Why I Love Kenya Issue 3 - Sept/Oct 2017

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE 3

Fantastic Beasts & where to find them

Conference in Kenya discover our wildly versatile destination

Bogoria The place of the lost tribe

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE KENYA TOURISM BOARD & KENYA TOURISM FEDERATION

‘Africa’s New Frontiers’ Summit Radisson Blu Hotel Nairobi, Upper Hill

WHATEVER THE STORY, TRUST US TO HELP TELL YOURS.

E X P E R I E N C E M E E T I N G S AT R A D I S S O N B L U .

A S C O M M I T T E D A S YO U A R E . radissonblu.com/hotel-nairobi/meetings

Foreword

by Hon. Najib Balala, EGH, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.

T

he tourism sector continues to play a key role in the growth of Kenya’s economy. It contributes more than 10% (Kshs. 100 billion) of the Gross Domestic Product, 18% of foreign exchange earnings, and 11% of total formal employment in the country.

Kenya is one of the top five tourist destinations in Africa. We have award-winning, world-class tourism assets and operations. But our leadership role is under threat from other destinations. Globally, the sector is being reshaped by huge changes in technology and consumer demand. Our tourism assets and operations need to constantly evolve and improve to survive.

To respond to the above scenario, the Ministry of Tourism has formulated the National Tourism Strategy Blueprint 2030, aimed at redefining and redesigning the development and management of Kenya’s tourism sector to ensure it remains competitive and sustainable.

The Blueprint is also designed to accelerate attainment of Kenya Vision 2030 projections for the sector. It recognizes the fact that Kenya’s tourism industry is complex and not all functions, markets and experiences are in a similar position in the tourism lifecycle.

A “one-size-fits-all” approach to strategy does not work for the Kenyan tourism industry.

The travel and tourism sector is also already impacted by significant changes and these types of complexities and changes will not abate in the future. Innovations for accommodation reservations, like Air BnB, and those for travel, like applications such as Uber taxi-hailing service among others, supported by the rapid growth in online technological solutions, are being launched almost simultaneously globally, unlike before when the developing world would play catch up.

HON. NAJIB BALALA EGH, CABINET SECRETARY

This, therefore, makes it more urgent for Kenya to rapidly adopt to all emerging innovations that impact the tourism sector to address the challenges it faces, reposition itself and reclaim its position as a market leader in tourism globally.

Kenya must adopt forward-thinking innovation in the management of its tourism and develop the ability to initiate and respond to changes in the global arena.

Innovation and change is desired in the areas of sound and dynamic management, display, interpretation and translation, guiding services and the infrastructure therein.

Innovations are required in the areas of mobilizing finances for quality investments, management and service systems, client feedback systems, marketing and adoption of new online booking networks like Air BnB, Jovago, etc.

The future of the travel and tourism industry in Kenya, and indeed in Africa, is in technological innovation and change. So let us all embrace it wholeheartedly!

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

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67 YEARS OF GREAT COFFEE Coffee’s characteristic flavor and aroma develops during the roasting and brewing process. It is an art, as much as it is a science that requires extensive knowledge and expertise to contribute to the final cup that is full, distinctively aromatic, rich and layered. Dormans has roasted and brewed coffee selectively to master this art; an art cultivated since 1950, to reach desired gourmet flavor of coffee reminiscent of a rich heritage. No wonder we are the ONLY coffee roaster in Kenya to achieve Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000)

@DormansCoffee DormansCoffee

16 MANAGING EDITOR: Jane Barsby CONSULTANT - CONTENT & IMAGERY: Lyndsey McIntyre MARKETING CONSULTANT: David Stogdale, Chairman of the Marketing Committee, Kenya Tourism Federation SALES: Beth Litunya CREATIVE AND EDITORIAL TEAM: Mike Jones, Pam Kubassu Papa, Moses Ochieng, Sam Ndung’u PHOTOGRAPHIC AND EDITORIAL CREDITS: A Rogers / Tropic Air Kenya, Africa Born, Alexis Duclos / Gamma-Rapho, Andreas Fox Safaris, Annabel Onyango, Byelikova Oksana, Chip Clark, Des Bowden, Deidi von Schaewen, Eric Lafforgue, Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club, Felix Wölk, Gautam Shah, Giulio Molfese, John Warburton-Lee, Joseph Nyarangi, Lucy King, Manda Bay, Martin Buzora, Midego Fotography, Neville Sheldrick, Peponi Hotel, Protel Studio, Paul Mckenzie, Radisson Blu, Radu Razvan, Ralph Johnstone, Safarilink, Sarova Hotels, Sean Dundas Safaris, Serena Hotels, Stuart Butler, Stuart Price, The Majlis, TravelPlusStyle.com, Tropic Air Kenya, Vipingo Ridge, Virgin Limited Edition, www. africaimagelibrary.com, www.skydivediani.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: advertising@colourspace.co.ke EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: editorial@colourspace.co.ke PUBLISHER: MJS Colourspace Ltd. Victoria Towers, Kilimanjaro Road, Upper Hill, Nairobi Tel: +254 (0)20 2738004, 2737883 Mobile: +254 (0)727 794041 Cover photograph: Paul Mckenzie Copyright © 2017 Why I Love Kenya Magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publishers. The publishers do not accept responsibility for the advertising content of the magazine and nor do they promote or endorse products from third-party advertisers.

Printed in Kenya.

www.whyilovekenya.com www.whyilovekenya.com

50 Contents 01 Foreword 04 Zoom Lens 06 Wide Angle Lens: Tree of life 08 Cameo Shot: Ajuma on ‘Why I love Kenya’ 10 Moving Image: Fantastic Beasts...

14 Exposed: Logged on 16 Positive Take: Elephants and Bees 20 Capturing the Coast: La La land in Lamu 27 Portfolio: Conferencing in Kenya 40 Cultural Contact: Walking with the Maasai 44 Wild Action 48 Message from the Kenya Tourist Board 50 In Portrait: The place of the lost people 54 In Close Up: All about Nairobi 58 Snapped: The best of the Kenyan buys 60 Kenya Brief

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To Russia

with love

The Russians, it seems, LOVE Kenyan black tea, which is good news for Kenya. The world’s largest exporter of black tea, Kenya is currently cooperating with Russia in a bid to double her Russian tea exports over the next three years. Meanwhile, Russia, one of the world’s most enthusiastic tea-drinking nations, has declared that Kenyan tea ‘has all the characteristics the Russian market wants’.

To find out what makes Kenyan tea so special, you might like to visit Kiambethu Tea Farm, which is just 25km outside Nairobi. Here you can have lunch in a beautiful colonial-era farmhouse, learn all about the history of Kenyan tea-growing, tour the plantations, take a walk in the forests and… have a nice cup of tea. For more information: www.kiambethufarm.co.ke

Kilifi comes up trumps A small community-run marine conservancy in Kenya has beaten 800 applicants from 120 countries globally to win one of the most prestigious prizes from the United Nations Development Programme. The Equator Prize, which recognises community projects that provide nature based solutions to sustainable development, has this year gone to the Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association based in Kuruwitu, a small town just north of Mombasa in Kilifi District. The Association has successfully established the first locally managed marine protected area in Kenya which now acts as both a model and inspiration to other communities.

Indeed, some 20 similar projects have set up along the coast having visited Kuruwitu. It has also introduced several alternative income generating projects to ease the pressure on the marine ecosystem and improve livelihoods, such as teaching tourists how to fish as their ancestors did millions of years ago, and establishing an educational programme designed to eradicate harmful marine practices. The community has increased the fish biomass by 400%. For further information visit www.kuruwitukenya.org Clearfin lionfish © Des Bowden

Why Kenya loves

Chris Froome Chris Froome has made sporting history becoming the first Brit to win the Tour de France four times, but Chris is also a son of Kenya. He was born and brought up, for the first 14 years of his life, in Nairobi. And it was Kenyan cyclist David Kinjah, the first black African cyclist to sign to a European team, who was his mentor and trainer.

Bravo, Chris, Kenya is proud of you.

Chris Froome in the 2017 Tour © Radu Razvan / Shutterstock.com

© Giulio Molfese @ Photo4Fashion 2017

© Stuart Butler

Kenyan cows on a mission to

save the world

Fashionistas

of East Africa Unite

Few fashion events are as eclectic and yet inclusive as Nairobi’s recently held East African Fashion Week. This was all about ravishingly raw talent, wild juxtapositions of African fabrics and European chic… and a revolutionary ethnic mix of models – some of whom had never modelled before. The result was a vibrant, showcase for the up-and-coming designers of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. London, Paris, and Milan beware – East Africa’s on your tail.

Let the train take the strain Once upon a time it took over 12 hours to cover the 480 kilometres of elephant-patrolled wilderness that separates bustling Nairobi from beautiful Mombasa. Now it takes just over four hours on the new SGR (Single Gauge Railway) opened in July 2017. Delivering the ultimate in swift, sleek and satisfying African game-viewing experiences, the new railway is the result of a Chinese cooperative project that will eventually see it reach Kigali, Kampala and Juba.

High on wildlife and low on carbon footprint, the trip is economical too – just US$42.7 one-way first class and $6.6 in economy. For further information: www.krc.co.ke

Farmers in Western Kenya are battling global warming by reducing the amount of methane gas their cows release into the atmosphere.

Kenya’s cows, it seems, are Olympic performers when it comes to burping and belching. But methane causes the planet to warm up at a gold medal rate - 86 times faster than its closest rival CO2 (according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Getting wind of this dangerous situation, however, Kenyan farmers have adopted some radical new technology. They’re burying their manure so as to enrich the soil and reduce methane emissions; and reducing their herds so as to deliver higher milk yields but lower methane emissions. They’re also cooperating with French dairy giant, Danone, and trading carbon credits with France. For further information: Downtoearth.danone.com

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

It was Sir Henry Morton Stanley who uttered these famous words when he found missing explorer, Dr David Livingstone, in Tanzania in 1871. And now his great-grandson, William, will have to think up an equally memorable line when he meets the great explorers, Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE and Col John Blashford-Snell OBE at a series of events entitled Explorers Against Extinction.

One of the events, all of which are designed to raise awareness regarding species extinction, is called Sketch for Survival. This, a sale of artworks by famous artists, will raise funds for the purchase of a new anti-poaching dog for Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya’s Laikipia region as well as supporting the orphaned elephants of the famous David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

For further information: www.explorersagainstextinction.co.uk

Tracker dog Tipper with ranger Mwanyumba Photo by Martin Buzora for the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

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Tree of life In the harshly beautiful arid lands of northern Kenya, water is life, especially in the famous national reserves of Samburu and Buffalo Springs. In this aerial shot, which depicts the Ewaso Ng’iro river as it empties into Lake Natron, a gigantic ‘tree of life’ appears to be have been printed upon the landscape.

