Teddy
Shortly after the end of his presidency in 1909, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt traveled to East Africa on a hunting expedition, outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution. During this time he made three trips to Kijabe. On one visit, August 4, 1909, he laid the cornerstone of the Kiambogo building, used to this day as an RVA administration building. In his diary, published as African Game Trails, he wrote,
“At Kijabe I spent several exceedingly interesting hours.”
A few years later, in 1912, Roosevelt aided the mission in persuading the Belgian government to permit AIM to establish a station in the Congo, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
