NAIVASHA: KENYA'S COLONIAL SIN CITY

2 months ago
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The World Rally Championship traditionally descends on Kenya in March/April every year, when thousands of pleasure-seeking fans head to the main action in Naivasha. As African Stream's Wambura Mwai finds out, the town’s seedy past may have something to do with the wild parties often accompanying the event.

A Las Vegas in the heart of the Kenya colony, that was Naivasha's reputation in the heyday of the British Empire. Cocaine-fuelled orgies, wife-swapping parties, crimes of passion and hedonism were standard fare for a group of mostly British aristocrats and adventurers who settled near the Aberdare Mountain Range between the 1920s and 1940s. Their decadent lifestyle earned them the nickname the "Happy Valley set" and is the subject of films and books depicting their antics, such as "White Mischief".

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