Life-giving and life-sustaining, the arteries of water, which stem from the melting glaciers of Mount Kenya, sustain a glorious kaleidoscope of wildlife. They also attract the thousands of pelicans, flamingoes and migrant species that flock to feed upon the brilliant green algae, which colours the tendrils of the delta.

Known by the local nomadic herders as ‘the plains of darkness’, the rugged, hot and arid ‘badlands’ of north-eastern Kenya are vast, magnificent and still largely unexplored. Constituting more than third of Kenya’s total land area, they are home to less than five per cent of her people.

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WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

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cameo shot

Kenya Why I Love

Ajuma was one of Kenya’s most famous exports having achieved the distinction of being one of the world’s highest earning super models. In 2004, she became the first black model to win a modelling contract in an international competition.

And not just any modelling contract: Ajuma was signed up by the world famous FORD Models and modelled for some of the most revered names in couture. In 2004, she was voted ‘Best Model’ in Spanish Fashion Week while America’s prestigious, Complex Magazine voted her amongst the ten most beautiful women in the world. Our Editor, Jane Barsby, found out more.

In the extensive press coverage of your story, it’s often called a ‘rags to riches’ story. Was it?

In some ways; not in others. I had already been very fortunate before my modeling career began.

Tell us about that.

I was living with my mother in a traditional Turkana mud hut in the far north of Kenya. I was known as Nancy Ajuma Nasanyana then. It was thanks to my mother, who was the first woman to receive an education in Turkana, that I too had received an excellent education in Nairobi. It was at school that my ability as an athlete came to light.

You were heading for a career as a track athlete?

Yes. In 2002, I won the World Junior Championship National Trials and came third in the World Championship National trials for the 400m and 800m track disciplines. Thanks to my mother, who was working with a Swedish NGO, I had just accepted a sponsorship to train as an athlete in Sweden. I was very excited and looking forward to it.

And then?

I was just about to board the plane for Sweden when I got an urgent message from Lyndsey McIntyre of Surazuri Models in Nairobi. She had seen my photographs and wanted me to meet a photographer from the famous agency, Gamma, who had just flown in to Nairobi from Paris. The photographer persuaded me to not to get on the plane to Sweden, but rather to fly to Nairobi for a photo-shoot. At that point, my life changed forever.

Ajuma outside her grandfather’s hut in the Turkana region. © Alexis Duclos / Gamma-Rapho

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WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

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What happened next?

During that photo-shoot, I became ‘Ajuma’ as we all agreed it had a more exotic ring to it than Nancy. Lyndsey then put me forward as the Kenyan entrant for the Ford Super Model Competition. I agreed, but did not expect anything to come of it. I then flew to Sweden and started to train as an athlete. A short time later I heard that I had been accepted as a contestant, and that the Agency was very impressed with my photographs and wanted me to travel to New York immediately. My Swedish coach was not pleased. He said that I had to choose between being an athlete and a model. I chose to model.

for me to choose one single aspect. But of course I missed the warmth and welcome of my family and the incredible strength of my mother. She leads the local women’s community and her strength has empowered all the local women. I’m very proud of her.

Have you ever regretted that decision?

Never. I have been very fortunate in my success. And the money that I have earned has allowed me to help my family. I was also very proud to be able to represent my country.

And what about the Turkana people?

They are such elegant people. Tall, slim and very graceful – I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from them in my modelling career. Our people are famous for the brilliance of their dress and the intricacy of their beads and necklaces. Each piece of jewellery has specific meaning. All this has helped me in my career

You lived away from Kenya for quite a few years. What did you miss most?

So many things: my family and friends of course, but also my homeland. I missed the beauty of Kenya; its wilderness and its wildlife. I missed the Kenyan weather – I couldn’t believe how cold it was in New York when I first arrived there. I missed the wide smiles of the Kenyan people, their warmth and welcome. And also, I missed the food. My other African model friends and I used to get invited to all the best restaurants in New York, but we all longed for Kenyan cuisine. The closest we could get was Jamaican – but it’s not the same.

What did you think about first when you used to think about your home?

My friends and I used to talk about Kenya all the time, so it’s hard

Tell us what you love about your homeland?

I come from the far north of Kenya. It’s very arid, dusty and hot, but very beautiful too. I love the colours of northern Kenya. There are lots of volcanic mountains, which are wonderful to watch as the sun goes down. Turkana is famous for its magical sunsets and sunrises.

How was it when you returned to Kenya?

Kenya is my home and wherever I went in the world, it was always on my mind. I have lived in so many places: Turkana, Paris, London, Milan, Spain, Tokyo, Sweden and Ireland – but my heart lies in Kenya.

I now co-run a modelling agency here and my mission is to inspire young Kenyan men and women to follow their dreams, whatever they may be.

What would you say to those people who are thinking of visiting Kenya?

Come! We Kenyans love to welcome visitors. In Turkana we’re also delighted to share our culture – and to invite people into our homes. I know that once somebody has visited Kenya they will always want to return. Just as I did.

Traditional huts on the shores of Lake Turkana, also known as the ‘The Jade Sea’. © Stuart Butler

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Fantastic

&

Beasts where to

find them...

© Gautam Shah

T

oday’s safari hunters set out in much more modest style. They’re also, mercifully, after shots of rather than shots at the fantastic beasts their predecessors labelled the ‘Big Five’ (lion, buffalo, rhinoceros, leopard and elephant). Given that Kenya boasts over 56 national parks and reserves, however, finding such creatures on a safari that may last only a few days requires either supreme luck or inside knowledge.

And even then it’s not as easy as you may think. Look for an elephant in the vastness of Tsavo West National Park, one of the country’s most famous, and you might never find one. There are over 10,000 in residence, but you have to know where to look. Hang out for a leopard in any Kenyan national park and you might wait weeks for a glimpse of its celebrated spots, though its nose might have been inches from your own, had you but known it. Lions, for all their size, are past masters of the art of seeing without being seen. And as for rhinos, you’d be surprised at how quickly such a startlingly prehistoric creature can vanish into thin air. Finally, were you to find a buffalo in Hell’s Gate National Park, one of only two parks wherein you are

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Kenya is the best-known safari destination in the world. She is also the land where, in the early 1900s, the safari began. Safaris in those days were momentous undertakings requiring months of planning, covering hundreds of miles and lasting for many months. It is said that the cavalcade of American ex-president, Theodore Roosevelt, which set off from Mombasa in 1909, stretched for over a mile, created a dust cloud that obliterated half the town and featured 250 porters carrying everything from a travelling library to four tons of preserving salt. On their travels, Roosevelt and his son Kermit, were horribly successful in finding fantastic beasts, killing seventeen lions, three leopards, eleven elephants, ten buffalos, eleven black rhinos and nine white – all in the name of scientific discovery for the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA.

permitted to walk unescorted, you might wish you hadn’t: buffalos are notoriously cantankerous and exceptionally dangerous, especially old lone bulls when disturbed mid-afternoon-nap.

Lurking with leopards Enigmatic and elusive, it is said by those who know about leopards that you’ll only get to see one if it lets you. When you do, you may find its gaze strangely disconcerting as it looks, sphinx-like, straight through you. Notoriously difficult to tick the safari box on, leopards inhabit most of Kenya’s parks and conservancies but are best seen in the latter. Top spots include the Masai Mara National Reserve, where they tend to keep to the riverine edges waiting for the zebras and wildebeest to come down to drink, and the surrounding Mara conservancies. Also prime leopard country are the Aberdares and Kenya’s biggest park, Tsavo East and West where the perceived wisdom is that during the day your only chance of locating a leopard is to keep your gaze resolutely UP, with your eyes focussed on the forks of trees. Why? Because leopards like to use forked trees as game larders. Then you just have to look for the twitching of a tail.

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Looking for lions Lions get everywhere, or so the safari guides would have you believe. They’ll tell you tall tales of lions dropping through the pop-up tops of safari vehicles, wandering through camps to the consternation of the campers, and snoozing on the sun loungers of the lodges. And, while such things have happened, they don’t happen often because lions are none too keen on the company of man, their only predator.

Lion spotting for the amateur, then, is best done under the guidance of a professional safari guide. These are the guys who always know where to find the resident prides; and who can produce them like large and particularly fearsome rabbits out of hats.

In the lead for lion-location is Kenya’s most famous reserve, the Masai Mara, where around one thousand lions have been so thoroughly catalogued that they have their own database. So, when you’ve located your lion, all you need to do is to determine whether or not it has spots on its nose, chunks out of its ears or a particularly unusual placement of whiskers – and you can get to know its name, number and life history. For further information: maralions@livingwithlions.org.

An even better bet in the lion stakes is to be had in the conservancies surrounding the Masai Mara where each pride holds fast to its own bitterly fought-for territory and where, though the visitor-numbers are low, the lions are so habituated to the presence of vehicles at close range that you might find yourself the only observer of an enchanting family scene of lion, lioness and cubs at play. And then there’s Tsavo West National Park, which lies equidistant between Nairobi and the coast, and is home to one-third of all the lions in Kenya – some 700 of the fantastic beasts. An evocative wilderness of volcanoes, crystal-clear pools and palm-fringed rivers, Tsavo was also home to Kenya’s most famous man-eating lions, which, in the late 19th century, devoured at least 35 Indian railway workers thus playing havoc with the building of the Uganda Railway. Finally, for lions from a different perspective, head for Lake Nakuru National Park where some 50 rare tree-climbing lions loll about in trees like formidably overgrown kittens.

© Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 11

Questing for elephants Elephants, despite their size, can be elusive; amazingly, they can even be mistaken for bushes; while in dense undergrowth eight tons of elephant can appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. One reserve that won’t disappoint you on the elephant front, however, is Amboseli, one of Kenya’s oldest and most-visited.

Home to one of the world’s most famous free-moving elephant populations, Amboseli National Reserve hosts some 1,200 elephants, which have been so extensively tracked, recorded and filmed that they’re almost household names. Nor does it take much effort to find them.

Nine times out of ten you’ll come across a herd or two wallowing in their favourite spot – the Amboseli swamps. The last remnants of a once great lake, which flourished over one million years ago, the Amboseli swamps paint a broad brush-stroke of vivid emerald green across the centre of this otherwise stark park. Fed by underground streams flowing directly from Mount Kilimanjaro, the swamps are cool, unpolluted and deliciously (for elephants) muddy. They also offer the near-perfect photo opportunity for catching a herd of elephants, muddied up to their middles, dogged by white cattle egret and squelching happily through the papyrus while fetchingly posed against the backdrop of the famous snows of Kilimanjaro.

