NAIROBI: Kenya’s Happy Valley — popularised through books and movies, and better known as Wanjohi Valley in Nyandarua County — was the playground for English and some not-so-English aristocrats in the 1920s and 1930s.

The key players included Idina Sackville, Lord Errol and a host of other less-known characters who took drugs and died prematurely, either through suicide or were killed. Lord Errol’s death has remained a mystery and there is no sign it will ever be resolved.

Enough has been written about the Happy Valley, but what about its edges, the hills around it?

SIMPLY BREATHTAKING

After reading The Ghosts of Happy Valley, I contacted the writer, Juliet Barnes, and Solomon Gitau, her guide, and we ventured beyond Happy Valley.

We took a newly gravelled road from Ol Kalou past the former home of Happy Valley member Morgan Glenville, which is by Malewa River, the main feeder of Lake Naivasha, and up the escarpment. The view of Happy Valley to the south as you climb the escarpment and Lake Ol Bollosat to the north is simply breathtaking.

We were in Shamata, which in Maa language means ‘high place’. This cold place is to the east of Happy Valley. Here, other pioneer settlers, who were not as well known as the Happy Valley lot, built elegant colonial houses.

The first house we visited was formerly owned by Nigel Trent and is next to Aberdare Forest. It offers a scenic view of the Laikipia plains, and the Rift Valley and its lakes.

The house looks modest by Happy Valley standards. The new owner of the house has done a good job maintaining it, 50 years after Nigel’s departure. The next house was in Kaheho town, about four kilometres from Nigel’s. Another big colonial house nearby has been demolished halfway and is part of a secondary school. The original owner was probably called Penrose, but was nicknamed Kihuko, loosely translated as ‘mole’s place’.

A kilometre away on the gravelled road to Nyahururu is another colonial house, which is now used by the assistant chief. It has remnants of a sheep dip and fuel pumps, and broken glass panes have been replaced with wood. The owner was called Muhuhu, a gossip. His real name is not known.

About five kilometres east is another colonial house, with a roof made with wood shingles. It looks abandoned. The owner was called Dyer, and from the design, it looks like the house was for his workers.

Another three kilometres further east we found another well-maintained house formerly owned by Michael Hooper. The house has a wood and mabati roof and is well maintained. The current occupant told us that Hooper descendants have visited the house.

Another five kilometres to the north is the home of General Wainwright; his sister’s house is nearby. We were told he sold land to all the other wazungus. The house veranda faces the Aberdares, and the back of it, the Laikipia plains. If there’s something these settlers knew well, it was choosing locations. The house is now public property and is used as a dispensary and village polytechnic.

It is not well maintained.

Time did not allow further exploration, but there are other colonial houses scattered on the edges of the Happy Valley in the former ‘white highlands’, including that built by Lord Egerton. Curiously, while Australia was started by prostitutes and convicts, Kenya attracted Eton-educated aristocrats.

It seems that for over 50 years, no one has realised that these houses are goldmines. If well packaged, they could bring Nyandarua County and other counties lots of money through tourism. Many Kenyans and the descendants of the original owners would love to visit these houses, at a fee. But they need to be repaired.

I recall paying a few dollars to visit a palatial home built around 1750 on the shores of the Mississippi river. Nyandarua and other counties with colonial homes have been sitting on a goldmine.

The distance from Nairobi is another asset — a two-hour drive and you are at Wainwright’s house, admiring nature. Why can’t we create narratives around Happy Valley and its edges?

I am very surprised that though Lord Errol is buried in Kiambu, no one talks about it. We seem not to realise that history can be packaged and sold handsomely. In the US, both Illinois and Kentucky claim Abraham Lincoln was born there. How else do you attract tourists?

MONEY FROM HISTORY

More importantly is that with time, Kenya will have a critical mass of people who can appreciate nature and history. Such houses will come in handy. And whether we hate colonialism or not, it is part of our history. Maybe one way to reduce the anger against colonialism is to make money from it.

I kept wondering where the owners of such great houses went. Some are still around in Kenya. I wonder how they felt when it became clear that they would have to leave their homes, built in the middle of nowhere, long after they had sold their land in England. One of the Happy Valley lot sold a home owned since 1611.

The ghosts of Happy Valley may never be put to rest, and we may never know who killed Errol. But it makes a lot economic sense to make money from history. It is always there and can be counted as one of our renewable resources.

Don’t 10 million people a year go to see pyramids, which are actually graves, in Egypt? Nyandarua and other counties in the former white highlands are sitting on a goldmine that just needs extraction.

The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi School of Business. xniraki@gmail.com