The Emakoko

Anthony and Emma Childs are the husband-and-wife team behind The Emakoko, each bringing a very different, yet perfectly complementary, set of talents to the lodge. Anthony was born in the UK and arrived in Kenya at just five months old. After a brief return to the UK for a rugby career thinly disguised as university, he moved back to Kenya and has since spent his life guiding, managing lodges and exploring every corner of East Africa.

His lifelong passion for reptiles and close friendship with herpetologist Royjan Taylor led to decades of fieldwork with Bio-Ken and the Taylor Ashe Foundation. Together they travelled across Kenya collecting thousands of snakes for life saving anti-venom research at Bio-Ken in Watamu, which now houses the most extensive collection of African snakes anywhere. During one coastal expedition, they encountered a cobra they immediately recognised as unusual; years later they formally described it and named it after their mentor, James Ashe. Today, the Ashe’s Spitting Cobra remains the largest spitting cobra in the world. More recently, Anthony has turned part of his attention to scorpions and played a key role in identifying a newly described species, now officially named Gint childsi (Child’s Scorpion). He continues to work closely with Bio-Ken and the Taylor Ashe Foundation and is often spotted dashing off to relocate an unwelcome slithery visitor from a neighboring community home.

Emma was born and raised in Kenya and studied criminology at the University of Pretoria. While the job market in Kenya never quite embraced an aspiring criminologist, the skillset has proved invaluable in every other facet of her life, especially running a lodge. There’s a reason the sign outside the office asks: “Do you want to speak to the man in charge or the woman who knows what’s going on?” After returning home, she began her career with The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust before moving into lodge management with Anthony. The two famously met at a picnic site in Nairobi National Park, unbeknownst by them at the time directly opposite where The Emakoko would later be built.

Married in 2006, Anthony and Emma created The Emakoko as a home base for their family- William, Netty and Alexandra (affectionately known as the Boss Lady)- and as a place that reflects their deep love for Nairobi National Park and the surrounding community. Anthony is usually out front hosting guests along with manager Rihaz, while Emma quietly runs a tight ship behind the scenes, though she reliably appears at exactly the same time as The Emakoko’s famous 'dawa' cocktails.