When Alan Donovan, founder of African Heritage House which is located in Athi River, Machakos county, passed away on December 5, 2021, the future of his legacy looked bleak.
Donovan, who had acquired an 8-acre piece of land that overlooks the vast Nairobi National Park to set up African Heritage House which is considered Africa's most photographed house, died leaving most people wondering who would keep his legacy alive since he traveled miles to settle in Kenya.
But before his death, Donovan had set up everything including appointing a person tasked with executing his will. The late foreign tycoon appointed Tom Otieno to keep his legacy alive in Kenya and Africa.
He made Otieno the Director of the African Heritage House which he built for four years, drawing inspiration from turreted facade, the towering mosques in Mali made of mud. Donovan wanted Otieno to preserve the traditional architectural designs incorporated in the building of the house which he studied while traveling to Yemen, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Madagascar.
Speaking to KTN Home, Otieno disclosed that he was tasked with executing Alan Donovan's African Heritage Trust which he was trying to set up to take over and detail his legacy in Kenya.
"I am the executor of Alan's will, I am a member of African Heritage Trust which he was trying to set up to take over once he passes on and I am the one managing the property right now," Otieno told KTN Art of Living host, Naila Kenga.
Otieno revealed to KTN Home that before Donovan passed on, he had made plans for 2022 including writing a book, Black Beauty Through The Edges. He wanted to publish the book in March this year.
Donovan also had started setting up a new historical house called Garunzi Memorial Home, which he wanted to move in and leave the African Most Photographed House.
Otieno detailed that Donovan had a premonition of his death that prepared him to take up the role. He disclosed that he had sent emails and text messages about scheduled meetings and what he opted to have achieved.
He also informed him to prepare in case he passes on including changing his gravesite. Initially, Donovan had disclosed that he wanted to be buried next to Joseph Murumbi, a post-colonial politician who also had invested in the preservation of art. However, he changed his mind just a month before his death informing him that he should be buried near his African Heritage House.
"Initially, Donovan wanted to be buried next to the Murumbi's who were his good friends. When he came back from the US, the first week of November he got me out of the office and brought me down here and told me to look for four pegs and I told them and he nailed them down and said 'when I die, this is where I want to be buried'," Otieno explained.
He told him he wanted a pond built next to his grave. The late tycoon also instructed Otieno to bury him facing Ngong Hills and clear trees and branches near his grave. He honoured Donovan's last wishes.
Otieno landed the job after serving as a personal assistant to Sheila Murumbi, wife of the late Joseph Murumbi.
"After high school, I was looking for a job and I got employed by African Heritage back then, but I was working for Sheila Murumbi. I was deployed to work for her as a personal assistant. I worked for the Murumbi's till Sheila died in 2000.
"When I started this job, art wasn't my thing, I was just working to pay bills," he told KTN's Kenga.
African Heritage House consists of 4 floors with 5 bedrooms plus a terraced garden on the rooftop. There is also a pool house extension in the compound.
The walls of the house are made of stones mined locally and hand carved into blocks. During the construction of the house, the stones were covered with layers of cement which Donovan dyed to look like mud. The last coat was then mixed with glue and bond create.
The house has over 6,000 items including sculptures and weavings from the roughest to the most precious. Among the various pieces inside the House is pottery by Kenyan-born British studio potter Magdalene Odundo, who is one of the world’s most esteemed ceramic artists. Magdalene received an OBE from the Queen of England for her contribution to Art and Education in 2008.
