It is 10 acres of pure bliss. Located in the serene, heavily wooded south-western base of Mt Kenya and surrounded by a forest, with a river traversing it, Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri was built as a relaxation place for a queen.
But it has become a venue famous for shaping politics and a bellwether of the direction the country is heading.
The lodge’s significance in politics has especially been elevated by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has held major political events at the lodge and also uses it as his base when he is touring Mt Kenya.
“I love the place because it relaxes my mind and I get to think and strategise,” he told this writer during a question and answer session with journalists at the lodge in 2016.
President Kenyatta was at the Sagana State Lodge for a two-day conference, where he engaged governors and senators.
Little known lodge
In November 2019, he also met Mt Kenya leaders there and urged them to stop early campaigns, a plea that fell on deaf ears.
While he was facing dots of opposition then, the President is now facing a deluge from MPs in his party and backyard.
Coincidentally, the lodge is located in Mathira constituency, the home of MP Rigathi Gachagua, one of Deputy President William Ruto’s biggest supporters and now a harsh critic of the President.
Mr Gachagua once served as President Kenyatta’s personal assistant. The MP is not one of those invited to the meeting.
But the lodge was little known before President Mwai Kibaki came to power.
The first time it hit the headlines was in 2006 when the Narc government upgraded it at a cost of more than Sh300 million.
Peace and reconciliation
“Fixtures and finishes will be of the highest quality. The lodge will be modernised and new buildings will include guesthouses, an office block and other offices. In addition, driveways, walls and fences will be upgraded and new quarters will be put up to house Presidential guards and security officers,” read a description of the work to be carried out that was released by the government.
The lodge was also to play an important role in peace and reconciliation after the 2007 post-election violence.
It was at Sagana State Lodge in 2008 that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga struck a deal on the constitution of the country’s “nusu mkate” coalition Cabinet.
Having failed to agree on the composition of the new coalition government, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga quietly retreated to Sagana in April 2008 and crafted the new government.
Secret meeting venue
The meeting venue was so secret that Mr Odinga learnt of it as he was boarding the helicopter to the place.
Sagana State Lodge was one of the 2,500 presents given to Princess Elizabeth as a leased wedding gift from ‘the people of Kenya’ when she married Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.
The then Princess Elizabeth, 21, did not use the Sagana State Lodge until February 1952, when she was visiting the country.
She was informed of the death of her father, King George VI, while at the lodge.
It was handed over to the Kenyan government after independence in 1963.
It is not known why the lodge was named Sagana, a town nearly 40 kilometres away in Kirinyaga.