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MARALAL |
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Some of the Laikipia settlers would have dearly liked to set
themselves up around the cool, conifer-draped highlands of MARALAL . But
even before British administrators made this the district capital,
Maralal had been a spiritual focus for the Samburu people and, despite
some dithering, the colonial administrators didn't accede to the
settlers' demands.
Maralal is a peculiar town, spread with exaggerated spaciousness around
a depression in the hills. Samburu people crowd its dusty streets, with
a brilliant collage of skins, blankets, beads, brass, and iron, and a
special smell, too - of sour milk, fat, and cattle. The main hotel is
called Buffalo Hotel . The place sets itself up for Wild West
comparisons and the climate is appropriate - unbelievably dusty, almost
always windy and, at 2220m, sharp enough at night for log fires and
braziers. All it needs is wolves - and even there hyenas fill the role.
Of course, the regular arrival of safari lorries means that Maralal has
plenty of persistent souvenir salesmen. Yet despite this, it's a good
place to get to know the Samburu and especially worthwhile on Christian
holidays. Many Samburu around the town have become Catholics and the
colourful procession on Palm Sunday - mostly thousands of women, waving
branches and leaves - is riveting.
A notable resident of Maralal until 1994 was the travel writer and
Arabist Wilfred Thesiger , who had made the town his home and had
adopted a number of orphaned boys. Thesiger made his name with his
accounts of the Shiite Arabs of the southern Iraqi marshes and the Bedu
of the Arabian peninsula, and followed up these achievements with
several books on Kenya, notably My Kenya Days . Among the Samburu he
found equally congenial companions for his old age.
If you forget to visit the liberally signposted Kenyatta House , don't
fret. The fact that Kenyatta was detained here in 1961 before his final
release doesn't really improve the interest of this unexceptional and
empty bungalow. It seems a pity it's a national monument and not some
family's home.
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