persia, and India. Around this time the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama discovered the city while on a voyage around Africa to find the sea route to India. After a period of less than 5 years the Portuguese returned to attack the city. Five years later, Almeida, another Portuguese seafarer, plundered the port and 23 years later the Portuguese mounted another raid. The invaders then occupied Mombasa, building the impressive Fort Jesus and dominated the entrance to the old harbour, between 1593 and 1598.
The Arabs made several attempts to regain the town but, the Portuguese, supported mainly by supplies from their Indian colony, Goa, hung onto it for around 100 years. The occupiers were finally defeated in the siege of Fort Jesus which began in March 1696. Portuguese and Indian soldiers eventually relieved the Fort in September 1697, but they could not break the siege. The centuries of conflict earned Mombasa the name “the island of War"
Later the Arab's triumphed scaling the walls of the fort. Intrigue and rivalry between competing Omani rulers led to a decline in trading along the coast and Mombasa fell under the rule of the Mazruis, who were finally overcome by the Omani leader, Bey Saidi Sultan Sayyid Said in 1822 (whose remains are still buried in Mombasa today). Two years later, the British warship HMS Leven arrived in Mombasa.
Answering to the appeals of the Mazruis, the commander, Captain Owen, agreed to declare the city a British protectorate, in return for a promise from the Mazruis to abolish slavery.
During this period, Mombasa prospered under the Sultan, underpinned largely by the slave trade. However he came under increasing pressure by the British to end the practice and in 1845, he was forced into a treaty that severely restricted this activity. In 1886, in an agreement between Britain and Germany, the territories of Kenya and Uganda were assigned to the British while Tanganyika (Tanzania) came under the rule of Germany. The Imperial British East Africa Company set up its headquarters in Mombasa in 1888. It was the springboard for the colonization of Kenya and the beginning of a British dominance in the country that was to last until independence in 1963.
By the late 1800s it became the base of exploration for British expeditions to Kenya’s interior. In 1988, the Imperial British East Africa Company set up headquarters in Mombasa. British rule of Mombasa became official in 1895 when they leased a stretch of the coast including the port city from the Sultan of Zanzibar. Officially this coastal strip still belonged to Zanzibar until ceded to a newly independent Kenya in 1963.
The British affirmed Mombasa’s importance as East Africa’s most vital port when they completed a railway in 1901 stretching from Mombasa to Uganda. Today, the city remains one of Africa’s major links to the rest of the world. Built on a 15 sq km island, Mombasa is surrounded by a natural harbor. The mainland coasts north and south of the city boast a proliferation of tourist resorts. Within the city itself, a traveler has numerous opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Remnants of slave trade can still be seen today around the town. Fort Jesus still contains cells where the slaves were held, and various artifacts from that era.
Most of the early information on Mombasa comes from Portuguese chroniclers writing in the 16th century.
The famous Moroccan scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta visited the area during his travels to the Swahili Coast and made some mention of the city, although he only stayed one night. He noted that the people of Mombasa were Shafi‘i Muslims, religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built.
The exact founding date of the city is unknown, but it has a long history. Kenyan school history books place the founding of Mombasa as 900 A.D.[5] It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer al-Idrisi mentions it in 1151. The oldest stone mosque in Mombasa, Mnara, was built c. 1300. The Mandhry Mosque, built in 1570, has a minaret that contains a regionally specific ogee arch. This suggests that Swahili architecture was an indigenous African product and disproves assertions that non-African Muslims brought stone architecture to the Swahili Coast.
During the pre-modern period, Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold, and ivory. Its trade links reached as far as India and China and oral historians today can still recall this period of local history. Indian history shows that there were trade links between Mombasa and Cholas of South India. Throughout the early modern period, Mombasa was a key node in the complex and far reaching Indian Ocean trading networks, its key exports then were ivory, millet, sesamum and coconuts.
