Baden-Powell Museum

Located within the Outspan Hotel in Nyeri, the Baden-Powell Museum showcases artifacts and memorabilia related to the founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Baden-Powell.

Planning your visit

Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scout movement in 1907, spent his final years in Kenya and died at Nyeri in 1941. He lived in a cottage called Paxtu in the grounds of the Outspan Hotel, and the museum occupies it, holding his personal effects, photographs, correspondence, uniforms and Scouting memorabilia.

His grave is in Nyeri cemetery nearby, marked with a headstone bearing a circle with a dot at the centre — the trail sign meaning gone home. His wife Olave, who led the Girl Guides, is buried beside him.

Baden-Powell's legacy is genuinely mixed and increasingly discussed: the Scout movement he created has shaped hundreds of millions of lives, while his earlier military career in southern Africa, including the siege of Mafeking, belongs firmly to the colonial project.

Nyeri sits in the Aberdare highlands, and the Outspan is also where Treetops Hotel guests assemble — the lodge where Princess Elizabeth learned she had become queen.

Bookable options include day trips from Nairobi with a guide. Current availability is listed below.