Kabarnet Hotel, where Moi lodged and dined, now lies in ruins

Overgrown flowers and shrubs, frayed pavements and heaps of leaves strewn all over the compound welcome you to the once-famed Kabarnet Hotel in Baringo County, the backyard of former President the late Daniel Arap Moi.

The paint on the walls of the hotel buildings has seen better days and cracked walls and broken windows confirm the facility’s financial challenges before it collapsed.

Situated approximately 500 meters from the county government headquarters, the hotel that was dear to the heart of the former President is now a pale shadow of its former self. 

Save for a small part section rented by the county government to serve as county offices, it is dead silent and deserted, a sharp contrast to the bee hive of activity it experienced just about a decade ago.

This was not just any other hotel. Kabarnet Hotel carried memories of the former President. 

The late Moi, as President, had a designated state-of-the-art presidential suite constructed at the right-wing building of the hotel. He dined and lodged here.

Served as mini 'State Lodge'

It served as a mini “State Lodge”, and he could sleep there every time he visited the town or attended board meetings at the prestigious Kabarnet Boys and Kapropita Girls High Schools within Kabarnet town, where he served as the board chair until his retirement.

The 54-room state-owned facility, complete with a conference hall, restaurant, bar, and lounge, which was managed by Africa Tours and Hotels, opened its doors in 1982, just a few years after Moi took over as Kenya’s second president.

Nation.Africa toured the facility on Monday. What was once a lush evergreen compound to behold has now been turned into a grazing field by locals, with cow dung littering the floors. 

A hall on the ground floor has since been turned into a cow shed.

A dirty swimming pool behind the hotel is now overgrown with shrubs, a clear indication that it has not been maintained –or used-- for a long time.

Adjacent to it is a heap of blocks and some waste from repairs done on the cement floors. The repairs were not completed because the hotel closed its doors just when the work had just begun.

At the main gate, a small structure meant for security guards who used to usher VIP clients into the facility is now under lock and key. The gate remains wide open for all and sundry.

Revered

From the time the hotel was started until when Moi retired in 2002, it was a household name, revered in Baringo and the entire country.

This is where the second president would meet his guests from far and wide anytime he was in his backyard. Business at the time was booming.

The contractor designed the hotel with a presidential suite specifically for the former Head of State, where he would spend time since his home at Sacho had not been built by then.

Mr Lee Njiru, late President Moi’s long-serving aide, reminisces the years when he accompanied him on his tour to the region, and how the facility was started.

“Every time we were at his Kabarak home, Moi would receive countless phone calls from people seeking assistance to the point he did not have time of his own. I had to devise a way out of this,” said Mr Njiru.

Tent and generator

He suggested to the President to go to a serene place where there were no telephones so that he could get some time to rest.

“We carried a tent and a generator and erected it in a bushy area and Mzee slept there peacefully, free from the numerous phone calls,” said the former aide.

That place is where Kabarnet Hotel now seats. It had not been built then.

Then chairman of the Kenya Tourism Development Corporation, the late Reuben Chesire – a former MP, was tasked to construct State hotels countrywide. 

That is how the facility was built at the place where Moi slept overnight in a tent, in his honour.

“Whenever the President visited Kabarnet, he slept at the hotel because he had no house at his Sacho home. And because the presidency was new among the Kalenjins, it was magnetic,” Mr Njiru recalled.

“Whenever he was at the hotel, performing groups including students would come to sing and entertain him. His aides also slept at the facility,” he recalled.

The facility was then booming with business and was a beehive of activity, with politicians arriving in droves to meet then president.

Magnet disappeared

Mr Njiru reveals that the hotel became popular when Moi was in power and generated a lot of money. However, the magnet disappeared when he retired.

Even senior civil servants from the community and his close allies stopped visiting and it eventually collapsed.

Former director of the Kenya Postal Corporation Erick Bett recalls how, as a student at Kabarnet Boys High School in 1979, he was part of a group that was summoned by the school management to clear a bush at the spot where Kabarnet Hotel now stands. 