In the late pre-colonial period (late 19th century), it was the metropolis of a plantation society, which became dependent on slave labour (sources contradict whether the city was ever an important place for exporting slaves) but ivory caravans remained a major source of economic prosperity. Mombasa became the major port city of pre-colonial Kenya in the Middle Ages and was used to trade with other African port cities, the Persian Empire, the Arabian Peninsula, India and China.16th-century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar."
The founding of Mombasa is associated with two rulers: Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita. According to legend, Mwana Mkisi is the original ancestor of Mombasa's oldest lineages within Thenashara Taifa (or Twelve Nations). Families associated with the Twelve Nations are still considered the original inhabitants of the city. Mwana Mkisi was a queen from the pre-Islamic era, who founded Kongowea, the original urban settlement on Mombasa Island. Importantly, both of these names have linguistic and spiritual connections with Central Africa. "Mkisi" is considered the personification of "ukisi" which means "the holy" in kiKongo. "Kongowea" can similarly be interpreted as the Swahili locative of "kongo" which denotes the essence of civilizational order in central Africa. These legends can be read as an acknowledgment of the Bantu-speaking origins of the Swahili people. Shehe Mvitaff superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and established the first permanent stone mosque on Mombasa Island. Mombasa's oldest extant stone mosque, Mnara, was built c. 1300. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim of great learning and so is connected more directly with the present ideals of Swahili culture that people identify with Mombasa. The ancient history associated with Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita and the founding of an urban settlement on Mombasa Island is still linked to present-day peoples living in Mombasa. The Thenashara Taifa (or Twelve Nations) Swahili lineages recount this ancient history today and are the keepers of local Swahili traditions.
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya. Located on Kenya's Eastern coastline bordering the Indian Ocean, it’s original Arabic name is Manbasa. In Kiswahili, it is called "Kisiwa Cha Mvita", which means "Island of War" due to the many changes in its ownership.
The history of the city is a mixture of African, Persian, Arab, Portuguese and British influences which contributed to the rich cultures found in the city today. Mombasa, a great trading centre with several items such as glass, brass, copper, iron and rhino horn passing through the coast, was originally inhabited by the African Bantu people. The city was then visited by Jordanians in 6th century, Persians in the 9th and 10th century and thereafter Arabs. In this period the Arabs and Persians developed trading routes, commercial centers and contributed to a flowering of civilization reflected in the glorious architecture of their grand houses, monuments and mosques.
Over the centuries Mombasa struggled with numerous foreign invaders and hostility. The Portuguese, the ferocious Zimba tribe, and the Omanis have all laid claim to Mombasa since the 12th century.
By the 15th century, Mombasa was a thriving, sophisticated city with established trade routes to China, Persia, and India. Around this time the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama discovered the city while on a voyage around Africa to find the sea route to India. After a period of less than 5 years the Portuguese returned to attack the city. Five years later, Almeida, another Portuguese seafarer, plundered the port and 23 years later the Portuguese mounted another raid. The invaders then occupied Mombasa, building the impressive Fort Jesus and dominated the entrance to the old harbour, between 1593 and 1598.
The Arabs made several attempts to regain the town but, the Portuguese, supported mainly by supplies from their Indian colony, Goa, hung onto it for around 100 years. The occupiers were finally defeated in the siege of Fort Jesus which began in March 1696. Portuguese and Indian soldiers eventually relieved the Fort in September 1697, but they could not break the siege. The centuries of conflict earned Mombasa the name “the island of War"
Later the Arab's triumphed scaling the walls of the fort. Intrigue and rivalry between competing Omani rulers led to a decline in trading along the coast and Mombasa fell under the rule of the Mazruis, who were finally overcome by the Omani leader, Bey Saidi Sultan Sayyid Said in 1822 (whose remains are still buried in Mombasa today). Two years later, the British warship HMS Leven arrived in Mombasa.
Answering to the appeals of the Mazruis, the commander, Captain Owen, agreed to declare the city a British protectorate, in return for a promise from the Mazruis to abolish slavery.
