These Rich White Kids Partied Hard in Kenya While the Rest of the Country Starved

In the 1920s and 1930s a group of rich white aristocrats lived a life in the highlands of Kenya that would make Hugh Hefner blush. At the end of the 19th century, an influx of British nationals moved to various parts of Kenya. The area became popular with rich aristocrats because their already considerable wealth could go even further. They acquired large swathes of land and lived a life of genteel luxury. The British aristocrats (and their nouveau riche American friends) who lived in the Wanjohi Valley, known as Happy Valley, outside of Nairobi took it to the next level, however. They spent the Depression and the war years drinking, smoking, snorting, injecting, drinking some more, having sex and having more sex. They passed sexual partners around. This habit would prove to be deadly.

The group became infamous when Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, was found dead on a stretch of road leading to Nairobi. Who was his killer? Some say it was his lover’s husband, another aristocrat by the name of Sir Henry John Delves Broughton. He was tried and acquitted of murder by a colonial court. His suicide a few years later seem to many as further proof he did, in fact, kill Lord Erroll. Others say it was the lover herself: the 20-something Diana Delves Broughton. Yet others say it may have been another one of his Happy Valley lovers, Alice de Janze. This would be plausible, considering she had already been arrested and tried for the attempted murder of her then husband. 

This surreal world of wealth and hedonism is even more bizarre when one remembers that at the time the world was in the grips of the Great Depression. Most native Kenyans were living in abject poverty, chafing under British rule.

Another Happy Valley resident, Kiki Preston, would send an airplane to fetch more morphine when she ran out. She became known as the “girl with the silver syringe,” because she had the habit of keeping one in her purse and simply using it when she felt the urge. She died after jumping out a fifth story window in New York.









Tom Cholmondeley via www.telegraph.co.uk





The carefree life of most of the white elite in Kenya came to an end when the colony gained its independence in the 1960s. However, many of the white landowning families stayed on. Included in this group were the descendants of Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere, one of the unofficial leaders of the Happy Valley set. His great grandson, Thomas P.G. Cholmondeley, caused an uproar in his native Kenya when he used his power and influence to get away with murder. Literally. He was accused of killing a man who had trespassed on his huge ranch (this was actually the second man he killed on his property that year). He was charged with manslaughter, not murder, and was released after serving only a few months. The Happy Valley set lives on…