Of course given this combination, as well as the fact that Kenya has pretty good weather all year round, there was plenty of time left over for the colonialists to enjoy themselves. This community fond of wanton debauchery came to be known as the Happy Valley Set, and these are their stories:
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5 stories you probably didn't know about how colonialists used to party hard in Kenya
Free land and free slave labour! That was the mouth watering financial promise that encouraged white settlers to sail across the Indian Ocean in search of fertile lands in this country we now call Kenya.
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1. Hugh Cholmondeley aka Delamare
It is said that Hugh loved killing lions for fun. As you may be thinking, he finally met his match in 1894, when he was mauled by an attacking lion. As a result, he limped for the rest of his life
2. Josslyn Hay, aka Lord Erroll
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Josslyn abandoned his career as a British diplomat and eloped with Idina Sackville, a married woman to Kenya. Their home became a gathering point for many colonial parties, and was notorious for its orgies.Lord Erroll was horsewhipped in public at Nairobi Railway Station after being caught with someone elses wife, Molly Ramsay-Hill, whom he married a few years later. Molly later died from an overdose of alcohol, morphine and heroin.Lord Erroll was later shot dead by the husband of a woman he was eyeing.
3. Lady Idina Sackville
She moved to Kenya after eloping with Lord Erroll. She was famous for hosting crazy parties which included wife swapping and drug abuse. She would welcome her party guests naked in a bathtub made of green onyx stones
4. Countess Alice de Janze
She and her husband Frederic were invited to Kenya by a colonial family for lion hunting(quite the popular hobby back in the day apparently). She had an affair with Lord Erroll and later with Raymond de Trafford. Alice later abandoned her husband for Raymond. She then shot Raymond and shot herself at a railway station after he said that he couldn't marry her. Fortunately or unfortunately, they both survived the gunshots. Alice was tried in court but got away with a four dollar fine. She and Raymond then finally married, but divorced soon after. Alice later returned to Kenya where she committed suicide by shooting herself in 1941.
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5. Kiki Preston
Kiki and her second husband Jeromy first moved to Kenya in 1926 after being gifted land along Lake Naivasha by a friend. Kiki was known for big game hunting and drug abuse, especially coke and heroin. She was nicknamed "the girl with the silver syringe" since she used to always carry her syringe in her bag and inject drugs in public without regard for those who might be looking. She had an affair with Prince George of the British Royal Family, whom she introduced to drugs and is alleged to have borne a child with. After her son was killed in World War 2, she committed suicide, jumping out of a New York apartment
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