Unusual History of Kenya’s Museum

Unusual History of Kenya’s Museum : The origins of the Kenyan museum can be found in a group of ten experts and amateur naturalists who got together on March 25, 1909, to talk about starting an East African natural history organization.

Lieutenant F.J. Jackson, the governor of Nairobi at the time, hosted the gathering at his house. The East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society was founded at that meeting. The East African Natural History Society (EANHS) is the new name for it.

Blayney Percival, the father of Louis Leakey, Rev. Harry Leakey, Rev. Kenneth St. Aubyn Rogers, C.W. Hobley, and John Ainsworth government employees, physicians, dentists, big game hunters, and plantation owners were among the founding members of this society.

For one rupee a year, the Society rented an office in the structure that houses Nyayo House in the heart of Nairobi. Mr. Aladina Visram constructed the structure for the Society.

They put up a 30 by 25-foot room and a smaller one within this office specifically for committee meetings. The space was turned into Kenya’s first museum, the Museum of Natural History. Its first honorary curator was Mr. T.J. Anderson, Senior Entomologist in the Agricultural department.

The Museum of Natural History did not hire its first full-time, salaried curator until 1914. Its daily operations were overseen by herpetologist Mr. Arthur Loveridge. Mr. Loveridge’s tenure as curator was brief since he enlisted in the army shortly after. After the start of World War I, a group of unpaid volunteers took over management of the museum.

By 1920, the members’ expanding collection of materials had outgrown the space they had hired. Luckily, the society had managed to gather enough money by that point. They constructed a bigger structure on Kirk Road, which is now Valley Road. It is now occupied by the Nairobi Serena Hotel.

At this point, Kenya has seen a number of archaeological discoveries that should be explored on a Kenya safari. There was already some debate about broadening the museum’s mission beyond natural history. This prompted a second extension project realized in 1929. Ainsworth Hill, or Museum Hill, was a 15-acre plot of land that the colonial government donated. They also bought back the property on Valley Road.

The Coryndon Museum was the new name given to the building at Museum Hill. This forms the foundation of the Nairobi National Museum today. In the meantime, several extensions were planned nationwide, including the Kariandusi Museum next to Lake Elementaita.

For additional reading, visit and contact us at Focus East Africa Tours. They have an extensive timeline that spans more than a century of the development of the museum in Kenya.