During this period, Mombasa prospered under the Sultan, underpinned largely by the slave trade. However he came under increasing pressure by the British to end the practice and in 1845, he was forced into a treaty that severely restricted this activity. In 1886, in an agreement between Britain and Germany, the territories of Kenya and Uganda were assigned to the British while Tanganyika (Tanzania) came under the rule of Germany. The Imperial British East Africa Company set up its headquarters in Mombasa in 1888. It was the springboard for the colonization of Kenya and the beginning of a British dominance in the country that was to last until independence in 1963.
By the late 1800s it became the base of exploration for British expeditions to Kenya’s interior. In 1988, the Imperial British East Africa Company set up headquarters in Mombasa. British rule of Mombasa became official in 1895 when they leased a stretch of the coast including the port city from the Sultan of Zanzibar. Officially this coastal strip still belonged to Zanzibar until ceded to a newly independent Kenya in 1963.
The British affirmed Mombasa’s importance as East Africa’s most vital port when they completed a railway in 1901 stretching from Mombasa to Uganda. Today, the city remains one of Africa’s major links to the rest of the world. Built on a 15 sq km island, Mombasa is surrounded by a natural harbor. The mainland coasts north and south of the city boast a proliferation of tourist resorts. Within the city itself, a traveler has numerous opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Remnants of slave trade can still be seen today around the town. Fort Jesus still contains cells where the slaves were held, and various artifacts from that era.
Most of the early information on Mombasa comes from Portuguese chroniclers writing in the 16th century.
The famous Moroccan scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta visited the area during his travels to the Swahili Coast and made some mention of the city, although he only stayed one night. He noted that the people of Mombasa were Shafi‘i Muslims, religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built.
The exact founding date of the city is unknown, but it has a long history. Kenyan school history books place the founding of Mombasa as 900 A.D.[5] It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer al-Idrisi mentions it in 1151. The oldest stone mosque in Mombasa, Mnara, was built c. 1300. The Mandhry Mosque, built in 1570, has a minaret that contains a regionally specific ogee arch. This suggests that Swahili architecture was an indigenous African product and disproves assertions that non-African Muslims brought stone architecture to the Swahili Coast.
During the pre-modern period, Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold, and ivory. Its trade links reached as far as India and China and oral historians today can still recall this period of local history. Indian history shows that there were trade links between Mombasa and Cholas of South India. Throughout the early modern period, Mombasa was a key node in the complex and far reaching Indian Ocean trading networks, its key exports then were ivory, millet, sesamum and coconuts.
In the late pre-colonial period (late 19th century), it was the metropolis of a plantation society, which became dependent on slave labour (sources contradict whether the city was ever an important place for exporting slaves) but ivory caravans remained a major source of economic prosperity. Mombasa became the major port city of pre-colonial Kenya in the Middle Ages and was used to trade with other African port cities, the Persian Empire, the Arabian Peninsula, India and China.16th-century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar."
At the time of his death Nelson Muguku, was the largest individual shareholder of Equity Bank, but this was not always the case as his most valuable possession in the 1950s was a bicycle.
Born in 1932, in Kanyariri Village located in Kikuyu Division of Kiambu District, Muguku, learnt entrepreneurship skills from his father, the late Njoroge.
His journey to become a multi-billionaire started when he quit his college teaching job, while still in his 20s, with just Ksh 2,000, two hens and one cock.
Muguku resigned from the job against the wishes of his parents and the ridicule of his white boss.
He started rearing chicken with the help of his father for the first six months and it is at this time he married his wife, Leah Wanjiku, who was then a teacher at Kagaa Primary School in Githunguri.
In 1963, Wanjiku quit her teaching job to join her husband in poultry farming.
By 1965, he was a little well off and was able to a buy 22-acre farm, Star Ltd, for Ksh 100,000 from a white veterinary doctor. He then started a hatchery with a 9,000-egg incubator. Muguku later renamed the farm Muguku Poultry Farm.
This is when he started reaping big and amassing wealth through the sale of day-old chicks and eggs.
It was believed that at one time, he supplied the last Governor of the colonial era, Sir Malcolm MacDonald, and even Kenya’s first Prime Minister, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
According to Muguku's younger brother, Professor Kihumbu Thairu, Muguku ploughed back his profits. By the time of his death, he owned a computerised egg hatching incubator — one of the best in the region.