© Gautam Shah

For those who’d like their elephants concentrated, against a less theatrical backdrop, Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary has it all. An elephant migration route as old as time, this reserve boasts 150 elephants wandering in only 24 square kilometres of rugged terrain – that’s a lot of bang for your elephant buck. The Sanctuary also has a shop where you can purchase your own supply of elephant-dung writing paper. What’s more, since the Shimba Hills National Reserve is right next door, so you can also drop in to catch its population of 200 elephants as they stroll picturesquely against gently rolling woodlands, which look as though they’ve been geographically misplaced and should be in Northern Europe, while below the hills crash the breakers of Kenya’s celebrated southern coast.

Browsing for buffalos It’s been said that a buffalo resembles a cow on steroids, and it’s not far from the truth. Though usually docile and cow-like, the Cape buffalo is equipped with a particularly dangerous set of curling horns, which are responsible for killing more people in Africa than virtually any other creature (except the hippopotamus). Widespread throughout Kenya, buffalos are an accepted part of the scenery in most of the national parks. For a really close encounter with a buffalo, however, you should head for Hell’s Gate National Park, close to Lake Naivasha. Here you can run, walk or ride a bike past the buffalo herds, though you’d be well advised not to get too close.

Despite their difference in size, buffalos and oxpeckers have formed a symbiotic relationship that works for both of them. The buffalos tolerate the attentions of the oxpeckers because they remove the parasitic ticks that can cause disease in oxen. And the oxpeckers dine regally on both the ticks and the flies that are attracted by the buffalos. Oxpeckers are members of the starling family and are endemic to the savanna lands of Africa. Their name arises from their habit of perching on large mammals such as cattle, zebra, impalas, hippos and rhinos, and eating ticks, small insects, larvae and other parasites.

Photo © Paul Mckenzie

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Roaming for rhinos Ruthlessly hunted for its horn, which is widely used in Chinese medicine and much prized as a dagger handle in the Middle East, the black rhino came close to extinction at the close of the last century and remains Africa’s most endangered large mammal. Kenya has around 600 eastern black rhinos, half of all those remaining on earth and 90% of those remaining in the wild. It also has around 350 white rhinos. What’s the difference between a black and a white rhino you might ask? Well, it’s not, as you might think, to do with their colour – because both are determinedly grey. In fact, the derivation of the name ‘white’ originates from the Afrikaans for ‘wide’ which is ‘weit’ and refers to the width of the white rhino’s lip, which is especially adapted to grazing. The black rhino, on the other hand, has a triangular, prehensile lip more adapted to browsing on leaves and shrubs. An easier method of telling them apart, however, is that white rhinos are considerably bigger than black rhinos.

But where to find them?

The quickest way to find a rhino, given that you are passing through Nairobi, is to head for Nairobi National Park, which can be reached in 15 minutes from the city centre. Known as the Rhino Ark, thanks to its success in rhino breeding, it shelters 50 black rhinos, which browse the plains and can even be spotted as your plane comes in to land at Nairobi airport.

Beyond Nairobi, Kenya’s largest population of rhinos lives in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy of central Kenya. Here over 100 black rhinos roam a very varied biosphere, while a number of trans-located white rhinos can be viewed at close quarters in their enclosure.

This is particularly rewarding at feeding time when they munch their way through bucket-loads of carrots, celery and cabbage.

Close by is Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, one of Kenya’s most famous rhino conservation strongholds which, in 2014, opened its borders to the neighbouring conservancy of Borana, to create one of the world’s most important rhino sanctuaries, with a combined black rhino population almost 90 strong. Other remarkable rhino spotting venues include Lake Nakuru, where you can snap a rhino set against the flamingo-fringed shores of the lake; and Meru National Park, where the dedicated rhino sanctuary hosts around 25 black and 55 white rhinos. Finally, for a place where it is impossible NOT to see a rhino, head for Solio Ranch, just north of Nyeri, which holds the title for hosting ‘the highest density of rhinos per square kilometre in Africa.’ Here, you can see concentrations of up to 50 rhinos at a time. In fact so prevalent are the rhinos on the landscape that it’s hard to take a photograph without one of them pausing obligingly to pose.

Easy when you know how…

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the title of a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates. A spin-off from the Harry Potter film series, it was produced and written by J.K Rowling and inspired by her book of the same name.

The black rhino has a triangular or prehensile lip.

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Logged on A cheetah poses perfectly in the Masai Mara National Reserve.

Photographer Paul Mckenzie sums up the shot: ‘Great light, great subject and a striking pose. If only wildlife photography was always so easy. This is rarely the case but here all I needed to do was to anticipate that the cheetah was likely to climb onto the fallen log and orientate the vehicle optimally. Then it was simply a matter of composing the image and pressing the shutter.’

Photo © Paul Mckenzie

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A real buzz for

Elephant

conservation

by Ralph Johnstone

How a pioneering Kenyan project is inspiring farmers to live peacefully alongside elephants in 13 countries

When he set light to more than 100 tonnes of confiscated ivory in April last year, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was following a long tradition of headline-grabbing acts that have made Kenya – quite literally – the torchbearer for elephant conservation worldwide. But while the record-breaking pyre, coupled with China’s recent ban on ivory sales, have presented glimmers of hope in this do-or-die conservation battle, the real frontline – where hungry elephants and poor farmers clash almost daily – has generated surprisingly scant coverage in the world’s media.

So it is heartening for visitors to eastern Kenya to discover a project that offers genuine hope for the rural people who have to live cheek by jowl with these gentle, phenomenally intelligent animals. In the foothills of Sagalla, a remote farming community bordering on Tsavo East National Park, the Elephants and Bees Project has inspired the widespread use of ‘beehive fences’ to protect small-scale maize and vegetable farms from crop-raiding elephants.

The fences, which are strung between live commiphora (a type of myrrh) posts, have beehives linked by thick wire along every 10 metres of their length. When an elephant tries to pass between the posts, the wire is stretched – causing a buzzing army of bees to leave the occupied hives and head off in pursuit of those who have disturbed their labours.

Dr Lucy King with one of the sponsored beehives along the fence

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The result usually involves a lot of trumpeting, stamping, headshaking – and immediate fleeing.

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‘African bees release a pheromone when they sting which triggers the other bees in the colony to sting the elephants in the very same spot,’ explains Elephants and Bees founder, Dr Lucy King. ‘The elephants have learned that one sting can lead to thousands of other bees coming after them, so as soon as they hear that angry disturbed-bee sound, they flee. They know that, unlike electric fences, which provide a single nasty shock, bees will give chase.’ According to Dr King, there is growing evidence that elephants can retain a ‘negative memory’ of the bee-lined farms – which will make them avoid the same farms in future. ‘We all know the saying that elephants never forget,’ she says, ‘and this is particularly true about bees.’

Wins on both sides As Kenya struggles through another drawn-out dry season, it doesn’t take much to realise the ‘win-win’ benefits of the beehive fences: both for farmers, whose annual income can be wiped out in a single night; and for elephants – whose very survival depends on the tolerance of these hard-pressed communities. There are even more wins for farmers who are prepared to go the extra mile to make their bees pay. This year, Elephants and Bees will bottle and sell hundreds of jars of ‘elephant-friendly honey’ – with 100% of the proceeds going back to the farmers. The project’s staff are also exploring opportunities for beeswax candles and honey-flavoured lip balm.

Since it was launched in Sagalla in 2009, the Elephants and Bees project – a collaboration between Save the Elephants, Oxford University and Disney’s Animal Kingdom – has fenced 28 farms in Tsavo district, where the ‘elephant deterrence rate’ now averages an 80% success rate. And it doesn’t stop there. Spurred on by its success in Kenya, the project has been spreading the word and funding for new fences – in Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Chad, Congo and Gabon – has begun with field tests now also underway in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.

All the proceeds from the sale of honey goes back to the farmers

Dr Jane Goodall. ‘Every individual can make a difference, every day again,’ said Dr Goodall at the awards ceremony. ‘Everything you do as a human being has an influence on other human beings, animals and nature.’

But perhaps the greatest testimonials for the project come from the individual farmers who are now working – and thriving – behind beehive fences. Charity Mwangome, whose farm in Sagalla was one of the first ‘adopters’ of the beehive system, says elephants used to destroy a significant proportion of her crops, before she erected her first fence. ‘These days, when the elephants come and see the fence, they stop and they won’t come into the farm,’ she says. ‘Instead they go around the outside. What that means is that all my crops can now be used to support my children and my grandchildren.’

If you’d like to make a donation, obtain more information or even arrange for a visit to the project please visit: www.elephantsandbees.com, www.savetheelephants.org, www.facebook.com/ElephantsandBees

‘It’s not a minute too soon for any of these elephant populations,’ says Dr King, who also heads up the Save the Elephants Human-Elephant Co-existence Program. ‘The latest census shows one-in-five elephants have been killed for their tusks in the past decade, and with increasing human populations – and increasingly erratic weather patterns – these incredible animals will become more and more endangered if we can’t help local communities co-exist with them peacefully.’

Three years ago, Save the Elephants opened the Elephants and Bees Research Centre in Sagalla, which has become a hub for the project’s activities – from making beehives and honey, to monitoring elephant movements, moderating local conflicts, and providing training for farmers and community groups. As well as opening its doors to farmers from other countries, the centre recently began welcoming a few lucky tourists – ecologically-minded visitors who, in exchange for a small donation, can visit the project for a few hours and see firsthand the incredible work it’s doing on this conservation frontline.

In 2013, Elephants and Bees won two prestigious awards for its work: the St Andrews Prize for the Environment and the Future for Nature Award – presented to Dr King by the legendary environmentalist,

Buzz-off! The elephants have learned that one sting can lead to many thousands of stings.

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 17

Tel: +254 204450036, +254 702 692648 Email: reservations@atua-enkop.com Website: www.atua-enkop.com

Elephant Bedroom Camp - Samburu

Mbweha Camp - Lake Nakuru

Mara Ngenche Safari Camp - Mara

Tipilikwani Mara Camp - Masai Mara

capturing tab title the coast

La La Land

the magic of Lamu

Main photo © ERIC LAFFORGUE / Alamy Stock Photo

20 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

amu confounds. The most hardened of travel writers, the most extensively travelled of tourists, the most hedonistic of the glitterati are all rendered speechless by Lamu. Or clichébound. Because Lamu is exactly as described on the label. It’s enchanting, unbelievable, spellbinding and addictive. From the moment of landing at its tiny toy-town airport, you know you’re in trouble. The breeze caresses, the sea is wrap-around, the sky is lapis lazuli blue; and the people walking out across the tarmac to board the little plane you’ve just left are clearly enchanted. They’re golden, white-clad, barefoot and beaming. Some have hibiscus blossoms in their hair.

