• The house has become fondly nicknamed by Belgian diplomats as “Karura”
Image: BELGIAN EMBASSY
Every 15th of November, the Belgians in Kenya celebrate King’s Day. If there were no Covid-19, they would throng this year as they normally do at the residence of Belgium on Karura Avenue in Muthaiga, toast to the health of His Majesty King Philippe and enjoy a glass of excellent beer. But few of them actually know the history of the house that I have the privilege to live in with my family.
This magnificent and unique house in the Kenyan capital is the product of the eccentricity of the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Pichot (1908-76). Pichot came to Kenya at the end of the 1920s and worked for Emile Félix, an older Frenchman who owned the St Benoist coffee plantation in Kiambu.
There is little doubt that Felix and Pichot entertained a sentimental relationship, which probably explains why Pichot inherited the majority shares of the plantation when Emile Felix died in 1937.
The revenues of the plantation allowed Pichot to make his dream come true: the construction of a palatial home inspired by the Grand Trianon in Versailles. In order to achieve this goal, the Frenchman hired Idris Davies, a well-known local architect, who co-signed the plans of Kipande House. He also brought marble from Italy and ferried from France an impressive batch of mantelpieces, furniture, statues and 18th century paintings. The building and its furnishing cost him at the time the sum of 70,000 pounds.
Image: BELGIAN EMBASSY
The sons of late Felix, who owned minority shares of St Benoist Plantation Ltd suspected that Pichot was exploiting the company to fulfill his architectural folly. They went to court and demanded an inquiry but the case was dismissed. They had good reason to worry. Pichot, who at the time was the honorary vice-consul of France and president of the Alliance Française, lived the high life. He threw money around with fine dining, piano concerts or actors of the renowned Comédie Française airlifted from France. However, in the second half of the 1950’s, the coffee prices slumped and his financial situation became untenable. He had to therefore liquidate his company and sold his dear home for 60,000 pounds to Malin and Constantine Sorsbie. He remained a few years in Kenya, trying to make ends meet by opening a night club in Nairobi before leaving for Burundi in the beginning of the 1960’s. He died in Cannes (France) in 1976.
Image: COURTESY
Sir Malin Sorsbie (1906-88) became the second owner of the house. As a young man, this Englishman enlisted in the Canadian Mounted Police before becoming an RAF pilot and worked for the Imperial Airways. From 1947-56, he managed the East African branch of the British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC).
In 1955, he remarried to an American citizen, Constantine Eugenie Johnston, heir to her father’s fortune. In 1961, the Sorsbies bought the Outspan Hotel and the Treetops Lodge. Thanks to the Munitalp fondation created by his late father-in-law, Malin Sorsbie supported numerous nature conservancy initiatives, and from 1967-70, he chaired the East African Wildlife Society.
The Sorsbies already owned a massive house next to the “Trianon” of Pichot. They did not buy it to move in but for the purpose of creating a public art gallery. Malin Sorsbie had great ambitions. Together with renowned anthropologist Louis Leakey and Ronald JW Irving, he contemplated creating a Kenya National Gallery. Because of lack of external support, he ultimately decided to use the Trianon to set up his own project, under the auspices of the Munitalp foundation.
In July 1961, the Sorsbie Gallery opened as the first public gallery in East Africa, with an inaugural exhibition arranged in conjunction with the British Council, in the presence of Sir Philip Hendy, director of the National Gallery of London. It showcased paintings from private collections in Kenya, such as those of the Duke of Manchester and the Earl of Portsmouth, recent paintings by British artists and works by African artists like the Kenyans Elimo Njau, Louis Mwaniki and Gregory Maloba. The gallery, however, did not succeed as anticipated and subsequently closed down after the last exhibition in 1964.
Image: BELGIAN EMBASSY
The second Ambassador of Belgium to the young Republic of Kenya was Baron Eugène Rittwéger de Moor (1921-96). This experienced diplomat, who started his career in Prague, Athens and Lima, passed the baptism of fire in Africa when he became the Consul-General of Belgium in Bukavu in 1960, while Congo was gaining its independence. By the end of 1962, he was Chargé d’Affaires in Dar-es-Salaam, in the newly independent Tanganyika. Then he was appointed Ambassador to Madagascar and Uganda.
He arrived in Nairobi in 1965, where he was accredited to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Madagascar. Amb Rittwéger and his wife were very much eager to live in a house that could reflect the prestige of Belgium and match their lifestyle. Born in Juslenville, near the city of Verviers (Belgium), this aristocrat spent his childhood in the castle of his great-aunt, which neo-classical porch ornate with columns was reminiscent of Pichot’s Trianon.
Nostalgia maybe, a love at first sight, undoubtedly. In March 1966, the ambassador convinced his capital to sell the residence of the Consulate General in Spring Valley and buy the Sorsbie Gallery, which the UK government envisaged to rent for Malcolm MacDonald, former Governor General and newly appointed UK High Commissioner for East Africa.
The Trianon officially became the property of Belgium in November 1966 for the price of 30,000 pounds. Since all the furniture had been sold by Pichot when he vacated the place, the residence was refurbished in the 18th century style by an interior architect from Brussels. But by the end of 1969, Eugène Rittwéger de Moor and his family left for Belgium. Since then, 14 ambassadors succeeded one another in “Karura”, the nickname given to the house by Belgian diplomats.
The property did not fundamentally change since its acquisition by Belgium. In the 1970s, the damaged marble terrace and grand stairs to the garden were replaced by a checkered terrazzo of cement. The beautiful cast-iron entrance gate was, alas, altered in the 1980s, and the balustrade separating the front garden from the avenue was finally removed during the renovation of 2016-18.
In 1991, the Embassy of Belgium was relocated from the CBD to its present location, in a modern building erected on the plot adjacent to Limuru Road. Many illustrious guests visited “Karura”, such as Attorney General Charles Njonjo, Foreign Minister Ouko, Vice President George Saitoti, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
In 1988, HRH Prince Albert and HRH Princess Paola stayed at the residence. The bedroom of the left wing was since then renamed the “Prince Room”. In 2006, HM Queen Paola returned to visit “Karura”. In 2019, on the occasion of their visit to Kenya, HM Queen Mathilde and her daughter HRH Princess Elisabeth graced a reception at the residence, which I hosted in their honour.
May this unique mansion forever remain in the lap of Belgium.
Nicolas Nihon is the Ambassador of Belgium to Kenya