Tourism remains one of our leading foreign exchange earners with 1.35 million visitors coming to Kenya in 2014.
About 72 per cent of these visitors were on holiday, coming to sample out our beaches and national parks. In the same year, Egypt and Morocco each received 10 million tourists, SA got 14.5 million, France 85 million and Spain 60 million.
It would be interesting to find out what attracts the high number of visitors to France or Spain. Cultural heritage is one big attraction. In France, we have Eiffel Tower, Louvre museum, Palace of Versailles, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Brittany Coast, Medieval castles and more. Eiffel Tower receives about 7 million visitors annually.
In Spain visitors are attracted by cultural heritage too from The Palacio Real (Royal Palace) to running of the bulls in Pamplona, aqueduct of Segovia which are remains of Roman civil work and Sagrada Familia, a church whose construction started in 1882 and is still ongoing! I had the pleasure of visiting this magnificent church in Barcelona in 2008. I had a feeling, the construction will never end. When Boni Khalwale tried to introduce bull fighting at Kasarani, we laughed...
What can we package to attract more tourists beyond the big 5? I do not think tourists want to stay in five star hotels; they probably have better hotels in their countries. They want something exotic, something that will wow them. We often forget that tourist attractions are not always natural they are created, branded, packaged and marketed.
If the packaging is wrapped in some mysteries the better. Think of Stone hedges in Britain or the Manchu Picchu ruins, build by Incas in Peru. We still do not know who built them and why they were abandoned. Chichen Itza in Mexico is another monument built by Mayas which still mystify us. Who built the great pyramids in Egypt and how come they never run out of new mummies? Human beings love pseudo truths, myths and legends. It pays to romanticise such places through movies and books.
Let’s go beyond the big 5. One of the least exploited tourist attractions in Kenya is the colonial houses. The beauty about these houses is that the builders came from the same market where our tourists come from. They include Britain and interestingly America and Italy. I have been informed reliably that most of these houses were build by Italian prisoners of war during WWII. One reliable source is Maureen Delap who lived in the Happy Valley herself.
Lord Egerton and Delamere have relatives in England and would be fascinated to see the monuments build by those who left the comfort of England to explore the Dark Continent. Alice de Janze, who lived in the Happy Valley, was American married to French aristocracy. Think of any famous settler or colonialist, they all have descendants who would be awed by the houses their relatives lived in.
These houses could be turned into great museums after restoration with the furniture and other artefacts. My recent visit to such a house in Molo in Nakuru County made me realise the historical treasures these houses kept. Many wazungu families carry artefacts that are passed from one generation to the next. Getting furniture or beds that goes back to 300 years is not unusual.
The houses fascination come from their architecture too. They used local materials with shingles very popular for the roofs. The shingles were mostly made from cedar, a tree that should be declared endangered. Others houses like Geoffrey Buxton’s house in the happy valley (Wanjohi in Nyandarua) had mud walls, still stands and is in use 100 years later. Many part of the country Wazungus lived before their land was subdivided into small pieces is a host to these houses. Sadly, some are gone, like the one Lord Errol built.
The National Museums of Kenya should list these houses before they are destroyed. Being in private hands, the owners often bring them down or sell the building materials. Few realise the historical significance of these houses.
Despite gaining our Uhuru (independence), these houses are part of our national heritage. I do not think Americans destroyed what Britons had built during the colonial period. Such buildings are national treasures, protected by law. Why should we destroy ours? Even the former communist countries like Poland have not destroyed their communist legacy. They even restored the former palace, now a great attraction in Warsaw. The bustling modern cities in China like Shanghai leave room for history too.
THINKING WITHOUT A BOX
How many know for example that Ewart Grogan lived in the old house at the present day Chiromo Campus near Principal’s house at University of Nairobi? Who will ever build a castle like Lord Egerton’s? It is unbelievable that county governments do not see such houses as economic assets to be exploited. Are these houses not equivalent to the medieval castles that attract tourists to Europe? It is no wonder that while Egypt and Morocco get 10 million tourists, we hardly get 2 million. We have blamed terrorism and insecurity for too long but lack of diversity and variety for tourists might be holding tourists back, including domestic ones.
We go even beyond the colonial houses to our culture. Can you imagine the fascination of tourists watching Masai preparing a meal from blood and milk? Or a Gikuyu ngurario ceremony? And what about an initiation ceremony among the Bukusu or even Tero Buru among the Dholuo?
We may never have our Somme or Normandy beaches, but Taita Taveta has battle grounds and so is the Aberdares where Mau Mau fought the British soldiers. Where are the battlefields where Koitalel Arap Samoei gave Briton sleepless nights? Which tourist would not want to visit a Mau Mau cave? Why is Manyani detention centre not a tourist attraction like Alcatraz in California? Imagine visiting there and finding the name of your grand farther as one of the former prisoners?
Could witch-doctors and their paraphernalia become tourist attractions? Are we not the same people who have made slums a tourist attraction? Why can’t we add more exotic attractions?
How many tourists ever visit tea plantations in Limuru and marvel at their beauty? Add the Upper Hill in Nairobi where multinationals and local firms seem to be competing on who comes out with the fanciest house? And add the down town part of Nairobi with historical houses dating to early 1900s. How many have ever visited the railway Museum, and seen the steam trains?
Even the makaburi (commonwealth memorial graves), along Uhuru Highway can be a tourist attraction. Who are the heroes buried there and what cause did they die for? How did Nubians come to Kenya? Tourism is about thinking without a box.
It is amazing that Nyeri town has no signboard welcoming you to the final resting place of Baden Powel, the founder of Scout movement. Why are there so many Sudanese in Karatina? Machakos town has never realised the strategic significance of trumpeting the fact that it was Kenya’s capital before it was shifted to Nairobi. Our obsession with politics has been very costly to our economy. Imagine if these attractions got the same publicity as corruption?
The ancient history along the coast, a confluence of cultures including Arabs, The Persians, the Chinese, the Africans, the Portuguese and Germans has not been packaged for the world to see. Why not hinge on mysteries like the Portuguese reign which lasted two hundred years but had little influence on local language and religion? Have we connected to Brazilian tourists who speak Portuguese and would be fascinated by Fort Jesus?
Even the great dams that generate our power should be great attractions. What of the steam wells of the Great Rift Valley? Our snow-capped mountains along the equator do not attract enough tourists. It seems there is no limit to what we can offer tourists; we are only limited by our imaginations and familiarity. We can raise questions to create interest that would attract tourists. Where is the first plane that landed in Kenya? Where is the first car that was driven on the Kenyan road? Even State House and lodges can be tourist attractions.
Where is bed that the first governor of Kenya slept in? Where is Jomo Kenyatta’s fly whisk? Can we get one of Uhuru’s toys? Where is the bus that Kibaki touted? Where are presidential libraries/museums? We could even package the Kenyan political theatrics as tourist attractions.
Before oil flows, we need to get its competitors and tourism would be one such competitor. It is a renewable resource and a source of easy money. Finally feel free to share with me any photos of such elegant old houses.
—The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi. xniraki@gmail.com
