Nairobi National Park

Overview

Nairobi National Park is a genuine oddity: 117 square kilometres of open plain and river forest whose northern boundary is the city fence, so that a black rhino grazing in the foreground and the towers of the central business district in the background is an ordinary photograph here. Gazetted in 1946 as Kenya's first national park, it is fenced on three sides and open to the south, allowing wildlife to move to the Athi-Kapiti plains, though that corridor is now badly squeezed by development. The park holds a dense black rhino population - one of the most successful sanctuaries in Africa - plus lion, cheetah, leopard, buffalo, giraffe and over 400 recorded bird species. There are no elephants. The Ivory Burning Site monument marks where Kenya publicly destroyed twelve tonnes of tusks in 1989, and the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage and the Giraffe Centre sit just outside the gate.