Bridge For Design March 2015 Bridge For Design March 2015 | Page 108

A hand made glass chandelier hangs low from the ceiling above a coffee table in front of an open fire

represent him: powerful and full of energy,’ says Anna. The soft
tones of the walls mirror the velvet used to cover the sofas, which
were made in Anna’s workshop: the velvet is recycled curtains
collected in Nairobi markets.
Anna shares the house with her teenage children, Lana and Stas,
and her new husband, Lemarti. After Tonio’s murder in October
2001, Anna went to the Laikipia Plain north of Nairobi to find
solace walking in her beloved bush. She met Lemarti, warrior of
the seminomadic Samburu tribe, and, later, he took her and the
children under his wing. In July 2005, Anna and Lemarti were
married in a five-day traditional Samburu wedding, ‘We were
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Bridge for Design March 2015

obviously meant to be together: that we should even have met was
quite unlikely, and I’ve never felt so fulfilled and so safe and happy,’
Anna says. At the invitation of the tribe, they have designed and
created three tented camps in this particularly beautiful area of
Kenya. This is no ordinary safari camp with game drives and white
hunters. ‘We wanted to create an authentic experience for those
interested in indigenous tribal life and rituals, and to let the African
bush work its magic,’ says Anna.
The Langata house is the home of a collector. Anna’s unerring
eye means that every room is a treasure-trove of African artifacts
including Masai and Samburu spears like those Lemarti already