International celebs in love with the 'Kenyan Bush'

   Usain Bolt when he adopted a Cheetah in Kenya   Photo: Courtesy

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Lord Byron was not Kenyan and there is no reason why he should have been, but the English poet said something most Nairobians would concur. That a “celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know.”

This beautiful country attracts global celebrities who bring with them their ‘A list’ lifestyle: personal chauffer’s, chefs, besides hiring entire hotel floors to themselves.

Did you hear of that James Bond actor who went to the Mara to an ‘exclusive’ resort, but the place being new, he was the only guest? The owner hired ‘tourists’ to make it appear full…but the celeb’s bill catered for everyone and everything…without his knowledge!

While the James Bond actor did not want anyone to know he was around, British supermodel Naomi Campbell did not mind posing for photos with First Lady Margaret Kenyatta during her Kenyan vacation recently.

Ever wondered what these international celebs do when they jet here, besides sunbathing and doing the Mara wildebeest circuit?

Well, the 43-year-old super model was here as part of her charity trip to Africa.

Naomi enjoyed her Christmas at Lion in the Sun Beach Resort owned by Italian billionaire and former flame Flavio Briatore, who was also there with his wife, Elisabetta Gregoraci.

The three were photographed having a good time in the 16-room luxurious resort which has in the past hosted showbiz heavyweights like American U2 front man Bono and Spanish Formula 1 racer Fernando Alonso.

Here is a sneak into celeb’s hideouts and activities in the country:

1. Flavio Briatore:

Italian billionaire and former Renault Formula One boss almost has Kenya as his second home. Besides owning Lion in the Sun, Briatore — whose boat is mostly moored at Malindi Marine Park- launched the Sh500 million Billionaires “village resort.”

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was one of the nine high profiles guests during its groundbreaking ceremony in May 2013, before it opened five months later. 

 Designed by world-famous Italian architect Marma Fossa, the resort, an entire village, boasts 25 international standard apartments that were sold for one million Euros (Sh117 million and indeed for Briatore was right to have described Kenya as “wonderful investment place.”  

In 2010, the 63-year-old business man distributed goats and foodstuff worth about Sh1 million to poor people at his Lion in the Sun exclusive residence.

 

2. Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Air and Reading Football Club is also a top foreign investor in Kenya. He first made his mark back in 2007 when he launched Virgin Atlantic that ceased all flights between London and Nairobi in September 2012 due to falling passenger numbers and rising fuel costs.  

Airline staff raised funds (through a mountain climbing expedition) for Virgin Atlantic’s charity village appeal used for building classrooms and provision of textbooks, school kits, desks, chairs and blackboards for ‘Free the Children’ village in Narok.

In October 2013 Branson jetted back to open Mahali Mzuri (nice place), his exclusive luxurious tented camp in Olare Otorogi Conservancy in Maasai Mara where President Uhuru Kenyatta was the chief guest. Mahali Mzuri costs about Sh50,000 a night.

3. Jose Mourinho

‘The Special One’ visited Kenya in 2010 and again two years later, when he is said to have bought a Tanzanite gold bracelet worth Sh500,000 for Lelesit Silvana, a 20-something lass who dismissed any romantic involvement with the football coach, currently with English Premiership side Chelsea.

 Mourinho stayed at the Kenyan coast’s prestigious Almanara Villas with his wife and two children, a boy and a girl under tight security.

 It was rumoured that during his 12-day trip Mourinho allegedly approached several “kajiwes” through an intermediary in a secret location “to help him succeed in his new job” (as Real Madrid coach). 

 The 47-year-old Mourinho refused to have his photograph taken or grant interviews with reporters during his Kenyan visit, which included a stay in the famed Maasai Mara Game Reserve. On July 10, 2010 he left Diani Airstrip on a private plane to Wilson Airport.  

4. Prince William

He first visited Kenya at 17 and returned in October 2010 with his girlfriend (now his wife) Kate Middleton. They spent a “wonderful 24 hours” at the hideaway, part of the Rutundu Log Cabins  near the Lewa Downs Conservancy owned by Ian Craig, father of former girlfriend, Jessica Craig.

It was at Rutundu that William removed his mother’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring from his rucksack and slipped it on his fiancée’s finger.

William is said to have visited the cabins several times before this special occasion.

Rutundu Log Cabins have no electricity and the four-poster bed in their cabin was made out of tree trunks. Elephants, lions, leopards, buffaloes and hyenas roam nearby.

The couple had arrived by helicopter. They were looked after by a safari guide, a cabin attendant and a chef.

