The Muthaiga Country Club is a

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

. It is located in the suburb of

Muthaiga Muthaiga is an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi. In 2019, media reports indicated that it was the most affluent and most expensive neighbourhood in the entire country. Location Muthaiga is located approximately , by road, north of ...

, about 15 minutes drive from the city centre. The Muthaiga Country Club opened on New Year's Eve in 1913, and became a gathering place for the colonial

British settlers The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. Origins After the ...

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Bri ...

, which later became in 1920, the Colony of Kenya.

Founding history

One of the club's main founders was

The Hon ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Berkeley Cole (1882-1925), an Anglo-Irish aristocrat from

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. Cole was a son of The 4th Earl of Enniskillen and was a brother of

Lowry Cole Hon. Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, (1 May 1772 – 4 October 1842) was an Anglo-Irish British Army general and politician. Early life Cole was the second son of an Irish peer, William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (1 March 1736&ndas ...

(1881-1929). Berkeley Cole was also the

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.Cambridge Dictionaries Online.Family: non-blood relations. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referre ...

of Hugh, Lord Delamere, effective 'founder' of the White community in Kenya.

Caroline Elkins Caroline Elkins (American, born Caroline Fox, 1969) is Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, the Thomas Henry Carroll/Ford Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School ...

describes the club as having had a reputation during colonial times as 'the Moulin Rouge of Africa', where the elite 'drank champagne and pink gin for breakfast, played cards, danced through the night, and generally woke up with someone else's spouse in the morning.' According to Ulf Aschan, "The club had a rule, still in force today, that a member is entitled to damage any loose property as long as he pays double its value." Today, the club is still frequented by the upper echelons of Kenyan society. In addition to social gatherings, the club offers accommodation. Many of its members play golf at the nearby Muthaiga Golf Club.

In popular culture

The Muthaiga Country Club is a setting in the 1942 memoir ''West With the Night'' by

Beryl Markham Beryl Markham (née Clutterbuck; 26 October 1902 – 3 August 1986) was a Kenyan aviator born in England (one of the first bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. She was the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlant ...

. The author described it like this: "'Na Kupa Hati M'zuri' (I Bring You Good Fortune) was, in my time, engraved in the stone of its great fireplace. Its broad lounge, its bar, its dining-room — none so elaborately furnished as to make a rough-handed hunter pause at its door, nor yet so dowdy as to make a diamond pendant swing ill at ease — were rooms in which the people who made the Africa I knew danced and talked and laughed, hour after hour." The Muthaiga Country Club features in Ernest Hemingway's novel Islands in the Stream (1970) during events set before

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

describes the Muthaiga Country Club in his 1931 travel book '' Remote People'' (also included in the anthology ''

When the Going Was Good ''When The Going Was Good'' (1946) is an anthology of four travel books written by English author Evelyn Waugh. Description The five chapters of the book are fragments from the travel books ''Labels'' (1930), ''Remote People'' (1931), ''Ninety ...

''). Whilst Waugh was unable to find accommodation on the premises, he discovered, upon his arrival in Nairobi, to be already a temporary member, as he had been registered by the secretary of the club who knew about his arrival. Lucinda Riley frequently uses this place in her sixth book of The Seven Sisters called The Sun Sister, as an splendorous club in 1940's.

References

*"Welcome to Muthaiga Country Club" (website), Muthaiga Country Club, 2003. {{Authority control Hotels established in 1913 Buildings and structures completed in 1913 1913 establishments in Kenya Nairobi Hotels in Kenya

Founding history

In popular culture

See also

References