And they don’t want to leave. Nor will you.

The Lamu archipelago is an Alice Through the Looking Glass world where everything is magically muddled. There aren’t any streets, just a maze of winding alleys. There aren’t any cars, just barrel-bellied donkeys ridden by bow-legged men in white dishdashas and pork pie hats. There aren’t any sleek hotels, just blindingly-white Swahili mansions festooned in fuchsia-pink bougainvillea. There are no plush foyers, just huge carved doors swinging open to reveal cool, green Persian gardens. There are no supermarkets, just cavernous emporiums displaying hessian sacks of spices, cones of sugar and glass cabinets stuffed with an eclectic collection of 1920s hairnets, henna, and hookah pipes.

But there is mystique.

The ladies are veiled; the men wear wrap-around kikois rather than trousers.

The children patter on bare feet through the alleys, and the old men gather to play dominoes in the crumbling medieval squares. Egyptian cats with huge ears and fathomless eyes prowl the streets: it’s said they are descended directly from the tomb cats of the pharaohs. In the evening, you can hire a camel and set off for cocktails in the sand dunes. In the morning you can run on a deserted beach. At night, the sky is a spangle of stars. By day, you can swim in pellucid waters, board a dhow for a distant island, take a slow boat through the mangrove swamps, or mine the treasure-trove of dark, dusty emporiums.

© www.africaimagelibrary.com

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 21

capturing tab title the coast

© Manda Bay, Manda Island, Lamu

The Facts

What to see and do

The Lamu Archipelago is a cluster of hot low-lying desert islands running for some 60 km parallel to Kenya’s northern coastline. It comprises Lamu Island, Manda Island, Pate Island and Kiwayu Island.

Lamu Museum Housed in a grand Swahili warehouse on the waterfront this dusty old museum provides an excellent insight into Swahili culture.

Established in 1370, Lamu Town is Kenya’s oldest continually inhabited town. Through history it has been influenced by the Arabs, the Portuguese, the Omanis, the Germans, the Sultan of Zanzibar and the British.

And a dash of all of these influences have remained: the result is an exotic mélange that is both unique and entrancing. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, Lamu is both a living museum and a flourishing community.

Profoundly Muslim, the town echoes to the wail of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, while the bustle of the markets, the squares, the waterfront and the alleyways reflect a way of life virtually unchanged for centuries.

Shela An enchanted fishing village with 12 km of pristine beach.

Lamu Fort Built by the Sultan of Pate in the 1800s, this squat castle holds the island’s library and Swahili poetry collection.

The German Post Office Museum Built by the German East Africa Company in the late 1800s, this is now a photographic museum covering the brief period of German rule.

Lamu market Atmospheric and chaotic this is the place to buy fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and spices.

Kipungani A place of dreamy beaches and the centre for dhow building and palm-mat weaving.

Swahili House Visit this perfectly preserved mansion for the full-on flavour of Swahili life.

Manda Island A short boat hop from Lamu, this is a place of dunes and mangroves, and also the fabulous Takwa Ruins, all that remains of a glorious 15th century city.

The Donkey Sanctuary A man without a donkey IS a donkey or so says the Swahili proverb and this sanctuary is devoted to giving sanctuary for some 3,000 donkeys that can no longer work.

© The Majlis, Manda Island, Lamu

Pate Island A forgotten Swahili world, also the site of Shanga the world’s most complete example of a medieval Swahili town.

Kiwayu Island Remote, pristine and romantic, Kiwayu lies at the far northeast of the archipelago and has a reputation for causing all its visitors to fall hopelessly in love.

The Kiunga Marine National Reserve A pristine string of 51 rugged coral isles, ringed by rainbow coral reefs, Kiunga promises wheeling seabirds, rare turtles, magical dugongs and an underwater world of unbelievable colour, discovery and vibrancy.

Culture shop Unique buys include carved furniture, Arabian antiques, copper lanterns, handmade jewellery and exotic fashions.

22 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

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© The Majlis, Manda Island, Lamu

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1. Lamu Fort © www.africaimagelibrary.com 2. The Lamu seafront 3. Donkeys are the standard mode of transport, for business or pleasure. © Byelikova Oksana / Shutterstock.com 4. Lamu is famous for its hand-carved furniture 5. Takwa Ruins © TravelPlusStyle.com

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WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 23

capturing tab title the coast

© TravelPlusStyle.com

© TravelPlusStyle.com

Lamu offers an incredibly diverse range of activities and experiences, from the serenity of a private dhow trip to the thrill of one of its colourful festivals.

Action A place of clear blue perennially warm waters, Lamu is a water lover’s paradise: choose from snorkelling, diving, numerous watersports and dhow trips to deserted sand spits. It’s also a great place for walking the dunes and beaches or camel riding.

Dhow racing during Maulidi © Peponi Hotel

Festivals Lamu excels in festivals; the most famous is Maulidi, which features dhow races, donkey races, poetry, theatre, and an extravaganza of food. There is also a Cultural Festival, an Art Festival and a Yoga Festival.

Cuisine An extravagant fusion of Arabic and African, Swahili cuisine is a sublime blend of impossibly fresh fish, coconut, lime, spices and rice with plenty of fabulous fruit juices and spiced Arabic coffee.

The climate Gorgeously tropical. Temperatures: 30 degrees Celsius on average.

Ornithology Ornithologists will be transported by the mesmeric flights of seabirds: roseate tern, sooty gull, white-cheeked tern, bridled tern, brown node and crab plovers.

© TravelPlusStyle.com

24 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

Getting there and away The airport is on Manda Island, which is linked by a ferry to Lamu. The island is served by Air Kenya, Fly 540 and Safarilink.

The best value... ...under the sun Experience an exciting variety of accommodation offers at the Medina Palms in Watamu. Beach Villas and Penthouses with private plunge pools, or one and two bedroom fully contained suites. Offering space to breath and freedom, we are the ideal destination for the perfect family holiday.

Medina Palms has set a new benchmark in luxury accommodation on the Kenya Coast, providing an international menu selection in our Amandina Restaurant, or a simple fresh seafood platter ‘al fresco’ under the stars. A wide range of activities are available, including all the facilities you would expect from the only Five Star Hotel on the North Coast: the Africology Spa, a fitness centre, water sports centre, Kids Club and a business centre with meeting rooms.

To book your dream holiday, please get in touch: Email: reservations@medinapalms.com Call +254(0) 718 152999 Take a tour: www.medinapalms.com

WATA M U THE PLACE TO VISIT

Your

Bushlink Beachlink Business link

Flying you to 17 holiday and business destinations across Kenya & Tanzania from Wilson Airport, Nairobi

www.flysafarilink.com +254 (0)20 669 0000

@FlySafarilink

res@flysafarilink.com

tab title portfolio

KENYA conference

the

wildly versatile destination

Conferencing is a vital component of the global workplace. A precision-planned, wellexecuted conference can strengthen your brand, build customer relationships, empower your staff, enrich your networking and foster new markets. So clever conference planning is crucial and the choice of venue is critical. Jane Barsby discovers why Kenya is truly the conference destination that has everything...

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 27

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Bored by the usual venues? No need to stress - Kenya delivers the perfect mix of business and pleasure! © Sean Dundas Safaris

A room with a view - Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge, Tsavo West National Park © Serena Hotels

Making the right choice

The Out of Africa factor

The decision as to where to hold your conference also has a profound effect both on the psychology of the event and the energy of the participants. An overly imposing venue, for instance, can bear down heavily on the participants and inhibit their creativity. Similarly, a lightweight venue for a heavyweight topic can make the attendees feel undervalued.

As the original safari destination, Kenya is a country that people have always wanted to visit. Wild, beautiful, climatically perfect, culturally fascinating and warmly welcoming, Kenya has exerted a magnetic appeal over the world’s travellers since the early days of its safari history. First came the royalty, the aristocracy, the millionaires and the world leaders. Then came the writers and the pleasure-seekers. But that was the trickle before the deluge. Because, in 1985, Sydney Pollack’s epic Out of Africa, hit the world’s screens with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford playing Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton against a backdrop of spell-binding scenery and jaw-dropping wildlife. It was an instant blockbuster and Kenya’s touristic fortune was made. Suddenly everyone wanted to go on safari in Kenya.

Conference venue choice can also impact on corporate branding. A badly chosen venue can dent the brand; a well-chosen venue can polish it. Essentially, then, the venue choice must complement the brand rather than compete with it. And the eco-profile of the venue must resonate with the corporate social responsibility statement. No point championing the eradication of plastic bottles and then having lines of them marching down your conference tables.

Venue choice also impacts on the quality of attendee experience.

Naturally, it’s imperative that the delegate-experience INSIDE the conference room is dynamic. But equally it’s important that their experience OUTSIDE the conference room is energizing. So the choices made with regard to cuisine, entertainment, cultural exposure and leisure activities are key. And this is where the degree of versatility of your venue choice becomes paramount. And when it comes to versatility, Kenya excels.

Kenya responded fast. She capitalized on her stunning selection of game reserves and created an irresistible portfolio of ‘Out of Africa’ lodges, hotels and tented camps. She also trained an army of tourism professionals. And today that army is at the top of its game. But with an added bonus: all our conference crews are fluent in English and, typically, operationally competent in Italian, German and French.

Technologically too, Kenya has leapfrogged ahead of many so-called ‘first world’ venues so as to deliver a slick, well-priced and reliable level of internet connectivity, telecoms-reach and audio-visual proficiency. So in terms of infrastructure – Kenya has it all.

Wave goodbye to the doziness of the stuffy conference room and say hello to the stimulation of the great outdoors. © Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club

Flying you to

DIANI

Daily flights from Wilson Airport

www.flysafarilink.com @FlySafarilink

28 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

tab title portfolio Kenyatta International Convention Centre © Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

Kenya thinks BIG As everyone knows, Kenya plays host to the ‘Big Five’ of the wildlife world: the lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino. But Kenya also knows how to host BIG events. Politically stable, geographically crucial, she has long featured as the preferred stage for Africa’s major events, be they regional, political, or academic. An early adopter of all things innovative, Kenya also plays frequent host to the world’s prime commercial and networking events; while our sleek city hotels attract an impressive array of globally significant exhibitions. When it comes to the smaller events, however, we also score highly because Kenya’s range of intimately rustic game lodges offers the perfect stage for small-scale meetings and workshops alike.