There are only two cabins, which can lodge a maximum of eight, and you can’t go up there unless you are expected.

According to The Sun Newspaper, Middleton wrote: “Thank you for such a wonderful 24 hours! Sadly no fish to be found but we had great fun trying…hope to be back again soon. Catherine Middleton.”

After the birth of their son, Prince George, they received a fattened black bull and goat as a christening present from the Samburu community.

The bull will grow up in Lewa, along with four heifers, with the goal of creating a royal herd, according to the magazine.  The Westgate Mall terror attack prevented their return to mark their first anniversary since Prince William proposed in a mountain hut on the slopes of Mount Kenya in October 2010.

5. Bill Gates

The once richest man in the planet jets in incognito to check out how his humanitarian efforts of wrestling down HIV/Aids and malaria in Kenya via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Remember Bill Gates spending ten minutes at a local drugs store in Eldoret without anyone noticing who the mzungu was in 2009?

That was besides driving a Toyota Regius around Eldoret where perhaps most thought he was another agent scouting for a talented pair of ‘kale’ legs! 

Gates is said to have ordered his security detail to ‘take in the air’ as he sipped Mursik[sour milk] in the grass thatched hut of Kiptoo whose dairy business Gates supports through  Micro-loans.  

6. Serena Williams

The world’s top seeded tennis player opened the Serena Williams Secondary school in Kitui, which she termed a landmark in her life.

She also sponsored the Wee Secondary School in Makueni, Eastern Province, through a partnership with Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard “to empower African students through education.”

In 2010 Williams visited both the schools, about 50 km away from each other, and led tennis clinics during her three-day stay in Kenya. Over 10,000 children and 8,000 adults turned out.  

During her visit Serena stayed at the Nairobi Serena Hotel.

 7. Delores Jordan

Mother of American basketball legend Michael Jordan, Delores is no guest in Kenya as she comes to oversee the establishment of a Kenya Woman and Children Wellness Centre providing a holistic approach to well-being Nairobians via a Gender Violence Recovery Centre, a women’s and children’s outpatient clinic, a 184 in and out-patient facility and a forensic laboratory.

The centre will be on ten acres donated by USIU along the Thika Superhighway, which has been ongoing project since 2011.

Last year Delores Jordan hosted International Woman’s Day event and fundraiser at Hotel Intercontinental hotel during her visit.

8. Jochen Zeitz 

He owns the 50,000-acre Segera Ranch in Laikipia. The former Chair and CEO of sports apparel firm, Puma, first came and fell in love with Kenya in 1989.

The head of the Zeitz Foundation now spends most of his time here after his retirement from Puma in 2011. The once youngest German CEO when he became head honcho of Puma at 30, opened a new eight-villa retreat in Segera Ranch.

The retreat is operated by Wilderness Collection, a subsidiary of French eco-tourism retail and luxury conglomerate, Kerings- which Zeitz is the Chief Sustainability Officer.

According to the New York Times Zeitz has a “vintage Land Rover and cocoa-coloured Rolls-Royce convertible, 2,800 bottles of wine collection, his 1929 de Havilland Gipsy Moth biplane — the very one used in “Out of Africa,” which he scooped up recently at auction for $260,000” and an impressive collection of contemporary African art through Zeitz Collection.

Zeitz — became a KWS Honorary Warden — keeps some 3,000 cattle in his Segera Ranch that also has giraffes, rhinos, zebras, lions…and an airstrip!  Zeitz has eight other such ranches around the world. 

By the way, it was the Zeitz Foundation that brought Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt to Kenya in 2009.

 9. Angelina Jolie

She came here in 2004 to shoot The Cradle of Life, a sequel to Tomb Raider. The Hollywood actress was playing British archeologist Lara Croft.  

During the shoot, Angelina Jolie stayed at Hilton Hotel, unnoticed, something she mentioned it to the international media. She later visited Diani after she famously fell in love on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith in 2004.  Jolie sponsored the Angelina Jolie Girls Primary School, currently offers protection to 34 vulnerable girls who have been rescued from various difficult circumstances in Kakuma refugee camp.

10. Usain Bolt

The world’s fastest man came for a four day visit to Kenya, met retired president Mwai Kibaki and adopted the animal kingdom’s fastest sprinter, a cheetah, into his life in 2009.

Bolt paid Sh1.2 Million ($13,700) to formally adopt the cub besides (250,000) $3,000 a year to the Kenya Wildlife Service to care for ‘Lightning Bolt’ at the Animal Orphanage in Nairobi.

Bolt stayed at Jochen Zeitz’s Sagera Ranch in Laikipia.