The hatchery comprised four state-of-the-art incubators, with a capacity to produce more than 500,000 chicks a day. “He was reading the manual, operating it and maintaining it until his death,” Thairu stated.
Besides employing hundreds of youths on his expansive farm, the old man had a great record of philanthropy and community development.
He established two primary schools, Kikuyu Township and Kidfarmaco as well as a high school - the former Greenacres School - at Red Hill off Limuru Road and renamed it Tumaini School.
Muguku and his wife had seven children.
He died on the night of October 10, 2010, after becoming unconscious soon after a telephone conversation with his youngest son who lived in the US.
Muguku was born in 1932 in Kanyariri Village, Kikuyu Division, Kiambu County to his father Njoroge and mother Mama Wambui. The entrepreneurial nature of his father was a key inspiration to his later life. Muguku sat for the Kenya African Preliminary Examination at Kabete Intermediate School. It was the second time he was doing the exam and his relatively high score led to allegations of cheating and the nullification of his results by the colonial administrators. He was ordered to join carpentry classes at Thika Technical School from 1950 to 1953.
Muguku started off as a carpentry teacher at Kapenguria Intermediate School before he was transferred to Kabianga Teachers College (now Kabianga High School). In 1957, at age 24 and against the wishes of his parents, he quit teaching to concentrate on the poultry business he had started a year earlier with just two hens, a cock and KShs 2,000. He also resented the fact that he was required to pursue additional training if he wanted to get a job promotion but this was not forthcoming when he did obtain additional training. He initially reared the chicken with his father's help. Muguku's wife would quit her teaching job at Kagaa Primary School Githunguri in 1963 to help him run the business.
Muguku Poultry Farm
In 1965, Muguku bought the 22-acre Star Ltd farm from a white veterinary doctor for Kshs 100,000. He renamed the farm Muguku Poultry Farm and started a hatchery with a 9,000-egg incubator. His growing business saw him at one time supply eggs to Governor-General Malcolm MacDonald and the country's first Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta. Today, the farm can hatch 500,000 chicks a day and also hosts dairy cows as well as an orchard.
Stock market
Muguku was an active investor in various counters at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. However, it was for his stake in Equity Bank that he was best known. He acquired a 6.08% stake before the bank was listed and was for years the bank's largest individual shareholder.By 2014, the Muguku family had reduced its stake in the bank to 0.9% valued at KShs 1.6 billion (equivalent to US$17 million at the time).
Real Estate
Muguku owned a building on Mfangano Street in downtown Nairobi and was a major property owner in Kikuyu town.[2] In 2014, through Crossroads Limited, the Muguku family embarked on the construction of phase 1 of the Karen Waterfront mall at an estimated cost of Kshs 2.6 billion (equivalent to US$28 million at the time). The family also owns Crossroads Mall in the same area.
Schools
Muguku was the proprietor of two primary schools (Kidfarmaco and Kikuyu Township) and one high school (Tumaini School formerly known as Greenacres School).
Philanthropy
Muguku built the Anglican Church in Kikuyu including the pastor's residence. He helped rehabilitate street children in Kikuyu town.
Personal life
Muguku was married to Leah Wanjiku and they had seven children. Kihumbu Thairu, vice-chancellor and a founder member of Presbyterian University of East Africa, is Muguku’s younger brother.
Kenyatta’s love for Nelson Muguku’s eggs gradually laid a billionaire since there was no better customer to supply eggs to than the president.
A story is told of how the nabobs at State House, actually the Comptroller Eliud Mathu, changed eggs supplier because he was getting into the poultry business. Good old Jomo noticed the new eggs were smaller and had Mrs Mwathi, the housekeeper, explain why the size of the ‘presidential eggs’ had shrunk. The explanation was that the previous supplier had no government tender, but UK’s old man would have none of it. That was how Kenyatta’s love for Nelson Muguku’s eggs gradually laid a billionaire since there was no better customer to supply eggs to than the tenant of the house on the hill, who ordered for two dozens weekly!
