The Childs Family

Emma Childs was born and brought up in Kenya. Her secondary education was in the UK and for university she went to South Africa and studied criminology at the University of Pretoria. Emma swam competitively at University and was narrowly missed being selected for swimming for her country. After completing her degree, Emma returned home and struggling to find work in her trained line of work she decided to pursue a career in wildlife. Emma started her working life at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for Dame Daphne Sheldrick. She spent 3 years spending her time between the Nairobi orphanage and the Tsavo based rehabilitation units. When Emma and Anthony met they began a career together in the hospitality industry managing and hosting lodges in Kenya. Wanting to have a base for their family Anthony and Emma built The Emakoko.

Anthony Childs was born in the UK and moved with his family to Kenya aged 5 months old. Leaving Kenya to study at University in the UK Anthony enjoyed the student lifestyle. Playing Rugby (he played for England U21’s and for Kenya) and being in the Officer Training Corps were part of his university life. One of the highlights of being in the OTC was being selected to show the Queen around the barracks.

The call of home was too strong to ignore so Anthony moved back to Kenya where he got his first job running a small camp in Amboseli. Since then he has managed and hosted several well known lodges in Kenya as well as guiding private trips all over East Africa. He also worked with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust setting up anti-poaching units throughout Tsavo.

Anthony is passionate about snakes which led to a long friendship with Royjan Taylor. Together they toured Kenya in search of reptiles and on a visit to the Coast in the 1990’s they discovered a Cobra that they recognised at the time as being different. Years later, they were instrumental in describing this new species and were given the honour of naming it after their mentor, James Ashe. Now commonly known as the Ashe’s Spitting Cobra, the largest Spitting Cobra in the world. Anthony and Royjan collected thousands of snakes all over Kenya for anti-venom research which is carried out at the Bio-Ken facility based in Watamu, Kenya that James Ashe set up. Bio-Ken now has the most extensive collection of African Snakes in the world. Recently though, Anthony’s attentions have turned towards scorpions and he has discovered a new species now named Gint Childsi or Child’s Scorpion.

Anthony and Emma first met opposite the site of the lodge, in the park itself whilst enjoying a legendary Kenyan ‘sundowner’. They were married in 2006 and have since had three children - William, Netty and Alexandra. It is true serendipity that their dream lodge has been built directly opposite the place where they met. Both of them grew up with a passion for the National Park itself, and it was the result of numerous expeditions into the park and its surroundings which enabled them to find and purchase the perfect property, allowing them to generate revenue for the local community and the Park.