On safari Kenya is a land of many faces: the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya give way to the silver-blue strand of the Indian Ocean. We have 56 national parks, numerous conservancies, a glittering string of Rift Valley lakes, six UNESCO World Heritage Sites and over 400 historic sites. And we have Nairobi, Africa’s highest, fastest-growing and most dynamic capital city. What’s more, thanks to the excellence of our travel-connections, our visitors can mix-and-match the strands of these fabulously varied backdrops into a conference tapestry of unrivalled colour and vivacity. Our internal flights can transport travel groups up-country or down to the coast with the verve of a hunting leopard, while our ultra-new Single Gauge Railway can whisk them from Nairobi to the Indian Ocean in the shake of a cheetah’s tail. And our ground operators have perfected the art of getting people from A to B with minimal hassle and maximum game viewing. We also have a super-efficient range of helicopter and private jet services. So there’s nothing to stop the enterprising organizer from staging the conference’s morning session in Nairobi and the early evening drinks in Mombasa. Or, from migrating to the Mara for a brainstorming session. The wildebeest do it all the time.

Nairobi’s hotels offer world-class facilities © Radisson Blu

World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference 2015 © Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

Flying you to

MASAI MARA

Daily flights from Wilson Airport

www.flysafarilink.com @FlySafarilink

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 29

portfolio

Go wild Kenya remains the undisputed Queen of the Wilderness, which is a distinction that plays well for our conference organisers. They’ve developed an appetite for taking their events out of the city boardroom and into the bush. It’s a novel concept. And one that delivers space, light and air.

Moreover, when the conference sessions finish, the traffic jams don’t begin; and the downtime is wild.

A view with a room When it comes to venue layout, we pride ourselves on being able to offer the degree of flexibility that promotes optimum session flow. But we also believe in giving your attendees the opportunity to escape. Our wildlife isn’t caged, so we see no reason why your delegates should be either. Besides, it’s a well-researched fact that the new generation of ‘millennials’, demand freedom. They insist upon having ‘pods’ where they can hold more intimate exchanges, and spaces for undiluted communication with the internet. Besides which, at the end of a hard session’s discussion, surely everyone benefits from a quiet space where they can process and digest? None of this is a problem: Kenya is a land of wide blue skies and vast open spaces; but we have another card up our conferencing sleeve. Thanks to our sublime tropical climate, the Kenyan conference schedule can feature outdoor events as well as indoor. And as for views, we can as easily deliver a snowcapped volcano on the equator as we can half a million wildebeest on the hoof.

Sarova Mara Game Camp © Sarova Hotels What could be more inspiring than a meeting in the Mara followed by dining under canvas? Or a product launch on the shores of the Indian Ocean with a spa between sessions? Or why not have your team building event at Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley where the Lake, mountains and volcanic landscape provide a natural abundance of stimulating activities.

© Serena Hotels

32 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

© Vipingo Ridge

© Midego Fotography

If your conference is at the coast, just 36 km north of Mombasa is Vipingo Ridge with its award winning PGA Baobab Course. Or if you’re in Naivasha, why not take a bike ride through the acacias in the Great Rift Valley.

Lions know best

Mahali Mzuri © Virgin Limited Edition

Our lions know a thing or two about relaxing, but they also know how to be team players when it comes to going in for the kill. So if your attendees want to chill out with a good round of golf, our venues deliver some of the most scenic, yet state-of-the-art courses in the world. We also offer tennis, mountain biking, horse riding, walking, climbing, watersports and spas, to name but a few of the myriad leisure pursuits on offer in magical Kenya.

But when it comes to the main event of EATING, we agree with our lions: the food’s got to be good, hot off the hoof and fit for a king. However, as a result of the many cultural influences that have been brought to bear upon our past, our cuisine is magnificently diverse.

On the coast it’s principally Swahili (think fresh fish, coconuts, and lime), with plenty of Indian, Chinese, Thai and good old fashion British or American on the side. While ‘up-country’ we’re addicted to our ranchstyle BBQs, while fielding an equally impressive range of global flavours.

© Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

The great Kenyan take-away Everyone likes to take home a souvenir, and few can resist a colourful display of ethnic crafts, especially when they’re hand-made and the proceeds go towards such worthy causes as sinking wells, educating children, or protecting the wildlife. But, such is the pace of modern life, that we also expect our retail therapy to deliver the hottest and best of technology, fashion and lifestyle. No problem: Nairobi boasts some of the largest, newest and most innovative super-malls in the world. But they also feature their own cultural craft markets. So our visitors can shop ultra or ethnic. They can also marvel at the sheer ingenuity of our recycling ideas: Kenya must be the only country in the world to recycle its buses into bottle openers, its bottle tops into handbags and its elephant dung into notepads.

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 33

RAINBOW RUIRU RESORT The Epitome of Hospitality You don’t need magic to disappear. All you need is a destination.

Rainbow Ruiru Resort promises a home-away-from-home experience. Inside this luxurious resort, We’ll welcome you with a distinct personalized service that is the definition of our African hospitality.

Rainbow Ruiru Resort is strategically located along the NairobiThika superhighway at Ruiru, 500 metres from the Eastern By-pass, 30 minutes drive from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and 20 minutes drive from Nairobi City Centre, with easy access to transport options and shopping destinations.

Choose from any of our 123 stylish rooms and suites, and enjoy amenities like free high-speed wireless internet. Enjoy the delectable and creative flare within the restaurant, and then stop by our bar for perfectly poured cocktails, wine and beer.

Rainbow Ruiru Resort has a rich array of amenities and services that provide residents and their guests an unparalleled lifestyle experience. Exclusive fitness facilities, outdoor swimming pool, and a recreation room for gatherings and events.

Airport pickup service is available upon request. There is a large car park and a helipad. At Rainbow Ruiru Resort, security is beefed up round the clock with our well trained security personnel.

reservations@rainbowruiruresort.com | Tel: 020 206 1448, +254 736 675 050 | www.rainbowruiruresort.com

portfolio tab title

© Africa Born

We don’t do TAME teambuilding Big ideas require oxygen and when it comes to our team-building palette, TAME is taboo. Want your team energized? Take them white-water rafting down the Tana River. Want to pep up your marketeers? Send them down a forest zip-line. Want to get your sales team targeted? Go for a bull’s eye with some archery. Want to demonstrate the need to pull together? Have a tug of war with a team of Maasai warriors.

© Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

Making the LEAP The successful conference is not merely about the message the attendees take away with them, but the way they feel when they leave. Have they been inspired and rejuvenated? Or bored and demotivated? In Kenya we can guarantee that it won’t be the latter.

Our tool-kit is bursting with high-octane mind-openers, scenechangers and thought-provokers. Choices include: balloon safaris, wreck diving, rock-climbing, camel treks, sky dives, dhow trips and lion tracking. And we can just as easily lay on an ascent up Mount Kenya as a descent into the lava caves of Tsavo National Park. And that’s just the tip of the adventure iceberg, for more ideas visit our WILD ACTION page 44.

Skydiving over Diani Beach © www.skydivediani.com

36 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

The party started in Kenya It’s an accepted fact that life began in East Africa, so we’ve had plenty of time to perfect the art of the party. Consequently, whether it’s in Nairobi or Mombasa, the Aberdares or Samburu, you can rely on us to deliver some ferociously good post-session events. They can take many forms: a poolside BBQ, or a beachfront bonfire: a sundowner cocktail with long views across the savannah, or a surprise bush dinner overlooking the hippo pool. The backdrop might be pink with flamingoes or monochrome with zebras. There might be an eyepopping acrobatic display, or it might just be that a Maasai dance display puts a whole new spin on hitting the high spots.

But don’t just take our word for it... ...much better to hear the voices of the professionals on the ground. And to this end, we offer some quotes from a few Kenyan event gurus.

© Virgin Limited Edition

Keeping it Grrrrrrrreen Conservation is key to the preservation of our wilderness for generations to come – so here in Kenya we think green. Working with the Eco Tourism Society of Kenya (www. ecotourismkenya.org), we can deliver a conference that is almost as green as our rainforests.

We believe in recycling, low plastic use, alternative energy use, minimized carbon footprint, and innovative waste-management. We can also come up with some very engaging ideas when it comes to eco-friendly signage, badges and stationery. And the good news is that all of these innovative ideas come from our dynamic new generation of local community groups. Ideas include pencils made out of recycled plastic bags, Maasai beaded notepads, and gorgeous recycled glass bottles for your mineral water. We’ll also be very keen to showcase such green initiatives as our turtle rehabilitation projects, our raptor initiatives, our butterfly protection and our work in fighting the threat of extinction to such fragile creatures as our wild dogs and Grevy’s zebra.

“Here on the shores of Lake Naivasha we’re experiencing a BOOM in inbound conference and incentive trade largely thanks to the newly completed Southern Bypass, which allows guests to touch down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and be on the shores of beautiful Lake Naivasha in 90 minutes. Once here – we’ve got it all: boating on Lake Naivasha, the flamingoes of Lake Nakuru, high-action sports in Hell’s Gate National Park and the famous Maasai Mara just a short plane-hop away.

Wanjeri Mahiti , Sales and Marketing Director, Enashipai Resort and Spa ‘We find that incoming ‘millennials’ love our décor, redolent as it is of the great days of the 1940s. They also love the many ‘props’ such as the old train carriage and the original safari balloons – and the links to the Hollywood blockbusters on display in our bar. We also like to stage surprise dances such as the one we did for the 2016 Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development when we had a welcoming flash mob dance as our delegates checked in.’

Eric Mbugua, Marketing Executive, Hilton Nairobi ‘Easily our most proactive conference was Glaxo Smith Kline. They staged a virtual disco in our mango forest followed by dinner. In all my years of conferencing I’d never been involved in anything like it – we had to take everything into the forest, including the power, but it looked fabulous: quite eerie, and it was an overwhelming success’.

Mike Round-Turner, General Manager, Vipingo Ridge

© Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

MARK CORETH My Africa

An Exhibition of new sculpture of African wildlife

Exhibition Opens

Wednesday 8th November 2017

One Ton, bronze, edition of 9, 18 x 29 x 15 in Special charity evening Thursday 9th November, in aid of The Harry Dyer Burn Center which will be located within the Moi Teaching and referral Hospital in Eldoret.

Big Life Foundation, which employs approximately 300 rangers, with 27 outposts and 15 vehicles, protecting 2 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem of Kenya and across the border into Tanzania.