Nelson Muguku had been supplying Governor Malcolm MacDonald before Jomo became President and he naturally continued doing so after Kenya attained independence in 1963. This is the year his wife Leah quit teaching to concentrate on creating what later became one of Kenya’s largest poultry farms, the Muguku Poultry Farm, that started with two hens and a cock in 1956 at Kabianga Government School in Kericho.
It was MacDonald who gave him the nod to supply State House after visiting his farm, then at a settlement scheme in Sigona. The governor considered the eggs better than those in England. Today, over 500,000 chicks are hatched daily at the farm, and if you have an account with Equity Bank, you are one of the people making the family of Muguku (known for his philanthropy, not drinking more than three beers daily and never offering to buy anyone a drink) even richer.
Muguku had a Sh3-billion stake at Equity that made him the largest individual shareholder by the time of his death at 78.
Death
Muguku died on 10 October 2010 at the age of 78 years. He was a diabetic.
Born in 1932, in Kanyariri Village located in Kikuyu Division of Kiambu District, Muguku, learnt entrepreneurship skills from his father, the late Njoroge.
His journey to become a multi-billionaire started when he quit his college teaching job, while still in his 20s, with just Ksh 2,000, two hens and one cock.
Muguku resigned from the job against the wishes of his parents and the ridicule of his white boss.
He started rearing chicken with the help of his father for the first six months and it is at this time he married his wife, Leah Wanjiku, who was then a teacher at Kagaa Primary School in Githunguri.
In 1963, Wanjiku quit her teaching job to join her husband in poultry farming.
By 1965, he was a little well off and was able to a buy 22-acre farm, Star Ltd, for Ksh 100,000 from a white veterinary doctor. He then started a hatchery with a 9,000-egg incubator. Muguku later renamed the farm Muguku Poultry Farm.
This is when he started reaping big and amassing wealth through the sale of day-old chicks and eggs.
It was believed that at one time, he supplied the last Governor of the colonial era, Sir Malcolm MacDonald, and even Kenya’s first Prime Minister, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
According to Muguku's younger brother, Professor Kihumbu Thairu, Muguku ploughed back his profits. By the time of his death, he owned a computerised egg hatching incubator — one of the best in the region.
The hatchery comprised four state-of-the-art incubators, with a capacity to produce more than 500,000 chicks a day. “He was reading the manual, operating it and maintaining it until his death,” Thairu stated.
Besides employing hundreds of youths on his expansive farm, the old man had a great record of philanthropy and community development.
He established two primary schools, Kikuyu Township and Kidfarmaco as well as a high school - the former Greenacres School - at Red Hill off Limuru Road and renamed it Tumaini School.
Muguku and his wife had seven children.
He died on the night of October 10, 2010, after becoming unconscious soon after a telephone conversation with his youngest son who lived in the US.
Muguku was born in 1932 in Kanyariri Village, Kikuyu Division, Kiambu County to his father Njoroge and mother Mama Wambui. The entrepreneurial nature of his father was a key inspiration to his later life. Muguku sat for the Kenya African Preliminary Examination at Kabete Intermediate School. It was the second time he was doing the exam and his relatively high score led to allegations of cheating and the nullification of his results by the colonial administrators. He was ordered to join carpentry classes at Thika Technical School from 1950 to 1953.
Muguku started off as a carpentry teacher at Kapenguria Intermediate School before he was transferred to Kabianga Teachers College (now Kabianga High School). In 1957, at age 24 and against the wishes of his parents, he quit teaching to concentrate on the poultry business he had started a year earlier with just two hens, a cock and KShs 2,000. He also resented the fact that he was required to pursue additional training if he wanted to get a job promotion but this was not forthcoming when he did obtain additional training. He initially reared the chicken with his father's help. Muguku's wife would quit her teaching job at Kagaa Primary School Githunguri in 1963 to help him run the business.
