A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE KAREN COUNTRY CLUB FROM 1937 TO 2017: ITS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH

Abstract

This study examined the history of the Karen Country Club in Nairobi, Kenya from its foundation in 1937 to 2017. Utilising the human agency perspective, the project focused on how the club emerged as a social space for leisure but increasingly fashioned and sustained class and racial cleavages within Kenyan colonial society something that was legally expunged after independence. The study established that in colonial times the club was emblematic of the White racial dominance in social, economic and political spheres that not only shaped the country’s history but was reflected in the club’s structure, culture, strictures and operations. With the decline of European hegemony in post-colonial times, African elitism replaced racial segregation and privilege as class boundaries were sustained and pervaded its ranks through economic segregation that became the leading force in defining the historical trajectory of the Karen Club.