The tiny church and the Brazilian rosewood.

Queen Elizabeth 11 of Britain has fond memories of a tiny Anglican church in Naromoru. It was after attending a "Divine Service" in this church on the morning of Tuesday, February 5, 1952, that young Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip , proceeded to the Treetops hotel from where they learnt that she had become the queen following the death of her father, King George V1.

The small church on the banks of the Naromoru river on the Nyeri/Nanyuki highway, prides itself of having the express permission of Her Majesty to hung a replica of her Coat-of-Arms - "Hon Soit ut Mai Pense". The item was made in silk from a picture supplied by Westminister Abbey.

A plaque at the bottom reads: "Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth attended Divine Service in this church on February 5th, 1952, and has graciously allowed her Coat-of-Arms to be hung" in the church. After the Coronation of the Queen on June 2, 1953, a highly valued 8-metre-long blue carpet known as Coronation Carpet was sent the following day to the Naromoru church from Westminister Abbey.

Outside the church, is a huge Brazilian rosewood tree, planted by Major Geoffrey Baynes, to commemorate Elizabeth’s first visit to the church for "Even’ Song on Sunday evening", February 3, immediately after the royal party’s arrival and occupation of the Royal Lodge - their wedding gift from the Kenya Colony.

Major Baynes had donated the land on which the church is built and had laid the foundation stone on July 24, 1949. The local white community contributed money for its construction.

Naromoru and the neighbouring Nanyuki were then at the heart of white settlement in the country. Settlers owned vast ranches in the area where they kept sheep and cows and cultivated wheat.

In their neighbourhood are two of the country’s most luxurious spots frequented by billionaires from all over the world. They the famous Mt Kenya Safari Club and Ol Pejeta Holiday Resort.

Adjacent to Mt Kenya Safari Club is the internationally renown Mt Kenya Game Ranch and Zoo where Don Hunt rears the rare white rhino, the sneaky Bongo cows and high altitude llamas imported from South America.

Sitting side by side with this prosperity and opulence is the squalor of Majengo. The first of "majengo", Kiswahili for dwellings, mushroomed in the country’s urban centres from as early as 1900, developing from clusters of shanties put up by the "natives" engaged by the first British colonial administrators as "caravans" to carry luggage and materials required in the establishment of the local administrative centres.

It was at the "majengo" in various towns of the colony that thousands of ex-soldiers in the King’s African Rifles were discharged after the end of World War II. The demobilised soldiers were accorded settlement rights as a gesture of gratitude by the Crown government for their selfless defence of the "Empire".

Nanyuki’s Majengo population swelled during the State of Emergency years when many Agikuyu, Aembu and Ameru were removed from the white-owned farms, some detained and others repatriated to their original homes. Those who had no homes to go to drifted to Majengo.

Nanyuki stands across the Equator at the foot of the snow-capped Mt Kenya on the Great North Road. If you have the spirit for it, you could travel up this road to Ethiopia and further on to Egypt.

The town is also home to the rare sweet trout fish thriving in the crystal clear waters of the streams and rivers flowing down the mountain. It is the base for mountaineers challenging the imposing Mt Kenya and also serves as a railway terminus.

The royal beds at Treetops.

On market days donkeys - beasts of burden - move the farm produce from the surrounding farmlands. Three or two donkeys are usually harnessed to a single cart packed with sack-loads of grains, potatoes, beans and vegetables.

Nanyuki suffers from settler hangover. There is a by-law enacted in 1949 which bars female donkeys from the town. The town, and its not far-off neighbours of Rumuruti and Nyahururu, were important administrative centres in the White Highlands that also embraced semi-arid plains extending from the Nyeri Valley to the then Dorobo reserves of Samburu District.

The settlers had extensive ranches and wheat fields. They had a railway line with a terminus at Nanyuki to ferry their produce to Nairobi and Mombasa for export. "Natives" tilled the land and looked after the thousands of livestock on the ranches.

Any behaviour that was "indecent" to the memsahibs (white ladies) provoked reactions that led to extreme consequences. With this kind of puritanism, it was hardly surprising that the settlers decided to discipline the town’s donkeys for putting one memsahib in an embarrassing situation as the "natives" watched.

The memsahib was carrying her purchases from a shop to the car. In the vicinity, a female donkey was on heat and two males were attempting to mount her.

The white lady’s attention was drawn by the commotion. She stood petrified, watching the action. Then she collapsed – either from shock or excitement, or both. The matter reached the ears of the authorities and within days, a by-law was tabled before the civic council for deliberation.

The accusation against the donkeys was so overwhelming that the famous by-law of 1949 banning female donkeys in Nanyuki was passed unanimously. It is a by-law that current civic leaders strongly believe should continue in force. And the local residents agree.

Deputy Mayor James Wamai, a Nanyuki resident 37 years, remembers vividly an incident that took place in 1971. A trader had bought a female donkey and on his way home passed through Nanyuki where he stopped to have lunch. He tethered the donkey to a tree as he ate his lunch.

The poor fellow was unaware of the 1949 by-law. His donkey brayed, and since the beasts of burden have a strange way of talking to each other, the town’s 20 males heeded the female’s loud and clear call.

They galloped wildly, scaring people as they dragged the carts along. Some took short-cuts, pulling their carts over open drains and trenches. The carts overturned as the donkeys hurried on, freeing themselves as the harnesses tore off.

Wamai recalls: "The donkeys broke free and were chasing the female donkey through the town streets into the business premises. They caused so much chaos in the town that residents would not like to see a repeat of what happened. As long as there are no female donkeys in the town, the male ones will keep the peace."

The long and the short of it is that three days later, the female donkey died. For the owner, the worst was yet to come. The authorities invoked the 1949 by-law and the owner of the animal was charged, found guilty and fined Sh500. As if that was not enough, he was ordered to bury the animal.

The famous tree house

Treetops is the most famous tree house in the world. It was at this tree house 50 years ago that - in a fairy tale style - a beautiful young princess and her husband walked up the stairs to spend the night.

The following day, and unknown to her, she climbed down the stairs as the Queen of England. Princess Elizabeth’s father, King George V1, had died in the night of February 5/6, 1952, and being the first in line of succession, young Elizabeth automatically became the queen.

The tree house was then a three bedroomed wooden affair, with a huge verandah from where to watch herds of elephant, buffaloes, waterbucks, black rhinos and warthogs, to name but a few as well as birds such as crowned cranes. And when the winds part the clouds, there is the ethereal picture of Mt Kenya, the only mountain in the world on the Equator, framed in front of the hotel.

Queen Elizabeth visited the famous hotel again in 1983 and expressed concern about the destruction of trees by the big mammals. In July this year, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Rhys-Jones, followed the footsteps of his mother and inaugurated the Queen’s Jubilee Forest.

The area surrounding the hotel is being reforested. Since May, this year, 250 indigenous trees of 11 different species from the Aberdares, have been planted. Prince Edward planted a mugumo (fig) tree just like his mother did in 1983.

During the visit of the royal couple, six elephants visited the watering hole as did 44 buffaloes, three spotted hyenas, two mongooses, 32 warthogs, 21 waterbucks and one impala.

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