Muguku Poultry Farm
In 1965, Muguku bought the 22-acre Star Ltd farm from a white veterinary doctor for Kshs 100,000. He renamed the farm Muguku Poultry Farm and started a hatchery with a 9,000-egg incubator. His growing business saw him at one time supply eggs to Governor-General Malcolm MacDonald and the country's first Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta. Today, the farm can hatch 500,000 chicks a day and also hosts dairy cows as well as an orchard.
Stock market
Muguku was an active investor in various counters at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. However, it was for his stake in Equity Bank that he was best known. He acquired a 6.08% stake before the bank was listed and was for years the bank's largest individual shareholder.By 2014, the Muguku family had reduced its stake in the bank to 0.9% valued at KShs 1.6 billion (equivalent to US$17 million at the time).
Real Estate
Muguku owned a building on Mfangano Street in downtown Nairobi and was a major property owner in Kikuyu town.[2] In 2014, through Crossroads Limited, the Muguku family embarked on the construction of phase 1 of the Karen Waterfront mall at an estimated cost of Kshs 2.6 billion (equivalent to US$28 million at the time). The family also owns Crossroads Mall in the same area.
Schools
Muguku was the proprietor of two primary schools (Kidfarmaco and Kikuyu Township) and one high school (Tumaini School formerly known as Greenacres School).
Philanthropy
Muguku built the Anglican Church in Kikuyu including the pastor's residence. He helped rehabilitate street children in Kikuyu town.
Personal life
Muguku was married to Leah Wanjiku and they had seven children. Kihumbu Thairu, vice-chancellor and a founder member of Presbyterian University of East Africa, is Muguku’s younger brother.
Kenyatta’s love for Nelson Muguku’s eggs gradually laid a billionaire since there was no better customer to supply eggs to than the president.
A story is told of how the nabobs at State House, actually the Comptroller Eliud Mathu, changed eggs supplier because he was getting into the poultry business. Good old Jomo noticed the new eggs were smaller and had Mrs Mwathi, the housekeeper, explain why the size of the ‘presidential eggs’ had shrunk. The explanation was that the previous supplier had no government tender, but UK’s old man would have none of it. That was how Kenyatta’s love for Nelson Muguku’s eggs gradually laid a billionaire since there was no better customer to supply eggs to than the tenant of the house on the hill, who ordered for two dozens weekly!
Nelson Muguku had been supplying Governor Malcolm MacDonald before Jomo became President and he naturally continued doing so after Kenya attained independence in 1963. This is the year his wife Leah quit teaching to concentrate on creating what later became one of Kenya’s largest poultry farms, the Muguku Poultry Farm, that started with two hens and a cock in 1956 at Kabianga Government School in Kericho.
It was MacDonald who gave him the nod to supply State House after visiting his farm, then at a settlement scheme in Sigona. The governor considered the eggs better than those in England. Today, over 500,000 chicks are hatched daily at the farm, and if you have an account with Equity Bank, you are one of the people making the family of Muguku (known for his philanthropy, not drinking more than three beers daily and never offering to buy anyone a drink) even richer.
Muguku had a Sh3-billion stake at Equity that made him the largest individual shareholder by the time of his death at 78.
Death
Muguku died on 10 October 2010 at the age of 78 years. He was a diabetic.
MASONIC NAIROBI
Nairobi lacks distinct architecture. Little can distinguish our buildings, besides the current craze for height, aluminium cladding and glazing. Actually, the design of modern buildings is mostly of European import.
But one can’t miss the uniqueness of buildings that were erected by Freemasons who put up structures like the All Saint’s Cathedral at the turn of the last century.
They put up churches as well as colonial institutions and extensively incorporated Freemasonry signs and symbols even in Anglican churches.
Indeed, it was the Freemasons who defined Nairobi’s early architecture, building some of the grandest buildings in the country to date. Most are considered classics. Some are national monuments; giving the city a regal feel, reminiscent of Kenya’s imperial past.
Nairobi planning started in the 1920s. The government architect then was J.A Hoogterp, who later moved and settled in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was Sir Herbert Baker, a Freemason, who took charge of several projects after Hoogterp left.
