Kiewiet - Witu, 1885 - Denhardt brothers negotiated treaties with Simba, Sultan of Witu. ….. The long-established and, in 1888, still powerful authority in Witu was Clemens Denhardt, called by British observers the "Agent and Prime Minister" of the Sultan of Witu 1889 - Denhardt ousted and Toeppen in ascendancy

North - From Jimenau, Germany; Appt. to represent the Sultan of Witu 1-6-1887; Dismissed as Sultan of Witu's advisor 28-9-1889; recalled as Sultan of Witu's advisor Jan 1890; Recently made to leave Witu 23-9-1890; returned to Germany from Lamu Sept. 1890

Web - Clemens Denhardt was solemnly appointed Minister of Home and External Affairs by Sultan Ahmed of Witu in appreciation for his success in achieving German protection and a strong personal friendship between the two men developed. A few German soldiers were stationed in Wituland to establish German sovereignty and protect against Zanzibar attacks, while Sultan Ahmed and his predecessor, Sultan Fumo Bakari, continued to rule the small Sultanate. The Denhardt brothers meanwhile tried to make monetary value out of 'their'colony. In Germany, they were able to achieve funding for their 'German Witu Society' in a period of colonial enthusiasm. The company was established in 1887 and was to trade on the protectorate. It was however a complete failure with closely nothing to trade. The company made a profit of 4,120 marks in its first one-and-a-half years. The company was only saved from bankruptcy by being incorporated into the bigger German East Africa Company.

Ylvisaker - In the late 1870s other Germans explored the area of the Tana and Ozi and included Witu in their itineraries. G.A. Fischer and Clemens Denhardt made a journey partly sponsored by the merchant houses of Hansing and O'Swald, who wished to explore trading possibilities in the area. Fischer and Denhardt were well treated at Witu, where Ahmed promised them land should they settle within his domain. From 1876 to 1885 these Germans and others publicized the idea of Witu as a trading centre and station of German influence.

Ylvisaker - In early 1885 Clemens Denhardt and his brother Gustav arrived in Lamu and prepared for an expedition to Witu. Vice-consul Haggard immediately confiscated the firearms the Denhardts had brought for Ahmed, but eventually porters were sent and the Denhardts went on their way.  …….. Ahmed was pleased to see the Denhardts, especially after his rebuff by Haggard, and also because he expected an attack from Zanzibar at any time. A treaty between Ahmed and the Denhardts was signed in April 1885. The Denhardts received 25 square miles of land near Kimbo, as well as a large area near Wange. Neither of these plots, obviously, was at the heart of Witu; rather, these claims assumed Ahmed's authority as far as the coast.

Frederick Jackson, Early Days in East Africa, 1930 Fellow passengers aboard ship in 1884. The elder of the two brothers could speak English quite well and as he had been up before with Dr Fischer the naturalist and knew Witu and the Tana river well, we soon became very friendly, and he gave me much good advice and very useful information. He also stuffed me with all kinds of cock-and-bull stories about the prospective scientific expedition up the Tana on which they were bent, showed me his maps and various scientific instruments and 'gulled' me generally. Gustav spoke very little English, was very retiring, and it was his first visit to the country, so Clemens did all the talking.

The real intentions were to visit and exchange treaties with the rebel sultan of Witu, Simba (lion) thy name, who had for many years been a thorn in the slide of the Sultan of Zanzibar, Clemens' irritation, not to say anger, when I referred to Simba as a renegade, kidnapper of slaves, and harbourer of all the cutthroats and blaggards of the coast. The Germans were inaugurating their scheme for Colonial possessions by a well thought out and considered system of intrigue and fraud,and the employment of an unscrupulous gang of bogus treaty makers. Their case of scientific instruments was actually guns, presents for Simba. They made an agreement with Simba, which led, together with the presence of two German cruisers in Manda Bay, to the declaration of the German protectorate in 1886.