Ferdinand Mwongela
As the fire raged at the Nakumatt Downtown that fateful afternoon in January 2009, people stood on adjacent buildings.
Helpless and at the same time awed by the fierce flames as firefighters and other first responders struggled to quell the fiery flames and rescue those trapped in the building. Guests and residents at The Sarova Stanley stood outside the hotel and at their windows helplessly watching how the firefighters would overcome the flames.
Strategically located at the corner of Kimathi Street and Kenyatta Avenue, The Sarova Stanley’s story is as significant as the story of the two people whose names the streets it opens to took.
If walls really have ears, then the walls of the Sarova Stanley have acres of tales to tell, having been a witness to numerous socio-political and economic activities of the country in the last 100 years.
The Sarova Stanley or sometimes simply referred to as The Stanley is one of Nairobi’s landmark buildings and luxurious hotels.
Its history is as rich as it is long with more than 100 years in operation since it started in 1902 known simply as Stanley Hotel then on Victoria Street (now Tom Mboya Street).
Exchange Bar
It has also not been static, moving locations from Tom Mboya Street (then Victoria Street) to Moi Avenue (Government Road at the time) and on to today’s site.
Over time, the hotel has played host to significant events and personalities. Only recently, the Kenya Breweries Limited made a fuss of their original delivery of their first ever order of beer to the hotel in 1922, an order for ten cases of beer.
What some people may not know, however, is that the Nairobi Stock Exchange also traces its origins to The Sarova Stanley at the hotel’s Exchange Bar. In the 1950s, businessmen sat at the bar transacting in stocks and shares. With time, the exchange grew and today we have the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
As a tribute to this legacy, the hotel’s website claims that the "Exchange Bar sports a ‘Wall of Fame’, on which, in places of honour, hang photographs of the chief executives of the current top 20 companies on the Nairobi Stock Exchange."
Fair share
Like most of the other big names of the time like Fairmont The Norfolk, The Sarova Stanley has seen its fair share of big names, from authors to actors. The biggest of these will have to be Ernest Hemingway, JH Patterson and Elspeth Huxley.
Hemmingway is said to have rested in the hotel in 1933 after a hunting trip. Patterson will be remembered as the man who wrote The Man-eaters of Tsavo.
Significantly though, the hotel never started as the big establishment it is today, a testament to a businesses ability to grow from humble beginnings.
Started in 1902 by Mayence Bent, the hotel has grown over time, moving as it grew to bigger and better premises until it settled at its present spot in 1913.
It remained in the hands of Mayence until 1947 when it was acquired by Abraham Block and Family before the Sarova Group bought it in 1978.
Major refurbishments
Over this time, the hotel has undergone major refurbishments and reconstructions on its journey. The latest was in 1999 by the Sarova Group estimated to be in the tens of million of dollars.
Today, the hotel is a fixture on Nairobi’s hospitality circuit, a reputable brand within the Sarova Group flanked by its sister the Sarova Panafric only a stone’s throw away and several other Sarova hotels in the country.
