This hotel was founded on vengeance

Nairobi’s Sarova Stanley Hotel

• In the beginning, Nairobi’s Sarova Stanley Hotel belonged to a dainty woman, Mayence Bent
• She had a hubby, William Stanley Bent- a railway worker, farmer and an agent of The East African Standard
• The two had a bitter fallout in 1905 and as an act of vengeance, Mayence opened a rival hotel

Nairobi’s Sarova Stanley Hotel was for ages known as The New Stanley. Why was it ‘new’ for over 100 years and who was this Stanley?

Well, the Sarova, Kenya’s second largest hotel chain, was acquired by the families of former Kirinyaga MP John Ngata Kariuki and the ‘Chani’ Vohra in 1978.