Running Cheetah, bronze, edition of 9, 10 x 24 x15 in

Please visit our website www.markcoreth.com, to view the exhibition or contact the gallery to receive a full colour catalogue.

SLADMORE CONTEMPORARY 32 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NW www.sladmorecontemporary.com +44 (0)20 7499 0365

cultural contact

Walking with the Maasai ‘To understand a man, you must walk a mile in his moccasins’, or so says the native American proverb. In this issue, journalist and travel writer, Stuart Butler, doesn’t adopt the traditional Maasai footwear known as ‘thousand milers’, which are sandals made out of old car tyres, but he does walk many miles across Maasailand in the company of his Maasai friend, Josphat Mako. And his understanding of the Maasai culture is enhanced with every step he takes.

Words and photos by Stuart Butler

40 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

cultural contact

WHY I LOVE WHYKENYA I LOVE September-October KENYA July-August 2017 41

cultural contact

F

or five weeks a Maasai friend, Josphat Mako, and I had been walking across the heart of Kenya’s Maasai lands.

I don’t know how many kilometres we’d covered and I don’t much care. My reasons for doing it were because I was writing a book about contemporary Maasai culture and wildlife conservation in Kenya. I’ve always been of the school of thought that the best way of seeing the African bush is on foot and so although we could have gone further and seen a greater area had we moved around by car, this didn’t seem the right way of doing it for this project. For both of us the pleasure had been simply in walking and getting to know these grasslands and the people and animals who call southern Kenya home.

Over the weeks we’d camped in the bush and listened to the dead of night whoop-whoop call of pacing hyenas. We’d stopped to drink sweet, milky tea that tasted of wood smoke in the womb-like mud and dung huts of the Maasai and at dawn we’d watched women in beaded jewellery open the corrals to allow floods of goats and sheep out to graze. Best of all though, we’d listened spellbound as old Maasai men, hands trembling in recalled excitement, told tales of a youth spent hunting ostriches and lions with spears. The cats, I was assured again and again, were the easy ones. It was the ostrich that were hard, “The males don’t run from the Maasai like a lion”, one shaven headed Maasai elder said, “they come towards you swaying

All photos © Stuart Butler

42 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

cultural contact from side to side and you can’t throw a spear and hope to hit them when they do that. An ostrich will stand his ground and fight until either you or him are dead”.

Maybe the most memorable person we met on our walk though was Mokombo, the laibon. Dressed in a cloak made from the skins of rock hyraxes and black and white colobus monkeys, he was an arresting figure.

He lived well away from any road or town in one of a cluster of a half-adozen or so large mud huts on the far side of a boggy grassland of piercing green.

Left: Maasai women tending their goats and sheep.

Despite his remote location he hadn’t seemed the slightest bit surprised to find a foreigner calling in on him. But then why should he have been surprised. He said he knew we were coming because he’d seen it in a dream.

Of great importance in a traditional Maasai community, Mokombo explained to me that a laibon is someone gifted with the power to see the future.

They’re not really a fortune teller as such and they’re certainly not a witch doctor. They’re more like a seer. They are the ones who can best advise the community as a whole on what might be the best course of action to take in a given situation such as where to go to find better grazing if, say, there’s a drought. They can also advise an individual on personal matters and are key to many a traditional Maasai ceremony, tradition or ritual. Historically there are few more respected members of the community.

But, as well as listening to the tales of the laibon and the elders, we’d also spoken to an equal number of young Maasai. Known by the elders as the ‘Digital Maasai’, these young men found the stories of the old ways almost as exotic as I did. But then, while they try to keep as firm a grip on their culture as they can, few are able to live in the way their fathers and grandfathers did. Their role in modern-day Kenya is no less critical, however, because as the ‘Digital Maasai’ of today, they will also be the conservationists, teachers, doctors, safari guides and business people of tomorrow.

The Maasai laibon

For me, this clash of globalization and culture, and the impact it is having upon Maasai culture was one of the most fascinating aspects of the walk.

But, of course, nobody can walk across the Maasai lands without its wildlife featuring strongly. Often these wildlife encounters were magical indeed.

Walking for hours over the savannah, for instance, as huge herds of zebra and wildebeest parted before us. This is something I’m never likely to forget.

Nor the memory of how a curious pack of hyenas loped along behind us for at least half a day - just watching what we were doing, but from a respectful distance.

Sometimes these wildlife encounters were simply wonderful. Walking for hours over the savannah as huge herds of zebra and wildebeest parted for us was something I’m never likely to forget and nor will the memory of the time when a curious pack of hyenas lopped along behind us for half a day just watching what we were doing from a respectable distance.

Don’t forget to look down

When I’d conjured up the plan for this walk I’d purposely chosen to do something easy and accessible. Something that anyone could go and do.

And okay, so you might not have time to walk for weeks through the savannah grasslands, but many safari lodges can give you a taste of it on an organised half-day bush walk. But remember, although the thrill is in walking in the shadows of mega-fauna, don’t forget to look down at the ground and appreciate the little things; the bugs and the flowers, the mice and the termites. For these are the keys that keep the whole environment of southern Kenya ticking.

WHY I LOVE WHYKENYA I LOVE September-October KENYA July-August 2017 43

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The Sport of Kings For a relaxed, colourful and typically ‘Nairobi’ day out, you can’t beat the classic ‘day at the races’. Ngong Racecourse and Golf Park has been rated as one of the most beautiful in the world, standing as it does in the lee of the famous Ngong Hills of ‘Out of Africa’ fame. It is also Africa’s most venerable. Horseracing first began in Kenya in 1904 when Somali ponies were raced around a track in the, then, little town of Machakos.

Thoroughbred racing began in Nairobi in 1914, and apart from the interruption caused by two world wars, has continued ever since. Run by the Jockey Club of Kenya, the Ngong track is a classic ‘British Oval’ 2,400m in circumference with a 1,200m ‘straight’. An average of 25 race meetings are held annually on alternate Sundays. Easily the most famous race is the Kenyan Derby, which is held in April. Interestingly the track has also been used for ostrich racing. For further information on race meetings, visit www.jockeyclubofkenya.com

© Jockey Club of Kenya / Joseph Nyarangi

Scale the petrified

Maasai maiden

You don’t need much, if any, rock-climbing experience to scale Fischer’s Tower, the main attraction in Hell’s Gate National Park. Simply pitch up, pay a very modest fee, and the obliging climbing guide will fit you up with ropes, shoes and the other tricks of the trade. And then he/she will teach you how to climb this 25m-high jagged volcanic plug. All that remains of an ancient volcano, the rock is named after the German explorer, Gustav Fischer, who passed this way in 1883. According to local Maasai tradition, the rock is the petrified figure of a chief’s daughter who turned around against the dictates of tradition to take one last look at her home before leaving to be married.

Be warned, however, while making the climb, you are likely to come face to face with the elephant’s closest relative – the diminutive and very inquisitive rock hyrax, a colony of which have made the rock their home. Hell’s Gate National Park is 100km north of Nairobi and immediately adjacent to Lake Naivasha. For more information: www.kws.org

A rock hyrax, the elephant’s closest living relative

Fischer’s Tower © www.africaimagelibrary.com

44 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

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Zip-it Kenya is home to some of the last remaining stands of primeval forests on earth, and to get a bird’s eye view of them you might like to try out some zip-lining. If so, head for The Forest, an extreme sports centre less than hour’s drive outside Nairobi where you can zip-up your adrenalin on East Africa’s longest zip-line tour, which jumps across a series of forested hills with a combined length of 2,200 metres. The Forest also offers the madness of paint balling and the rather more calming sport of archery. For further information: www.theforest.co.ke

Go jump off a cliff Well yes, you can: literally. Amid the leafy green vaults of the magical Ngare Ndare Forest, you can (with supervision) jump off a cliff into a rock pool, swing across a rope bridge above wallowing elephants, go rock climbing, or throw yourself into a canyon. Or you can simply go for a walk amid 200-year-old African olive and red cedar trees. An ecological stronghold, the Ngare Ndare Forest stands at the foot of Mount Kenya.

Further information: www.ngarendare.org Photo of Ngare Ndare © Andreas Fox Safaris

Climb a volcano ‘The scene was of such an astounding character that I was completely fascinated and felt under an almost irresistible impulse madly to plunge into the fearful chasm’.

So spoke the famous African explorer, Joseph Thomson as he made the first recorded ascent to the rim of Mount Longonot in 1884. The mightiest of the Rift Valley volcanoes, Longonot towers some 2,776 metres above the waters of bewitching Lake Naivasha. As to climbing it – there is a well-defined track that leads, in around 45 minutes of steep scrambling, to the rim. Once on top, you can either absorb the view – which is a stunner, encompassing both the distant Aberdares Range and the Mau Escarpment – or you can strike off around the rim, the entire circuit of which takes around 3 hours. Technically dormant, but better described as ‘senile’, Longonot is a relatively young volcano, having been formed within the last 400-600 years. And, while seemingly peaceful, only several thousand meters below its surface the ground water seethes at an incredible 304°C (one of the hottest temperatures on earth). Much of this energy has now been harnessed to the nearby Olkaria Geothermal Project in Hell’s Gate National Park, but the hot thermals rising above the mountain still have sufficient power to deflect the path of light aircraft flying overhead. Longonot stands within its own national park, 90km northwest of Nairobi. For further information: www.kws.org © John Warburton-Lee Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 45

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46 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

wide angle lens

Ican Fly believe

F

or the ultimate in paragliding experiences, you have to head for the Kerio Valley. A forgotten Eden with seemingly perpetual blue skies, the Kerio Valley is a seldom-visited and exquisitely beautiful gem. A branch of its more famous cousin, the Great Rift Valley, the Kerio Valley drops a spectacular 1,219 metres between the Tugen Hills and the Elgeyo Escarpment. 80km long and only 10km at its widest, on its upper slopes is a tangle of semi-tropical vegetation; in its sweltering bottom there’s only dry bush, elephant, buffalo, the meanderings of the crocodile-packed Kerio River and the beautiful oval of Lake Kamnarok.

A typical paraglide will last a couple of hours and cover ten kilometres – but during that time you can look down on Tiati, the sacred mountain of the Pokot people, the ancient Neolithic furrows of the enigmatic Sirikwa people and the shimmering heat and dust of the Rimoi Game Reserve – which is probably Kenya’s wildest. And if paragliding is a little too edgy for you – the Kerio Valley also offers trekking, hiking and mountain biking.

The Kerio Valley is 500 kms from Nairobi. For further information you can contact the Kenya Wildlife Service (kws.go.ke) or the Kerio View Hotel, which stands on the top of the escarpment (Kerioview.com).

