The Magic of the Kenyan Dream

John Otim

Kenya is a dreamland. To its north is the desert full of charms with a lake all its own. To the east is the warm Indian Ocean with its scores of stunning beaches. While to the west lay Mount Elgon on the border with Uganda; plus the Great Rift Valley, the breath taking highlands, and the great Inland Ocean that Kenya shares with Uganda and Tanzania. Now move over a little to the south. And behold, there on the south eastern border with Tanzania, is the summit of Africa, the snowcap Kilimanjaro.

Not far away but up inland is Africa’s second highest peak, with a snowcap of its own. This mount Kenya, a truly stunning mountain wall, whose base is covered in forest. The same that the Gikuyu know for the abode of God, the same that that long ago Mau Mau freedom fighters used as a spring board to action against Imperial forces, who wanted to keep for King and country, this peerless piece of African real estate. The struggle was long and bitter.

But this is Africa and Kenya is the stuff of dreams. Any wonder that when the son of the Prince of Wales came of age and found himself a girl he wanted to marry, he flew to Kenya with a ring in a rucksack. The next day by the foot of Mount Kenya as the sun went down and the cold wind blew, the Prince went down on his knees and spoke his words of love to his beloved.