The Sagana State Lodge is among the official presidential residences in Kenya.
Outside of State House Nairobi and the famous State House Mombasa, other presidential residences are in Sagana, Eldoret, Kisumu, and Kisii.
In all the residences, the head of state can spend time there or conduct official business from there whether out of choice, or when visiting the particular region.
Sagana State Lodge is, however, the most famous compared to the others. It is where former President Mwai Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga formed the coalition government cabinet from in 2008.
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President Uhuru Kenyatta has on multiple occasions retreated to the state residence for official purposes.
This includes a meeting with governors and senators in 2016 to deliberate on the achievements of devolution in counties.
The Head of State also used the residence for a meeting with leaders, elders, and clergymen from the Mount Kenya region in 2019 where he called for unity and support for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
According to The Telegraph, Sagana State Lodge was among the 2,500 gifts that Queen Elizabeth II received from Kenyans as a leased wedding present, when she married Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.
She was 21 years old at the time and did not visit the residence until 1952.
That same year, her father, King George VI passed away while she was at the Treetops Hotel in Nyeri.
Queen Elizabeth received news of her father's death while she was at the Sagana State Lodge, and it is there that she was notified that she would be queen.
The Guardian reported that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed in Sagana for fear of ridicule, when she was on the brink of cancelling a world tour that included New Zealand and Australia, over concerns of insecurity.
However, the fears were justified as freedom fighting group, Mau Mau were spread out across Central Kenya, Nyeri in particular. Later that year, a State of Emergency was declared.
King George VI's death, however, led to cancellation of the trips to Australia and New Zealand.
In 1963, after Kenya gained independence, the royal residence that is today Sagana State Lodge was handed to the Kenyan government.
It was among several other official residences that were declared protected zones in 1976.