Photo © Felix Wölk

WHY I LOVE WHYKENYA I LOVE September-October KENYA July-August 2017 47

kenya tourism board

Sport Tourism in Kenya:

Yes we can!

Jimi Kariuki - Chairman Kenya Tourism Board (KTB)

It is important that Kenya leverage the opportunity created from this positive media exposure and continue to market Kenya as a key sport tourism destination in Africa.

The just concluded 10th and final edition of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Under 18 Championships, which took place in Nairobi from the 12-16 July, was a major boost to the profile of Kenya in the global sporting arena. The event was the largest IAAF track and field event that has ever come to the African continent, and the first in Kenya. Kenyan track and field legends and world champions graced the event in full force. They included: global peace Ambassador Tegla Loroupe; Kip Keino; John Ngugi; Paul Tergat; Douglas Wakiihuri; Catherine Ndereba; Mercy Cherono; Ezekiel Kemboi; David Rudisha; Wilson Kiprotich; and Julius Yego. Lord Sebastian Coe, IAAF President and himself a track and field legend, was also present.

Though some nations opted for their youth teams not to participate in this successful event, over 800 young athletes from over 100 nations, including an athlete refugee team, put on a spectacular show of sporting talent and spirit. Kenyans too came out in big numbers to cheer-on the athletes, with an estimated record-breaking 55,000 and 60,000 spectators, respectively, in attendance on the last 2 days. I must commend the peaceful and orderly manner of the spectators during the entire event. This is critical for such events and also to attract global tourists.

The success of the event was a big thumbs up to the Local Organising Committee (LOC) under the leadership of the Chairman, Lt. General (Rtd) Jack Tuwei, the Chief Executive Officer, Mwangi Muthee, and not to be forgotten, the constant eye for detail and encouragement from the IAAF LOC Patron, Her Excellency The First Lady of the Republic of Kenya, Mrs Margaret Kenyatta. The LOC showed the World that Kenya can successfully pull-off a global championship sporting event. Yes we can!

It was also a clear show of the commitment by the Kenya Government in promoting the highest level of youth sport.

The global visibility that the Magical Kenya brand was exposed to, and the increase in recognition that Kenya received during the 5 days event, was huge. The event was carried live by 161 sports television networks around the World, and streamed in over 160 Countries on the IAAF YouTube and FaceBook channels.

48 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

Sport tourism involves travel to a country either to watch a sporting event such as the football World Cup, the Olympics, and internationally recognised professional sporting events such as tennis, rugby and golf, or to participate in a sporting activity such as running a marathon, kite surfing, golf and skiing. Kenya offers a wide variety of second tier tourism products, of which sporting events and active sport are key ones. The annual Safaricom Safari Sevens Rugby and the Barclays Kenya Open Golf tournaments are the two best known sporting events in Kenya, however active sport lovers can also enjoy activities such as fishing in the Indian Ocean, kite surfing over the Indian Ocean, skydiving, playing golf on both sides of the Equator, white-water rafting, and running with our elite athletes in Iten or at the annual Standard Chartered and Safaricom Lewa marathons.

The benefits of sports tourism are tremendous. Sport tourism is an investment in the tourism industry and has significant positive economic and socio-cultural impacts in the host destination. It creates exposure and enhances a favourable image for the destination. It generates an increased rate of tourism growth through high hotel bed occupancy, busy restaurants and retail outlets which all support increased employment. It attracts high yield visitors, especially families and repeat visitors. It builds community relationships and increases community support for sport and sporting events. Sport tourism strengthens national heritage, identity and community spirit as everyone joins together to promote the national culture. It provides a vehicle through which visitors can gain better knowledge of the culture of the local communities.

The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), the national tourism marketing agency, will continue to work closely with the sports industry stakeholders and the private sector tourism stakeholders to support Kenya’s bids to host other global sport events. Kenya’s successful hosting of the final edition of the IAAF World Under 18 Championships is a very significant achievement that we can all build upon. Following the stripping this year of Durban, South Africa’s rights to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Kenya should seriously aim to be the first country in Africa to host the Commonwealth Games. But to get there we need to keep proving ourselves capable of running these important smaller sports events. Our continued promotion of active sport tourism activities will see the growth of new market segments, domestic travel and international tourist visitor arrival numbers.

Yes we can!

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All photos © Protel Studios

Kenya Tourism Board, Kenya Re Towers, Ragati Road, Nairobi. Tel: +254 20 2749126. Take a tour: www.magicalkenya.com

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 49

Lake Bogoria Š A Rogers / Tropic Air Kenya

in portrait

The place of the

lost

tribe

T

he most dramatic yet the least-visited of the Great Rift Valley lakes, Lake Bogoria is a sinuous pewter-blue ribbon of mirrored water often pink-frosted with over a million flamingoes. On its western shores erupt the devilish spouting geysers and bubbling cauldrons of Kenya’s most spectacular volcanic springs, to the east it is bounded by the forbidding walls of the towering Siracha Escarpment, and to the south by gentle groves of fig trees and golden-green acacias, in whose shade linger the rare and beautiful greater kudu.

The best place to see the ‘King of the Antelopes’ Bogoria is one of the few sanctuaries in Kenya where you may be fortunate enough to catch an early morning or late evening glimpse of the rare greater kudu. Abundant until 1960 when its numbers were decimated by rinderpest, this large, slender grey antelope is distinguished by a pair of magnificent spiral horns and six to eight prominent vertical white stripes on either flank. Extremely shy and preferring to rest in the shade during the heat of the day, the kudus can best be spotted amid the acacia groves of the Sogomo Causeway, immediately adjacent to the Acacia Campsite (turn left by the sign reading ‘Saragi Escape Route’).

The Bogoria cast On the plains to the north of the lake, Burchell’s zebra, impalas, Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles, and warthogs can be seen grazing the shoreline though the majority of the reserve’s larger animals tend to concentrate south of the hot springs. Nimble klipspringers and gregarious rock hyraxes inhabit the steep rock faces, and delicate pairs of Kirk’s dik-dik quiver amid the dense thorn bush. Around the hot springs and the campsites are plenty of vervet monkeys and olive baboons whilst along the roads you may have sightings of large monitor lizards and massive meandering leopard tortoises. The reserve also hosts a small herd of buffaloes, while its predators include leopards, spotted hyenas and mongooses.

Pink paradise The only constant alkaline habitat in the Rift Valley, Lake Bogoria provides a major feeding site for its itinerant population of an estimated two million lesser flamingoes, which increasingly since the 1990’s tend to frequent Bogoria’s waters rather than the more polluted waters of Lake Nakuru. Promenading the shoreline in shifting lines of mature pink and immature white, they can be seen scything their beaks to and fro to sift algae from the water. Some stand on one leg, others chug through the water like ducks or upend and kick their shocking pink legs in the air; all murmur, honk and mutter in incessant dialogue, and overhead cyclamen and black flight formations arrow in, tiptoeing briefly on the water before fluttering to an elegant landing.

A lake of shifting shades of blue and green ‘The most beautiful place in Africa’ J.W. Gregory the geologist who, in 1893, gave the Rift Valley its name.

A grey-blue ribbon of water that appears almost oily in its passivity, the 16 km long, 1-4km wide, 5.4 – 10m deep Lake Bogoria is fed by the Sandai (or Waseges) River, which rises on the eastern scarp of the Rift Valley; also by its own hot springs. Like most of the Rift Valley lakes, Bogoria has no outlet and this coupled with the searing heat of its climate causes intense evaporation. The resultant alkaline water provides the ideal habitat for the blue-green algae, Spirulina, which is the staple food of flamingoes. Consisting of three basins and two ‘necks’ of land, the lake is bordered for the length of its eastern shore by the starkly furrowed walls of the Siracha Escarpment, which rises 610m above its mirrored waters.

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 51

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© Paul Mckenzie

© Paul Mckenzie

Top: Juvenile Lesser and Greater Flamingoes together with a single adult Lesser Flamingo. The juvenile flamingoes lack the pink and red colouration of their parents which is gradually acquired over time following prolonged algae ingestion.

Below left: Bogoria’s hot springs.

Below centre: One of the fascinating features of flamingoes is their spectacular, communal pre-breeding displays.

Below right: A male Greater Kudu.

An insane vision of hell

Twitchers’ treat

Bogoria has around 200 hot springs in total but the largest and most spectacular collection erupts along the lakeside at Loburu, some 9 km from Loboi Gate. Characteristically signs of declining volcanic activity, hot springs are an indication that molten rock (magma) lies not far below the earth’s surface. Boiling up from beneath the precariously shallow crust of the earth at temperatures from 94-104°C, the diamond-clear water is scalding hot to the touch and wreathed in billows of steam. Bursting into bubbling pools and boiling waterfalls, many of the ochre-brown depressions centre on sulphurous rock sculptures from which angry geysers blow jets of boiling water several meters into the air. Surreally set against the pink of the flamingoes, the petrol-blue of the lake and the forbidding mass of the escarpment, and punctuated by the bizarre spectacle of visitors boiling eggs in the writhing waters, the scene resembles a vision from an insanely beautiful hell.

Bogoria boasts over 222 species of birds. Common ostrich are plentiful on the lakeshores as well as blacksmith’s plovers – both of which nest here.

Around the reserve’s three permanent swamps, black-headed herons, hadada and sacred ibis abound, but due to its high salinity the lake attracts only a few water birds, such as Cape teals, Egyptian geese, black-necked grebes, hamerkops and storks. Most easily spotted are the brilliant blue lilac-breasted rollers (above) and the magnificent grey-crowned cranes.

52 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

Titles old and new According to local legend, Bogoria is known as ‘the place of the lost tribe’, because it was here that the God, Chebet, punished the Kamale tribe for their inhospitality by invoking a deluge, which drowned the village. The reserve became Kenya’s 3rd Ramsar site in 2001 (Convention of Wetlands of International Importance), and has also been designated a World Heritage Site).

Where hippo own the night and lions claim vast territories...

Here we submit to the supreme power of wild Africa and take our lead from Mother Nature…

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WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 53

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Nairobi

the ‘lion king’of safari towns

Constantly evolving, the face of Nairobi changes from month to month. Iconic new skyscrapers stab the sky-line, confident new by-passes sweep the traffic through and around the city. Look hard enough, however, and you’ll still find gravestones reading ‘killed by lions’. And you can still visit the spot where the lions used to lie on the grave of Out of Africa legend, Denys Finch Hatton.

Nairobi, then, is a city where the lions are always much closer than you think, being the only capital city in the world to boast a major national park just fifteen minutes from the city centre.

