The iconic Kenyan hotel where Elizabeth II became Queen is to ditch its royal connections and embrace the Mau Mau rebellion that led the country on the path to independence from Britain.
The Treetops – an elaborate three-bedroom shack on a tree at the edge of a watering hole in Aberdar National Park – was where the monarch famously ‘went up the tree a Princess and came down a Queen’ after King George VI died on February 6, 1952.
Prince Philip told Elizabeth – who didn’t know she had become the Queen – about the death of her father later in their tour of Kenya when they were staying in the nearby Sagana Lodge.
The Mau Mau rebellion, which started in the same year as Elizabeth’s fateful visit, saw the tree house being used as a British snipers’ nest before it was burnt down by the rebels, who had a stronghold in a nearby forest, in 1954.
It was rebuilt into a 36-room hotel on stilts that included a Princess Elizabeth suite and had royal memorabilia on its walls.
American, British and Asian tourists were drawn to the unusual combination of a safari hotel with significant royal connections until the Covid-19 pandemic forced the hotel to close.
Dr Keith Rigathi, the son of Kenya’s deputy president Rigathi Gachagua, has bought the hotel with plans to open it next month with a focus on the site’s connections to the Mau Mau rebels.
When the Queen and Prince Philip stayed at the Treetops, their accommodation was a comfortable three-bedroom shack (pictured) with a small servants quarter, built in the upper branches of a giant fig tree
Wooden debris shows the Treetops Hotel in the background and the remains of the tree house that Queen Elizabeth II stayed the night her father, the King, died in 1952. Picture taken on April 10, 2021
On her first visit to Treetops, the Queen was still Princess Elizabeth. She is seen above in February 1952 with Prince Philip in the grounds of the Sagana Lodge
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the hotel in 1983 (pictured). The royals noted how different the safari hotel was to when they visited the site more than 30 years previously
Elizabeth and Philip asked where all the trees had gone on their second visit in 1983
He told Nation: ‘Very few people know that beneath the hotel lie underground tunnels constructed by the Mau Mau fighters for accessing the facility’.
As part of the new management, guests will be shown a massive fig tree that served as a post office for the rebels who left messages scrawled on leaves with charcoal in the giant plant’s crevices.
Dr Rigathi, who runs his father’s business interests, added, ‘It is important to note that we are not distancing ourselves from British heritage’, as he explained the pandemic highlighted the importance of local visitors.
He said: ‘Treetops is a historical site and that richness must be preserved for all.
‘We simply feel that there are many untold stories surrounding the property that would be of great interest to many Kenyans. It is those stories we intend to tell.’
Rigathi said Kenya’s residents felt ‘shame’ when the country’s hotels were forced to close due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy president Gachagua, who was born in Nyeri County and is from the dominant Kikuyu ethnic groups, has emphasised his family’s rebel credentials throughout his political career.
He claims his mother was a cook and ammunition runner for the Mau Mau fighters while his father made weapons for the rebels.
The 59-year-old has built a fortune in business but has been dogged by corruption allegations.
When Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited in 1952, they stayed in a comfortable three-bedroom shack, with a small servants quarter, built in the upper branches of a giant fig tree.
The tree house was recreated at a game reserve in Cape Town, South Africa for series one of Netflix’s The Crown, a nail-biting scene in episode two, sees Claire Foy, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth, almost killed by charging elephants, but a brave Prince Philip distracts one before chasing the enraged animal off.
Claire Foy (pictured) portraying Princess Elizabeth at Treetops in Kenya in series 1 of The Crown
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are shown around the ‘Treetops’ hotel by hunter Richard Prickett in 1983
Princess Anne, guarded by senior hunter Colonel Eric Hayes-Newington, walking through the bush to Kenya’s Treetops Hotel. It was a sentimental journey for the Princess
The Queen inspects a guard of honour following her arrival in Nairobi in November 1983 on her second tour of Kenya
Elizabeth was not originally destined to become Queen. However, she became heir presumptive after her father, King George VI, ascended to the throne following the abdication of his older brother, King Edward VIII.
During the afternoon before hearing the news of King George VI’s death, Princess Elizabeth spent the day with her camera snapping charging rhinos and a waterbuck goring a rival to death from her elevated vantage point.
Prince Philip discovered that King George had died before the Queen did, after he was told by an aide.
He then had to break the news to his wife, who had become Queen without knowing it.
The pair – who were then at the nearby Sagana Lodge – quickly returned to the UK and were met at Heathrow by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Labour leader Clement Atlee.
