Kenya

Kenya is an independent republic, occupying an area of roughly the size of France. The population of the country is over 50 million with over 40 ethnic groups. The National language is Kiswahili with English as the official language spoken at all levels.

Kenya is a land of great diversity; offering a variety of terrains that are home to a wealth of animal and bird life where the world’s remaining populations of big cats, large mammals and plains game still roam free in their natural habitats.

The capital city is Nairobi and Mombasa is the main port. Kenya straddles the equator and is bisected by the Great Rift Valley from North to South.

The diverse and abundant wildlife owes it very existence and uniqueness to the country’s terrain, which ranges from snow covered peaks of Mount Kenya, to Highlands, to Savannah, to the great Rift Valley and its lakes as well as the simmering sands of the coast. Each of these regions is home to unique types of wildlife. For ornithologists there is an amazing wealth of birdlife. Kenya has 59 National Parks, Game Reserve, Marine National Parks and Reserves.

One of the best-known game viewing areas is the Maasai Mara, home to an abundant population of wildlife year round, and also host to the hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra who, accompanied by the predators such as lion, cheetah and hyaena, traverse the lush grasslands during their annual migration.

The lake region includes Lakes Elemantaita, Nakuru, Naivasha, continuing north to Bogoria and Baringo; each different, with soda lakes and hot springs, a great diversity of bird species, wildlife includes hippo and crocodile.

Aberdare National Park and Mt Kenya offer a varied terrain with wildlife that inhabit this forested and mountainous terrain including the Bongo – a rare and elusive forest antelope, eland, serval cats, and colobus monkeys.

Laikipia Game Sanctuary on the Laikipia plateau in Central Kenya is the last stronghold of romantic East Africa with vast open ranches, shadowed by snow-capped Mount Kenya and home to many communities including the Laikipia Maasai and the Samburu. Wildlife is plentiful here including rhino and giraffe.

North from here lies Samburu and Meru National Parks, home to animals more adapted to the harsher terrain such as reticulated giraffe, Grevy zebra, Somali ostrich, Beisa oryx and gerenuk.

Amboseli National Park, south of Nairobi, is home to great herds of elephants and with wonderful views of Mt.Kilimanjaro.

Further south towards the coast are Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, with good game viewing in less visited areas.

The Kenya coast offers miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, where there is excellent scuba diving, you may even see a lion fish.