The layout of the city was borrowed from Washington DC, Paris, Cape Town, Pretoria, Canberra (the executive capital of Australia), New Delhi and La Plata, a city in Argentina.
All these cities’ architecture was widely deemed as masonic, complete with signs and symbols. It has also been observed that the major civic and central government buildings are designed to form an Ankh, (a cross having a loop for its upper vertical arm and serving especially in ancient Egypt as an emblem of life).
There is a masonic hand in the architecture of key buildings, especially those representing the political, economic, educational or religious powers of the city. Think Parliament, the All Saint’s Cathedral, McMillan Library, Kenya Railways headquarters and City Hall, all of which stand out for their impeccable and seamless masonry.
These masons were free to work anywhere, and they came to Kenya with their genius for bricklaying, stone carving and meticulous construction that is evident more than a century later. Here are some of the historic Freemason buildings that define Nairobi
The Kenyan parliament building...
Third World Architecture in masonic terms
At the heart of Kenya’s democracy and national government is the Parliament House in the CBD of Nairobi. Situated on Parliament road the Parliament House is where 222 representatives of the people of Kenya debate and vote on new laws.
Parliament
In 1951 the architect Amyas Douglas Connell was invited by the colonial British government to design on a Parliament that could deal with the new requirements that an independent country would require. The architect made some designs which were called ‘unBritish, French-influenced and German oriented’ by Charles Hayes. Never the less Connell stuck by his designs but was persuaded by the Government to add a large clock tower who wanted it to look more like Westminster. The first wing was opened in 1954. The British Pathe has a great video of the building in 1954.
The second southern wing was built after Kenya became independent in 1963.
The older part of the building clearly resembles Westminster, interestingly the building’s foundation stone was a stone recovered from the ruins of Westminster after an air raid in 1941. This stone was gifted to the Kenyan Government to signify the strong bond between the UK and her former colony.
The southern wing has a much more Kenyan feel to it in its detailing and design.
The detailing at the end of the southern wing’s curved protrusion has large statues of the Kenyan people in their triumph over the British in gaining their independence.
The building is primarily constructed from natural stone blocks, concrete and glass. The building’s facade is clad to give it its burnt yellow colour. The building is made up of two large halls which are connected via long corridor shaped buildings with the large clock tower as the buildings central pivot point.
The site sits across from Uhuru park within the CBD. The site is enclosed by City-Hall Way, Parliament Road, Harambee Avenue and Uhuru highway.
New Tower
The clock tower is a masterpiece of design. It’s a landmark that is both subtle and small, but still stately. The clock face is a textbook example of Neo-gothic design. It’s fragile curvy design that dances across the face. It’s delicate and textured face is the central focal point of the building.
The main entrance of the building is grand and points toward the clock face. The entrance always put me in mind of the elephant tusks in Mombasa.
The interior of the building is amazingly beautiful. Covered from wall to wall in the colours of Kenya, red, green, black and white. With a large spear that points towards the central debate table.
The interior was recently given a facelift with a new ventilation system and just generally a good clean up.
The Parliament House in Nairobi is one of the most exquisite buildings in Nairobi. It is at the very heart of the Kenyan democracy and shows the struggle of the Kenyan people and the hope of a brighter future. It is one of the greatest buildings in Nairobi and a must see
Aerial view of the parliament..the Ankh in shape
The protruding end to complete the design with African crafted men on the face
Nairobi lacks distinct architecture. Little can distinguish our buildings, besides the current craze for height, aluminium cladding and glazing. Actually, the design of modern buildings is mostly of European import.
But one can’t miss the uniqueness of buildings that were erected by Freemasons who put up structures like the All Saint’s Cathedral at the turn of the last century.
They put up churches as well as colonial institutions and extensively incorporated Freemasonry signs and symbols even in Anglican churches.
Indeed, it was the Freemasons who defined Nairobi’s early architecture, building some of the grandest buildings in the country to date. Most are considered classics. Some are national monuments; giving the city a regal feel, reminiscent of Kenya’s imperial past.
