Kenyatta House Maralal Entrance Fees

In this article, we cover Kenyatta House in Maralal, Entrance Fees. Kenyatta House is a historical national monument under the National Museums of Kenya. The house sits on a hilly 28-acre piece of land opposite the former Samburu governor’s residence on the Maralal-Leroghi road in Samburu Central Sub-County. It is a Victorian whitewashed bungalow sitting astride a hill, surrounded by a sea of trees.

Kenyatta House, a three-bedroom bungalow, holds great significance to Kenya’s independence and leadership. This is where Kenya’s first president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, was partly detained by the British colonial government. The building stands firm, in defiance of the over 60 years it has been in existence.

Kenyatta House Maralal

The building is painted white on the outside but blue inside. It has a red cemented floor and its roof is painted green. In the sitting room, there is a framed black and white photograph, taken in Maralal, showing Kenyatta in a group, among them his friends Wanyiri Kimomori, a cobbler and Johnson Njoroge.

Everything in the house appears as it is. Though it has been repainted, the walls retain the original colours. It has a lounge, with long-backed, wooden chairs with canvas pillows, a dining, and a kitchen with an oven that also heat the bathroom water. The bathroom has a bathtub. You are not allowed to sit on the chairs, or beds, for they need to be preserved for future generations.

In the master bedroom, an interesting phenomenon is evident. Facing a window is a study desk and looking yonder from the window, one can see a long distance away, mostly of hilly landscape. Kenyatta sat at this desk as he edited his book, Facing Mount Kenya, which was first published in 1938. From here, early in the morning and late in the evening, one can see the summit of the snow-capped Mt Kenya

Back in the bedroom where Uhuru Kenyatta was ‘conceived’, his parents had access to a dressing table, complete with a full-length mirror. The bed is the old, metallic type with springs. The mattress is made of sisal fibre. On a chest of drawers beside the bed is a simple charcoal iron box that is of special significance.

Kenyatta House Maralal History

Kenyatta was the second person to live in the house from April 1961 to August 1961. Kenyatta was moved to the house by the colonial government from Lodwar, where he had been detained for alleged involvement with the Mau Mau movement in 1953.

A white settler, Mr Michael Blundell, liaised between Kenyatta and the colonial government and facilitated the former’s movement from prison in Lodwar to the house in Maralal, where he was partially free, unlike in Lodwar and Kapenguria, where he was previously detained.

He was allowed to walk to the Maralal trading centre in the company of his two bodyguards but was not allowed to talk to a group of more than 10 people. Kenyatta also bought his own food while here from the little allowance he received from the colonial government.

Kenyatta House, a historical monument under the management of the National Museums of Kenya, was gazetted in 1977 to signify the trials and tribulations that freedom fighters went through as they fought for Kenya’s independence from the colonial government.

The visitor’s book bears an entry of the former president, the son of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, who is said to have been conceived in Kenyatta House during the detention. Kenyatta House is surrounded by a pleasant garden. On clear days you can catch a glimpse of Mount Kenya to the south, hence the title of Jomo Kenyatta’s book ‘Facing Mount Kenya’, which he wrote during his detention in Maralal.