The great Kenyan writer Meja Mwangi entitled one of his novels 'No Christmas without Tusker'. Similarly, we foreigners might say 'No holiday in Kenya without Tusker'. Let alone residency! It seems exaggerated, compared to the many things you can do in a country as diverse, wonderful and even controversial as the African country we tell you about every day, but the national beer is much more than an alcoholic beverage, it is an unspeakable pleasure (especially if 'baridi sana', very cold) when paired with certain moments that will become unforgettable and, at best, one of the pleasant habits of life at the equator.
Without, from this point of view, wishing to denigrate teetotalers, who already have their own set of problems, if it is true that those who have not visited the Maasai Mara or Amboseli cannot claim to have been on a real safari in Kenya, those who have never sipped a healthy Tusker baridi have never really been here.
Whether it's in front of a memorable sunset on the savannah, in the shade of a palm tree by the Indian Ocean, on a hill in Nairobi contemplating tea and coffee plantations, or in the fantastic lunar nothingness of Lake Turkana, a Tusker always fits. Not to mention the socialising effect: try entering a local bar and ordering a 'Tusker baridi sana, tafadhali' (the final 'please' is a must...) at the counter, amid general indifference: the atmosphere will change immediately!

Why then this narrative and where does such afflatus come from?
Not only is it the best-selling and most marketed beer in East Africa with its unmistakable logo, Tusker has spanned more than 100 years of this country's history, transversally and without ever being identified as alien to the Kenyan context, both before and after independence.
Tusker Lager was officially brewed and marketed in 1929, but in fact beer brewed in the then British Empire Colony had already been drunk in Kenya for some ten years.
Among the first settlers who came to seek their fortune in Africa, after the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Kampala railway, were a number of 'farm workers'.
Many of them were engaged in the cultivation of tea and coffee, others had immense plantations of maize, fruit and vegetables.
The Hurst brothers, Charles and George, were farmers but also experienced home brewers.
After scraping together quite a bit of money as gold diggers, they decided to invest their earnings in a brewery. They officially registered their company on eight December 1922 under the name 'Kenya Breweries'.
Success was immediate, only the Stanley Hotel, the most prestigious hotel in Nairobi, ordered cases and cases of it. Within a year Charles and George were ready to launch a real 'brand' in the market, to reach the whole country.
George was known as a savannah enthusiast and big game hunter.
In the very year of the opening of Kenya Breweries, he came face to face with a lion and miraculously escaped injury.

During a hunting trip in 1923, however, intent on taking pictures of a male elephant and its wonderful tusks, he got too close to the specimen, which came at him with all its strength and killed him by trampling him. 
The large male elephants of East Africa are known as 'Tuskers'.
In his memory, Charles Hurst decided to name their first 'industrial' lager Tuskers.
Branding and advertising started in 1924, the Tusker Lager with the famous 500 ml bottle was officially produced in 1929.
The elephant beer was a hit and in 1935, after also buying a brewery in what was then Tanganyika, the company became East African Breweries.
In 1938, Tusker won the first of many awards in international competitions for this type of beverage.
In the days of independence, the Kikuyu celebrated in the bars of Nairobi, the new capital of the Republic of Kenya, brandishing their bottles of Tusker and since then the big elephant stands in all Kenyan bars, restaurants and supermarkets and is one of the emblems of this country, portrayed on T-shirts, cup holders, tablecloths and walls of every Kenyan town and village. That's why there is no Kenya without Tusker, preferably 'baridi sana', as the famous song by Freddie and Sbringo also reminds us!