Nairobi planning started in the 1920s. The government architect then was J.A Hoogterp, who later moved and settled in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was Sir Herbert Baker, a Freemason, who took charge of several projects after Hoogterp left.
The layout of the city was borrowed from Washington DC, Paris, Cape Town, Pretoria, Canberra (the executive capital of Australia), New Delhi and La Plata, a city in Argentina.
All these cities’ architecture was widely deemed as masonic, complete with signs and symbols. It has also been observed that the major civic and central government buildings are designed to form an Ankh, (a cross having a loop for its upper vertical arm and serving especially in ancient Egypt as an emblem of life).
There is a masonic hand in the architecture of key buildings, especially those representing the political, economic, educational or religious powers of the city. Think Parliament, the All Saint’s Cathedral, McMillan Library, Kenya Railways headquarters and City Hall, all of which stand out for their impeccable and seamless masonry.
These masons were free to work anywhere, and they came to Kenya with their genius for bricklaying, stone carving and meticulous construction that is evident more than a century later. Here are some of the historic Freemason buildings that define Nairobi
The Kenyan parliament building...
Third World Architecture in masonic terms
At the heart of Kenya’s democracy and national government is the Parliament House in the CBD of Nairobi. Situated on Parliament road the Parliament House is where 222 representatives of the people of Kenya debate and vote on new laws.
Parliament
In 1951 the architect Amyas Douglas Connell was invited by the colonial British government to design on a Parliament that could deal with the new requirements that an independent country would require. The architect made some designs which were called ‘unBritish, French-influenced and German oriented’ by Charles Hayes. Never the less Connell stuck by his designs but was persuaded by the Government to add a large clock tower who wanted it to look more like Westminster. The first wing was opened in 1954. The British Pathe has a great video of the building in 1954.
The second southern wing was built after Kenya became independent in 1963.
The older part of the building clearly resembles Westminster, interestingly the building’s foundation stone was a stone recovered from the ruins of Westminster after an air raid in 1941. This stone was gifted to the Kenyan Government to signify the strong bond between the UK and her former colony.
The southern wing has a much more Kenyan feel to it in its detailing and design.
The detailing at the end of the southern wing’s curved protrusion has large statues of the Kenyan people in their triumph over the British in gaining their independence.
The building is primarily constructed from natural stone blocks, concrete and glass. The building’s facade is clad to give it its burnt yellow colour. The building is made up of two large halls which are connected via long corridor shaped buildings with the large clock tower as the buildings central pivot point.
The site sits across from Uhuru park within the CBD. The site is enclosed by City-Hall Way, Parliament Road, Harambee Avenue and Uhuru highway.
New Tower
The clock tower is a masterpiece of design. It’s a landmark that is both subtle and small, but still stately. The clock face is a textbook example of Neo-gothic design. It’s fragile curvy design that dances across the face. It’s delicate and textured face is the central focal point of the building.
The main entrance of the building is grand and points toward the clock face. The entrance always put me in mind of the elephant tusks in Mombasa.
The interior of the building is amazingly beautiful. Covered from wall to wall in the colours of Kenya, red, green, black and white. With a large spear that points towards the central debate table.
The interior was recently given a facelift with a new ventilation system and just generally a good clean up.
The Parliament House in Nairobi is one of the most exquisite buildings in Nairobi. It is at the very heart of the Kenyan democracy and shows the struggle of the Kenyan people and the hope of a brighter future. It is one of the greatest buildings in Nairobi and a must see
Aerial view of the parliament..the Ankh in shape
The protruding end to complete the design with African crafted men on the face
It's Me Scumbag
Elder Lister
Munene pengine ni mimi sijui lakini Kongowea haiko Mvita kisiwani. Kuna siku ishakuwa kisiwani kweli? Your historians got their geography mixed up.
QuadroK4000
Elder Lister
Waaaaaah hiyo ni Bob cut? This is the stuff @Cortedivoire should not be minding 150, 200, 500, etc etc
@Meria Ahsanti bro.
Endelea.
Hapa kuna nyesha seriously and the temperature is 21 degrees...