Roy Griffin - 'Swiss recluse who lived at Shela (his house is now the Peponi Hotel). He also had a house and farm at Witu where he experimented with bananas, grapefruits and mangoes etc. and also had a very good orchid collection. ...'

Midday Sun - re visit to Lamu in 1937  - our host was Henri Bournier, a middle aged Swiss of gentle manners, who lived at Shela, a crumbling village about 2 miles beyond Lamu town

Letter from Roy Griffin - Jun. 1998 - '.... He was a Moslem so had a mosque on the farm. During the Shifta the Police used the house as a Police Station. They also used the mosque as a Bar which so upset Burnier that he sold up and moved to Mombasa. He wanted the Witu property to become a centre for agricultural training especially for Moslems and this has eventually happened.'