Nairobi National Park, near compensation for the Serengeti

The closest encounter a lot of animal lovers have had with their favourites like wildebeests, warthogs, zebras, giraffes are on various television programmes. At the Nairobi National Park in Kenya, tourists have a near one-on-one interaction with these animals and more from inside tour vans or remodelled roof tops of tour busses. For our reporter […]

The closest encounter a lot of animal lovers have had with their favourites like wildebeests, warthogs, zebras, giraffes are on various television programmes. At the Nairobi National Park in Kenya, tourists have a near one-on-one interaction with these animals and more from inside tour vans or remodelled roof tops of tour busses.
For our reporter it was good enough compensation for her missing last year’s annual migration of some of these animals during the widely featured and publicised Serengeti Migration from Tanzania to Kenya.
It was especially a worthwhile trip when the first animals which welcomed her into the Reserve were two some worth shy buffalos only making themselves visible from behind the bush shrubs. Explaining that they were female buffalos, which could be determined from the positioning of their horns, our tour guide, Paul, teased: “you shouldn’t be surprised they don’t want to come out fully. All females have a similar trait.”
The Park was established in 1946, and was the first in the country. Located about 7 kilometres away from Nairobi’s bubbling city centre, it sits on a landmass of 117.21 square kilometres (28,963 acres). An electric fence separates the park’s wildlife from the metropolis visible from inside which according to a tour guide threaten the July to October Serengeti Migration route.
According to guides, the fence separating the park from the city runs along a high way leaving the airport and is one fact many Kenyans are proud of. “This Park is the only natural safari park that has a cityscape background that can be seen from almost any part of the park,” as seen in the picture of the gazelle and the sky scrapers.
According to the tour guide, Paul, in the 19th century colonists settled in what now serves as the Park with a lot more wildlife than exists today. The Park back then also served as grazing area for Maasais and the cattle while the Kikuyu people farmed on the highlands. “With the population growing it became more and more difficult for the animals and humans to co-exist,” he said.
Adding that: “They carried guns at night to protect themselves from lions and other wild animals. They also had to protect their crops from zebras and other animals which fed on them or simply walked over them. Gradually the animals were confined to the space where they now exist following the then government setting it aside as a game reserve.”
Regardless of the frequency of these conflicts between the animals and the human population next door, the Park still boasts of a large number and variety of wildlife population. With one of Kenya’s most successful rhinoceros sanctuaries there, it was quite a thrill for our reporter to have a first time contact with the animal. Majestically emerging from behind the bushes in search of food, the rhinoceros stood, observed and ‘decided’ it didn’t need the attention it was getting from the excited female screams and several clicking cameras. Just as fast as it had turned around creating the perfect angle for a snap shot, it was lost in the wild followed by a chorused ‘how could you?’ from the disappointed tourists.
With a good number of migrating herbivores gathered in the park during the dry season, tourists got a full plate of zebras, wildebeests, hartebeests, giraffes and buffalos. There were also species of beautifully coloured deers, impalas, antelopes, gazelles and even peacocks and ostriches amongst others.
Paul who has been a tour guide taking tourists through the Park for the last five years said it took him five daily trips of visiting the park to master the several routes and turns in the Park leading tourists to the different locations where one can view and take in groups of certain animals at a time.
Showing good knowledge of the Park and the animals’ reaction to one another, Paul knew it would be difficult to find a lion because the gazelles and deer and their tails calmly laid back. “The easiest way to know if there were a lion around would be from the tails of these animals because they would be up in the air wavering uneasily,” he educated tourists. ‘
Indeed the five hour trip did not bring forth any lions, leopards, hyenas or cheetahs.
Going on, the sight of a flock of ostriches mingling freely with giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, peacocks and guinea fowls amongst other animals brought to mind clips from the famous cartoon series, ‘Lion King’ evidently without Simba.
The ‘Ivory Burning Monument’ where in 1989 the then Kenyan president, Daniel Arap Moi burnt 12 tons of ivory is located on one of the Park’s route, Langata Road Gate. This was a gesture to symbolise an improvement in Kenya’s conservation image at a time when East African wildlife was being decimated by relentless poaching.
According to materials available on the Park, it’s wetland areas sustain approximately 400 bird species, which is more than in the whole of the United Kingdom. These species also include some rear breeds like the secretarybird in all its elements as its name implies, which our reporter got a chance to see.  
Apart from the main entrance, there are other gates on Magadi Rd and the Athi River Gate; the latter is handy if you’re continuing on to Mombasa, Amboseli or the Tanzanian border. The roads in the park are passable with 2WDs, but travelling in a 4WD is never a bad idea, especially if the rains have been heavy.
Beyond appreciating the animals, many who visit cannot but enjoy the landscape and the various shades, hues and levels of the sceneries on every corner as far as the eyes can reach. On every turn of the head, there is something to comment on.
For relics there are preserved skulls of various animals which were left dying or dead by poachers which the Park’s authorities retrieved and have kept for posterity. There are also safe spots around the parks were tourists can picnic and refresh.
The visit was rounded off by a most spectacular view of the same female buffalos on the same spot as at the beginning as they confidently fed themselves fatter on the luscious green. This time oblivious of the stares and camera clicks from the tourists they were once shy off.