Nairobi, March 20 -- A lone guard, a rusting gate and an eerily vacant compound are what greets a visitor to one of the fallen hotel giants in Nairobi.

Nearly three years after it crashed out of business, Hotel InterContinental Nairobi looks like the sole surviving building of a ghost city.

The parking that housed luxury vehicles daily is now dusty, empty with broken concrete giving way to blades of grass after months of disuse.

There is scanty evidence that this property at the heart of Nairobi has hosted any activity in months. There is even less indication it will in the foreseeable future.

The hotel's long and eventful journey began in 1947 when Intercontinental Hotel Corporation (IHC) signed a lease with the owners of the buildin...