Jim Corbett – her armed escort and after whom the Corbett National Park in India is named – later told that when she was invited to come for tea, the princess requested taking it on the balcony, saying: ‘I don’t want to miss one moment of this.’
In the Treetops logbook, Corbett penned: ‘For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen.’
Following the royal visit to Treetops, the lodge quickly became the world’s most famous treehouse – and it wasn’t long before the couple returned in 1959 and 1983.
It was made further appealing to royalty – including Princess Anne – thanks to the strict rules Walker had laid down, such as no journalists because too many guests would scare the wildlife, or cameras to ensure the princess was given privacy.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the hotel again in 1983 – more than 30 years after they were told of King George’s death – and were shocked by how much it had changed.
Philip asked, ‘where have all the trees gone?’ and was told by the lodge’s owner that elephants had pulled them up.
The stop at the re-built retreat came towards the end of the royal couple’s five-day visit to the country – their first since they rushed home to destiny 31 years earlier.
The Queen had been warmly welcomed when she arrived in Nairobi with the Duke of Edinburgh at the start of their tour.
Wearing a bright yellow dress, she departed the airport with Philip in the open-top car of the then Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi.
Cheering them on were crowds of thousands of Kenyans. The Daily Mail told at the time how: ‘No problems or old differences were talked of… as the Queen spread magic through the packed city.’
Queen Elizabeth II with Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi watching traditional dancers who entertained her on arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in 1983
Armistice Day was marked during the trip. Prince Philip is seen making a salute alongside Kenyan officers in 1983
Queen Elizabeth II is seen with the Kenyan president as she is greeted by crowds in Nairobi
The Queen laughs during a chat with the Kenyan president and Prince Philip ahead of a state banquet to mark her visit
The Queen is seen arriving at Heathrow after returning from Kenya following the death of her father. She was met by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Labour leader Clement Atlee
At a state banquet on the day of her arrival, the Queen – then dressed in jade green – told massed dignitaries: ‘I still remember with gratitude the sympathy, support and encouragement which the people of Kenya gave me in 1952 as I embarked so suddenly upon my new responsibilities.’
Back in 1952, Treetops was only a little clearing in a forest with a pool. Amongst them were both elephants and rhinos.
But it had changed so much when she returned with Philip that the Queen wondered if they had been brought to the right place.
The Mail reported how she told Philip: ‘It’s not like it was at all is it darling?’
However, the pair did spot antelope, buffalo and baboons. They were accompanied by an armed hunter for protection, although his gun had ‘only’ six bullets in it.
Before visiting the hotel, which was part of the Sangana estate, the Queen and Prince Philip had been welcomed by thousands of factory workers and farmers in the industrial town of Thika.
According to reports at the time, some of the 25,000-strong crowd had walked as far as 25 miles from surrounding villages and stood for four hours in intense heat to catch a glimpse of the Queen.
A delighted station master who had his hand shaken by the monarch told journalists: ‘I shall try my best not to wash it. Meeting her is the greatest honour in my life time.’
KENYA’S BLOODY CONFLICT: THE MAU MAU UPRISING
The Mau Mau was a secret society confined almost entirely to the Kikuyu tribe who inhabited parts of the Central Highlands.
The Mau Mau uprising was a military conflict which took place in British Kenya between 1952 and 1960.
Kikuyu hostility first emerged after the First World War and developed into a political movement that was first proscribed for subversive activities in 1940.
They had suffered badly from the introduction of British colonialism in the late 19th Century and had lost grazing grounds and homesteads to white farmers, many from the British upper classes.
Independence was not widely supported by other Africans, many of whom retained loyalty to the colonial authorities. So extremists formed the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), which became known as the Mau Mau.
As tension increased in 1952, the State of Emergency was declared in 20 October and the 1st Lancashire Battalion was sent from Egypt.
Britain dealt with the Mau Mau by seeking to confine them to the Prohibited Areas around Mount Kenya.
Various war crimes took place on both sides including the Chuka Massacre where members of King’s African Rifles B Company killed unarmed people suspected of being Mau Mau fighters. The people executed belonged to the Kikuyu Home Guard ¿ a loyalist militia recruited by the British to fight the guerrillas.
British interrogation techniques also involved torture while Mau Mau militants carried out the Lari massacre where they herded Kikuyu men, women and children into huts and set fire to them.
According to David Anderson in Histories of the Hanged (2005), Mau Mau attacks were mostly well organised and planned – contrary to British propaganda.
He wrote: ‘the insurgents’ lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves.
‘The Lari massacre was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties. “Even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific.’