White Rhino Hotel: Iconic 112-year-old facility put up for auction
The front view of the White Rhino Hotel. It was built in 1910.
Nyeri’s iconic White Rhino Hotel is being auctioned as fortunes continue to dwindle for the historic landmark that was hit hard by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 112-year-old facility located at the heart of the town is set to be sold by Garam Investments Auctioneers on June 2. An advert placed in the dailies yesterday indicates that the property, standing on a three-acre plot, had outstanding land rates worth Sh1.2 million as at July 2021.
The notice by Garam Auctioneers also shows that its title is a leasehold interest for a term of 50 years with effect from September 1,2008 and attracts a reversible ground rent of Sh146,400.
“Bidders will be expected to produce a bidding deposit of Sh10 million by way of cash or bankers cheque before being allowed to bid,” reads the notice.
The establishment which is managed by the Legend Hotels Limited, was started by three Europeans—Berkely Cole, Lord Cranworth and Sandy Herd in 1910. It got its name after a rhino was shot and killed at the site during one of the numerous visits by the white settlers.
At the time, it was the place to be for white settlers and had an exclusive club for Europeans who kept guard dogs to scare Africans away. When Kenya gained independence, the hotel was sold to an Asian businessman, Ramnic Bhadrese.
But Mr Bhadrese later sold it to Amos Wamuyu in 1970. In his renovations, Mr Wamuyu pulled down a ‘whites-only’ sign that had been erected at the entrance.
Fifteen years later, the hotel changed its ownership to its current owner—the family of the Former Kieni MP David Munene Kairu which manages it through Legend Hotels Limited. It was gazetted as a national monument in 2001. It boasts of a multi-storey hotel building, a restaurant, boiler cum office and administration block, coffee shop.
It also consists of a hall block, butchery cum snacks shop, gate house, roofed walkway, basement parking-cum-storehouse, and a borehole. It will be the fourth landmark hotel in the region that will close down owing to the effects of Covid-19 on the hospitality industry. Outspan, on the outskirts of Nyeri town, shut down operations on April 12, 2020 and has not reopened since. The hotel, which was put up for sale in October last year, was home to the founder of the scouts movement, Lord Baden-Powell, from 1938 to 1941.
It is unique for its colonial architecture. But it is the Paxtu Museum that places it in history books. Paxtu is the cottage where Lord Baden-Powell lived until his death. Today, it is one of the most iconic destinations for the global scouts movement.
The collections include Lord Baden-Powell’s original paintings, writings, photos and Scouting relics. Besides his artistic works, the walls of the museum are adorned with flags from different parts of the world, either left by visiting scouts or sent by visitors once they arrived back in their country. Paxtu and the hotel used to draw over 3,000 visitors annually. Outspan was built on an old farm by Eric Sherbrooke Walker in the 1920s. Walker also built the Treetops Lounge, its sister hotel, around the same period.
Treetops earned global recognition as the hotel where Elizabeth II went to bed as a princess and woke up as a queen following the death of King George VI.
She climbed up the ladder to Treetops a princess on February 5,1952 and descended the following day as a queen.
The queen visited the hotel three times—in 1952,1959 and 1983. Today, it is a pale shadow of its former self.
Another hotel is the Serena Mountain Lounge, on Chaka Road in Nyeri, which shut down in March last year. It was famed for its forest adventures.
The Green Hills hotel, associated with Kenya’s third President Mwai Kibaki, has closed and reopened twice since the onset of the pandemic. It closed its operations again in March in 2021.
It was started in the 1970s by Mr Kibaki and built its reputation by becoming one of the landmark hotels in Nyeri, especially for visitors hoping to stay within Nyeri town.
The facility was famed for its family-friendly environment, and conference facilities and also offered team building activities for corporates.
