Kio’s Bar: Historic Kasarani pub frequented by Mzee Jomo, prominent politicians

Mzee Kioi became a long-time friend of Kenyatta, who often requested him to get him a takeaway kibuyu of muratina. Photo: Courtesy.

Charles Rubia and Joseph Kamotho would throw a party here, especially during elections,”

Kioi’s Bar is an old structure with grey roof tiles along Kasarani-Mwiki Road in Kasarani, Nairobi. A pork butchery at the dusty entrance ushers you into what appears like a pub out of a 1960 scrapbook. Indeed in the 1960s, Kioi’s Bar was one of the favourite joints for founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who loved its muratina, the Kikuyu traditional brew, which he drank on his way to his Njiru farm. Sitting on a section of a 20-acre land, Kioi’s Bar has seen Nairobi and Kasarani change for the past 50 years. Kasarani is a corruption of gathara-ini (nappier grass), which grows in succulent abundance behind the expansive land behind Kioi’s Bar, where zero-grazing takes place. Most of its former patrons, those who were around when it took root  are now bending their 70s, 80s and 90s.