Kenya

"'Every once in a while, I dig out one of the Kenyan records that I bought when I went there on holiday in 1972 in the hope of making Andy Kershaw jealous: up until now, he's been largely indifferent to it all, but I shall persist.' (04 August 1991)"

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community (EAC). Its capital and largest city is Nairobi. Kenya's territory lies on the equator and overlies the East African Rift covering a diverse and expansive terrain that extends roughly from Lake Victoria to Lake Turkana (formerly called Lake Rudolf) and further south-east to the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers 581,309 km2 (224,445 sq mi), and had a population of approximately 45 million people in July 2014.

Links To Peel
Peel first visited Kenya in 1972 with Sheila and bought many records from the country, which got played quite significantly in the summer of 1991 on his BBC Radio One shows. He was such a big fan of Kenyan music, that he twice ordered many records from the country through a mail catalogue in 1994 and 2002.

Peel on his 30 March 1996 (BFBS) show mentioned that if he had known that his co-worker Mark Radcliffe was visiting Kenya, he would have asked him to bring some records from that country:

"'I've spent the last week up in Manchester doing somebody else's programmes while they went off on holiday to Kenya, I think, actually. Rather nice too, I'd have thought. Some great music: if I'd known he was going there (this is a chap called Mark Radcliffe), I'd have urged him to bring back some more Kenyan records, but I didn't discover until too late. Probably just as well for him, I suppose, really.'"

A month later on his 27 April 1996 (BFBS) show, Peel mentioned a magazine called Holiday offered to send Peel and the family to Kenya to see the Chania River Boys but regrettably went out of business before this enviable offer could come to fruition.

Peel's fondness for Kenya later resulted in him becoming patron for the Kariandusi School Trust, a charity organisation that helps building schools in that country. After his death, his wife Sheila took over, but has since then retired from the organisation.

Sessions

 * Simba Wanyika: (1 session, 1990)