Former United States President Teddy Roosevelt visited Kenya in April 1909 and made history.
When Roosevelt arrived in Mombasa, he was received by then deputy governor, Fredrick Jackson who hosted a party in the US president's honour before escorting him to Nairobi by train.
Upon arrival in Nairobi, he was received by McMillan, who had made adequate arrangements for his accommodation in his 19,000-acre Juja Estate, which was described by posters as “the finest sporting estate in the world.”
Author Judy Aldrick in her new book, Northrup - The Life of William Northrup reveals that during Roosevelt's stay in Nairobi he would go out hunting with his younger son Kermit Roosevelt.
In the evenings, the former president and his son Kermit would visit various night clubs with the Norfolk Hotel being their favourite spot.
After an evening of merrymaking at the Norfolk, the duo always passed through the Ismailia mosque. On one particular night, the duo is reported to have visited the gates and stole two stone lions.
“They removed the two stone lions that stood on the gate posts and brought them back to the house and placed them on either side of the fireplace. The stone lions remained there unnoticed for several days,” Aldrick wrote in her book.
The Ismalia mosque owners on realising that their lions were missing reported the incident to the police and the matter was picked by the local Press.
Sometime later, a government official on a personal visit to the McMillan townhouse saw the lions. He panicked upon realizing the diplomatic mess it would be to have a former US president on an expedition tried for theft.
The official hatched a plan to have the statues transported to the Ol Donyo Sabuk farm and buried. The story cover-up worked, and everyone seemed to forget the debacle.
The lions were later discovered 18 years later by the family’s farm workers as they dug up some thorn trees, although at the time it was assumed they were some stone idols from West Africa representing the gods Ju and Ja.
This was until the Nairobi Museum identified the items as the stone carvings that had gone missing from the Ismailia Mosque.
By the time the stone was discovered to be the missing lion statues, Roosevelt and his son had both died.
Here is a photo of the late President Teddy Roosevelt:
