Sagana Lodge

Sagana State Lodge is one of several official state lodges, spread around the republic of Kenya which the President uses when on official tours of the country.^[1] It is situated in Kiganjo town in Nyeri County, on the foothills of Mount Kenya.

History

Colonial History

Sagana Lodge was built as a royal residence. It was a leased wedding present in 1947 to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (later HRH The Duke of Edinburgh & Queen Elizabeth II respectively) from the colony whilst they were in Kenya.

It was built 1949–1950. In 1952 Queen Elizabeth II was staying at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya when she ascended the throne. At Sagana Lodge^[2] she was told of her father King George VI's death and of her own succession to the throne—a unique circumstance for any such event. She was the first British monarch since the accession of William IV in 1830 to be outside the United Kingdom 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). The lease was given back to Kenya in 1963.

Post Colonial History

In 1976 it, along with several other official residences of the President of Kenya were declared protected zones.^[3] 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.^[4]

Structure

There were two bedrooms, a sitting room, and a dining room. A children's wing consisting of a sitting room and three bedrooms was added later.

Notes