The hotel’s name is made up from the names of the two owners who have businesses in the town.
In the lobby there is a huge photo-mural of a traditional Maasai ceremony.
I thought I knew Nakuru well. My first visit there was as long ago as 1968, when it still had the feel of a settler farmers’ town. I was co-facilitating a workshop on creative writing with Okot p’Bitek. One evening at a downtown nightclub, I learnt that Okot was not only one of Africa’s greatest poets and an international footballer, he was also an amazing dancer.
Remembering Okot, I can’t resist a diversion from my main theme… After the workshop, I drove back to Nairobi – a relaxed and less than two hours’ drive in those days – and I thought Okot was catching a bus to Kisumu. A couple of weeks later we met up at a staff meeting in Nairobi. (Okot was a colleague in the Institute of Adult Education at the University of Nairobi.) It was a rather boring meeting – until Okot passed me a manuscript.
