The fortress Sir McMillan lived in

By Ferdinand Mwongela

Sir William Northrup McMillan built an imposing house in Kangundo, now Matungulu District. The Tourism Trust Fund is rehabilitating this monument, giving us an opportunity to see where the mighty lived and fell.

A road meanders off the Thika-Garissa road, moving slowly towards the Kilimambogo Mountain now covered in a lush green. The name means the mountain of buffalos but there are few left now. After about four kilometres, we get to a narrow bridge straddling the River Athi, which snakes through this area to the fourteen falls where it forms a spectacular scene cascading over the black rocks to fall metres below with a deafening roar.

The falls lie on the edge of the vast 33,000-acre land on which the McMillan House stands and it would be unthinkable to go through without a look at this amazing site. McMillan was in the same league as Lord Delamere. If we were to write their story we would call them the Tale of Two Lords.

In the company of Tourism Minister Najib Balala and Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama, our posse of cars crawled to the river attracting a crowd of villagers. A group of enterprising young men entertained the willing by diving from the top of the falls into the murky water for a small fee.

Fourteen Falls at the edge of the property.

The next stop was three kilometres away at the huge house. The compound has several other houses that used to house servants of the estate and which now serve various functions of the Muka Mukuu Co-operative, which took over the estate.

The house, a fortress-like structure imposing in its presence, stood in awe at the throng of the famous and infamous people, who visited it. The 32-bedroomed fortress built in 1918 is huge. As the story goes, Sir McMillan and his wife lived in one wing for the first half of the year and the other for the second half.

Stripped bare

Over the years, the house has welcomed prominent people from the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt to UK wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Colonial British Governor Sir Everlyn Baring was also a regular visitor given that many decisions in the fight against the Mau Mau were made under this roof.

Built of rough-cut stones, the house’s walls are thick. Inside, it is has been stripped bare over the years and left to ruin but efforts to rehabilitate it have just started. The floor all over the house is wooden. The high ceiling is imposing supported by heavy beams thicker than the trunks of some full-grown trees. In what used to be the living room, a fireplace stands to one side. Hanging from the ceiling is a heavy metal chandelier held up by a thick chain.

Next to what used to be to be a meeting room stands a bathroom that one could easily build a small swimming pool in. The meeting room is something else altogether.

This is where the settlers fighting the Mau Mau made decisions. Under this room is an entrance to an underground bunker almost as big as the house above it.

Historically rich

Under, it is dark and we only see with the help of torches. A tunnel that led all the way to the servant’s quarters is now covered with dirt and accumulated debris. Strong pillars hold the house above us a pointer to the thought and expertise that went into building this house. Sir McMillan died here in 1925 and was buried on the slopes of the mountain with his wife.

The historically rich house served as a hospital for British officers during the First World War and in the Second World War it was a jailhouse. It was here that the Governor of Italian East Africa Air Chief Marshall Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of Aosta, was jailed and died.

The land was under different crops at different times. A permit on a wall indicates that the farm was granted permission by the Coffee Board of Kenya to put 6,657 acres of land under sisal in December 1958. Now the estate has been subdivided.

At the centre of this whole complex is the Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park. The house and 23 acres around it have been gazetted. The journey to transform the house begins with Sh4m from the Ministry of Tourism.