Of love, breakup and war: The foundations of an airport

Minister for Commerce Industry and Communications Masinde Muliro (R) congratulates Florence Wilson (C) after unveiling ceremony at Wilson Airport. Looking on is East African Airways Chairman Sir Alfred Vincent [Courtesy]

Wilson Airport has had its fair share of controversies and love scandals for the last 92 years it has been in existence.

There was a time the heart of its founder, a British aristocrat and millionaire Florence Wilson, soared and fluttered with love.

This love had inspired her to invest a substantial portion of her inheritance to establish an airline so as to keep close to a pilot she had fallen in love with. That was in 1929. And for a time, her love was replicated by the pilot, Thomas Campbell, and the airline flourished.

But to the consternation of all doubting Thomsases of the affair, Campbell’s heart was hijacked by another lover, leaving his sponsor high and dry. With her lover gone, Florence was left to nurture her airline which would she would later lose, this time not to a lover but to war.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, all available pilots in Kenya were mobilised to fight the queen’s enemies. The airplanes too were momentarily taken over by the Royal Air Force to fight Adolf Hitler’s forces.

The aerodrome situated near Karen, which was the base of the millionaire’s ’operations, got a reprieve in 1962 when the incoming independent administration named it in honour of the founder. This change of name was witnessed by Minister for Commerce, Industry and Communication Masinde Muliro. Florence Wilson died six years later in 1968.

Today, according to Kenya Aviation Authority, Wilson Airport is one of the busiest airports in terms of aircraft movement in East and Central Africa. It acts as a hub for domestic flights which constitute 90 per cent of the total flights.

The airport is also described as a fast and convenient gateway from Nairobi into Kenya’s magical tourist havens such as Maasai Mara, Mombasa, Amboseli, Lamu, Kilimanjaro, Diani, Lokichoggio and Nanyuki.

It has also been in the news after part of its land was grabbed by a developer who constructed a hotel, a development that has triggered hot political and legal contests.

Last September, at the height of Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the locking of Kenya’s airspace, 54 airplanes belonging to politicians, billionaires and airlines were parked at the Wilson Airport.  Some were picked after KAA offered to auction them to offset “parking fees’.