“There was no structure yet. The town was still small and some small structures were mushrooming. The president was supposed to sleep in a tent there,” he recalled.

The next morning, he and other students from Kabarnet Boys and Kapropita Girls, went to entertain him at the spot,” Mr Bett, who later became a close ally of the former president, recalled.

Africa Tours and Hotels, he explained, had earmarked the place to build a hotel following a tourist circuit that benchmarked on Sirikwa, Golf Hotel, and Sunset Hotel Kisumu, among others.

“By coincidence, the late Stephen Kositany who married Moi’s eldest daughter was appointed the managing director of Africa Tours and Hotels and he fast-tracked the construction of Kabarnet Hotel to take care of the president whenever he toured his backyard. The construction was done very fast,” Mr Bett offered.

“Adjacent to it was the mini State Lodge, separate from the hotel. That is why the facility was revered because any visitor going there would feel they were in State House, as the Head of State would occasionally be around to spend the night,” he recalled.

All the other sister hotels built by Africa Tours and Hotels also went down.

'Disrespectful act'

Mr Bett says one of the worst things that happened at the facility was for some people in Baringo to disrespect the presidential suite. 

“Those of us who worked for Moi are cursing whoever degraded that mini State Lodge currently occupied by the devolved unit, which rented it to serve as their office. Shame on anybody who came up with that thought,” said Mr Bett.

He told Nation.Africa that after retirement, Mr Moi had complained after learning that his presidential suite at the hotel had been occupied.

He says he heard Moi himself complaining saying: “My room which I spent all these years is now being used by some small boys.”

“It annoyed him so much that he did not want to visit the town anymore,” Mr Bett said.

“Our culture does not allow a young man to occupy an old man’s house without authority because it is assumed they slept in his bed, and used his toilet. It’s an abomination, to say the least,” he lamented.

He says the only logical thing to do is for the county government to so to ‘avert a curse’ is to change the mini- ‘State Lodge’ at the hotel into a museum, preserve artefacts of the late president so that it remains a historical place, given the respect it deserves. 

“Otherwise there is a curse on the heads of those involved in degrading the facility used by the former Head of State,” he warned.

“There is no way we can just ignore the role that the presidential suite played for the 24 years of Moi’s rule. That is a monument.”

Mr Benson Kandir, a former Kabarnet Hotel manager said they made more than Sh200, 000 on a good day, whenever Moi visited.

“Business was thriving until Moi retired after which it went down gradually,” he said.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, we lost clients and it dealt a blow to the business. We reduced staff from 50 to 18 and months later closed down just when preparations were underway for refurbishment. That’s how we closed shop and all went home,” recalled Mr Kandie.

They were preparing to resume operations in 2020 when the State announced the privatisation of hotels that had been run down over the years and struggling financially. 

Among them was Kabarnet, Golf Hotel, Mountain Lodge, Mt Elgon Lodge, and Kenya Safari Lodge, all managed by the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation.

Acquisition bid

Baringo County government is, however, interested in acquiring the facility.

The devolved unit recently held talks with KTDC, led by the deputy director of portfolio management Erastus Njoroge with an intention to acquire the State-owned hotel. The acquisition is part of plans to expand and modernise county offices.

“We agreed that the technical team spearheaded by our executive in charge of lands shall fast track conclusion of this process in the shortest time, and as guided by all relevant legal provisions,” confirmed Governor Benjamin Cheboi.

A week ago, Barwessa MCA Josphat Lokorio tabled a Motion at the Baringo County assembly seeking to have Baringo locals allowed to purchase the hotel.

“We want potential buyers, particularly those from Baringo to be allowed to buy the hotel,” said Mr Lokorio.

Tirioko MCA Sam Lourien said the facility was dear to Mr Moi’s heart Moi and advised that either Baringo locals or the devolved unit should secure it so that it is not acquired by ‘aliens.’

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