#HistoryKeThread How did Sagana State Lodge earn its name when it is situated over 40km from Sagana town? 
This is something I have never figured out. The State Lodge is in Kiganjo, Nyeri county.
The Lodge served as an official vacation resort for royal dignitaries and Governors during colonial times. It was known as the Royal Lodge then.
The Lodge served as an official vacation resort for royal dignitaries and Governors during colonial times. It was known as the Royal Lodge then.
In 1947, when Princess Elizabeth (now Queen) and Prince Phillip got married, the Lodge was given to them as “a gift from the people of Kenya...”
It was while vacationing at Treetops and Sagana State Lodge in 1952 that Princess Elizabeth learnt that she had become Queen, following the death of her father, King George VI. News of the King’s death were broken to her at the Royal Lodge.
In December of 1963, however, the Queen handed the ownership of the Lodge back to Kenya’s newly independent government. A statement from Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta’s office read as follows:
“The Prime Minister of Kenya, Hon. Jomo Kenyatta, has gratefully accepted the gift on behalf of the Government. The Government intends to use the Royal Lodge in the way proposed by Her Majesty and hope that she herself will come and stay there....”
I suspect it was after independence that the Lodge was renamed Sagana State Lodge. I haven’t found the reason why it was named after a town located over 25 miles away.
But how the name Sagana came about is known.
In the early 20th century, Agîkûyû of the eastern fringes of Mbiri (Fort Hall) called the area Thagama, a gîkûyû word synonymous with “meandering”. It was here that the Sagana and other rivers meandered their way towards Tana river.
In the colonial times, however, the English somehow recorded the name of the place as Sagana, likely due to their inability to pronounce “thagama”.
So we have a place of meandering rivers, and a State Lodge of the same name where matters are straightened.
It was at Sagana State Lodge in February 2008 that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga struck a deal on the constitution of the country’s “nusu mkate” cabinet.
More recently, keen to unite central Kenya leaders ahead of the release of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report, President Uhuru invited central Kenya leaders to the Lodge for “discussions“.
