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Just this July, the family of the late Bruce McKenzie, the only odiero Cabinet minister in the government of President Kenyatta I, put the Malu Ranch up for sale. Price tag? Sh4.5 billion for 1,800 acres, with an airstrip, the permanent River Malewa, hot water springs, wildlife and 500 acres of indigenous cedar.
McKenzie came to Kenya from South Africa in 1946, a year after the end of World War II, took to large-scale farming, and grew fabulously wealthy as a security and arms broker, besides being a savvy go-between for British multinationals.
Bruce McKenzie: He had no qualms wearing jungle boots to the office and often flew his plane to the Maasai Mara, even during bad weather. Most evenings, the chair of CMC Motors, who also had interests in Wilken Air and Wilken Communications, was at the Muthaiga Golf and Country Club, where he entertained revelers by dipping his fake walrus moustache in his champagne glass!
But besides his daredevilry, the best man in Attorney-General Charles Njonjo’s wedding is credited with steering Kenya’s tea into one of the world’s best as Agriculture minister. Over 700,000 Kenyan small-scale farmers took to tea farming during the tenure of the likeable fellow whose “hobby was himself.”
The recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Order medals for his service as a South African World War II air force pilot migrated to Kenya and settled on the 1,200-acre Gingalili Farm in Solai, Nakuru,where President Kenyatta was overnight guest. In between breeding Kenya’s best pedigree cows, McKenzie was elected ASK (Agriculture Society of Kenya) chair with a nomination to the Legislative Council (Legco) in 1957, serving as his entry into politics. President Kenyatta I kept him in government to be the face of white settlers, besides assuaging British multinationals, but that he was an intelligence agent only emerged after his death in May 1978, nine years after resigning from government on ‘health grounds.’
Alice Christina McKenzie: Daughter of Lt Col Orlando Bridgeman, a British oil executive, married Bruce in London in 1967. Njonjo was the best man. They had two children, Kim and James Mckenzie. McKenzie had three previous children - Sandra, Marguerite and Roy - with Henrietta Edmundson before their divorce in 1964. McKenzie ordered their deportation to Britain where they had no home!
Kim McKenzie: Holds the franchise for the Kikoy under The Kikoy Company UK Ltd, besides managing the family’s extensive ranches that hold hospitality properties like Malu and Mahindu lodges. The latter was built as quarters for Italian World War II prisoners in 1943.