So, no matter how strong the call of your safari, it’s always worth spending time in Nairobi, the ‘Lion King’ of safari towns.

Hot at Work You could be forgiven for thinking you’re hallucinating. You’re driving along one of Nairobi’s main arterial roads in the direction of the famous Ngong Hills. And to either side of the traffic there’s a quite surreal gallery of metal beasts. And they’re life-sized.

There are charging wildebeest, cavorting warthogs, ruminating giraffes, grumpy buffalos and complete herds of elephants.

There’s even a collection of vultures. And they’re all made out of recycled metal. This is the work of the Jua Kali (Hot Sun) informal sector. These guys literally sweat out a living in the heat of the sun making anything and everything. A four-poster bed in the Swahili style? A staircase? A travelling loo? A parrot cage? Or, a life-sized buffalo? No problem. There’s nothing these artisans can’t make. And no design they can’t copy in RECORD TIME. Give yourself a treat: drive up the Ngong Road, and marvel.

Out of Africa Perhaps the greatest single influence on Kenyan tourism came from the Danish writer, Karen Blixen, whose hitherto relatively unknown book Out of Africa, was transformed into the film of the same name, thus prompting an entire generation to yearn to visit Kenya. Both the book and the film begin with the words ‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills’, and both the farm and the Ngong Hills can be seen in the Karen district of Nairobi, where Karen’s house has been turned into a museum. Further information: www.museums.or.ke The library of Bogani House where Danish author Karen Blixen lived during the 1920s and is now the site of the Karen Blixen Museum in the Nairobi suburb of Karen.

December 2017 marks 32 years since Sydney Pollack’s Oscar-winning film Out of Africa, projected Kenya onto the big screen and around the world.

54 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

© Make It Kenya / Stuart Price

in close up

© Jerry Riley

Have a blow out at Kitengela Glass The Kitengela Glass Foundry clings to the side of a riverine gorge on the fringe of Nairobi National Park. Mosaics and glass sculptures line the pathways leading to a gallery stacked with glass treasures. What’s more, you can watch the glass blowers at work and snap up the best of the one-off pieces. For more information: www.kitengela.com

Go beady-eyed Kazuri Beads is a Nairobi institution. Founded in 1975 by the late Lady Wood, it began life in her potting shed and ended up as a factory with a flourishing export market. In between it has provided an income for thousands of single women struggling to bring up their children. To appreciate the full range of colourful ceramic jewellery and pottery, take a tour of the factory, or visit one of their retail outlets.

For further information: www.kazuri.com Photo © Annabel Onyango

© Deidi-von-Schaewen

Jurassic Park If you’re in Nairobi, and you have a few hours to spare, why not take in Kenya’s very own Jurassic Park: Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site. 71 kms out of Nairobi, Olorgesailie was once the site of a vast prehistoric lake. Here our earliest ancestor, Homo erectus, hunted for giant pigs, hairy mammoths and gigantic baboons. Excavated by archaeologists, Louis and Mary Leakey, the site remains littered with vast bones and strewn with stone axes, Indeed it is almost exactly how it was 1.2 million years ago: give or take the odd Tyrannosaurus Rex. Visit: www.museums.or.ke

The most photographed house in Africa Organic in structure, rust red in colour and crammed with beauty, African Heritage House stands on the edge of Nairobi National Park. Built by Alan Donovan, an American who came to Kenya in the 1970s and never left, he has dubbed it ‘the most photographed house in Africa’. And now he has left it to the nation with his priceless collection of Africana intact. This national treasure also hosts a kaleidoscope of fashion and cultural events. For further information: africanheritagehouse.info

Olorgesailie is unusual because of the large number of handaxes found there, along with other bifacial tools (flaked on two sides to create an edge). © Chip Clark / Smithsonian Institution

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 55

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marketplace

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AF I AR

With more than 15 years of experience, we offer professional services for tailor-made dream holidays in Kenya and East Africa – at reasonable prices:

MASIKIO LTD

Founded in 2008, Masikio Ltd is a Nairobibased tour operator specialising in safaris in Kenya and Tanzania. Masikio Ltd offers a wide range of highly-flexible tours for individuals, groups and companies, covering some East Africa’s beloved destinations, including the Masai Mara National Reserve and Mount Kenya.

SAFARIS

It is business as usual during all seasons and we have a tailor-made package that will suit your interests and budget. Just as good wine matures with age, we have continued to become better with age, organizing safaris for hundreds of clients every year. For all your safari requirements All Seasons Safaris & Tours is your best partner.

P.O Box 17808-00100, Nairobi Contact: Gabriel Muisyo Tel: +254 (0) 20 246 6180 Cell: +254 (0) 772 318 758 Email:operations.kenya@masikiosafaris.com www.masikiosafaris.com

All Seasons Plaza - Ruai - Off Kangudo Road P.O Box 50379 - 00200, Nairobi Tel: +254 (0) 724 565 350 +254 (0) 738 908326 Email:info@allseasonssafaris.com www.allseasonssafaris.com

• Unique Wildlife Safaris • Relaxing Beach Holidays • Authentic African Culture • Trekking, Climbing & Adventure We have our own fleet of safari vehicles with experienced driver guides!

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Lamu Homes & Safaris Ltd AACC Building 3rd Floor, Waiyaki Way. P.O. Box 772, Sarit Centre 00606, Nairobi, Kenya.

Telephone: +254 722 370669 Skype: lamuhomes www.lamuhomes.com

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KAPU Place, 3rd Floor, Lusaka Road P.O. BOX 10-00515, Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254-20-665 0377 Mobile: +254-717-205 548, +254-721-874 211 Email: info@zoartours.com Website: www.zoartours.com

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+254 722 173 886/ +254 720 744 938 P.O. Box 28835-00100 G.P.O NAIROBI

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Yes? Then place a classified advert in Marketplace! Why? Because this magazine is unique - it goes out electronically to over 100,000 (and rising) local and international recipients – AND the gorgeous print copy of the magazine can be found in hotel rooms, airline/safari vehicle seat backs, airports, restaurants and bars - all over Kenya. AND it’s handed out by the Kenya Tourism Board at all the major travel exhibitions AND sent to all of their overseas representatives.

In our widely distributed electronic magazine, all your website and e-mail links are live. So you’re just a click away from your next booking! Book your Marketplace classified display ad today: 1/9th page @ Kshs 30,000 + VAT or 1/18 page @ Kshs 15,000 + VAT. Artwork services are available.

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56 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

W W W. A N GA M A .CO M

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TNB3646_ANGAMA_MagazineAD_WILK2017-FA.indd 4

2017/03/15 1:15 PM

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. www.tropicairkenya.com WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 57

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The best of the

Kenyan buys Just because you’re on safari doesn’t mean you can’t shop. On the contrary: you’ll love the wildness of our take-aways. They range from hot handicrafts forged by local community groups to cool fashions fuelled by contemporary culture. Here’s a snapshot of what can be snapped up.

The essence of Mount Kenya Indulgence doesn’t get much better than via the Cinnabar Green range of ultra-opulent body care. Each item contains organic essential oils steam-distilled on the slopes of Mount Kenya, and many of the herbs and blossoms are grown under the nurturing care of the sacred mountain. Best of all, it helps to know that by buying these products you are helping some very deserving women’s self-help groups.

For further information: cinnabargreen.com

Flip the flop You won’t find any discarded flip-flops on Kenya’s beaches no matter how hard you look. Why? Because they’re all eagerly collected and recycled into a range of colourful toys and accessories by Ocean Sole, a revolutionary young company that has partnered with the United Nations Environmental Programme to raise awareness as to the threat discarded plastic poses to the marine wildlife. For further information: oceansole.co.ke

Tales of a Thousand and One nights If you’ve fallen in love with the intoxicating Swahili style and you’d like to take some home with you, head for the House of Treasures Emporium in the leafy suburbs of Karen. They’ve got everything from Arabian lanterns to hand-made harem slippers – and a treasure trove of exquisite Africana in between. For further information, contact sasha@treasures.co.ke

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In short Shorts don’t come much sexier than those on the shortlist of the Rock & Stone collection. Pure Kenyan cotton, hot tropical designs and as SHORT as you dare wear them. For further information: www.rockandstones.com

You’ll like…

Nawalika An inspired fusion of recycled aluminium, sand-blasted into shapes so sensuous you can’t wait to touch them; and styled with soft leather and polished bone to wrap around whichever bit of your body you desire, this is Kenyan couture with serious attitude.

For further information: nawalika.com

Clutched on the hoof It’s official, the clutch has grabbed the accessories headlines – everyone’s gripping one – even FLOTUS. But this collection of clutches from African Classics TRUMPS the rest. Handmade in Kenya from butter-soft cowhide, they’ve got sultry style and the feel-good factor. For further information: Africanclassicsltd.com

Basket case Hand-woven baskets are synonymous with the charisma of Kenya. Everywhere you go you’ll see them being carried, and once you’ve owned one, you’ll realize just how versatile they are. At Dada Duka (the sisters shop), the baskets are woven by women’s group to traditional patterns – and each one tells its own story. Find out more: dadaduka.com

WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017 59

kenya brief

Need to know For full information on Kenya visit www.magicalkenya.com

Climate

Entry

The coast is always hot with an average daytime temperature of 27-31 degrees centigrade whilst the average daytime temperature in Nairobi is 21-26 degrees centigrade. Temperatures elsewhere depend on altitude. July and August mark the Kenyan winter. Typically, January-February is dry, March-May is wet, June-September is dry, OctoberDecember is wet.

To enter Kenya, a valid passport, not expiring for at least six months, is required as well as a valid entry visa (obtainable on arrival for a fee of US$50 or online via evisa.go.ke)

Time GMT +3 all year-round. Kenya maintains an almost constant 12 hours of daylight, sun-up and sun-down being at around 6.30 and 18.45 daily, and varying only by 30 minutes during the year.

National Parks and Reserves Kenya has 56 national parks and reserves covering 44,359 sq km.

Health Currency Kenya shilling. ATMs are available countrywide with 24-hour access. All major international cards are accepted.

Language English (official), Kiswahili (national), multiple ethnic languages (Bantu, Cushitic and Nilotic language groups).

Electricity 220-240 volts, with standard 13-amp square three-pin plugs.

Telephone International telephone code +254.

A number of vaccinations are recommended (check with your doctor in advance). A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required ONLY if you are arriving from an infected country.

Malaria is endemic in tropical Africa and protection against it is necessary.

Travelling to Kenya Numerous international carriers serve Kenya, and Nairobi is the hub of the East African region. Kenya has two international airports: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is half an hour’s drive from Nairobi’s city centre, and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport is even closer to the town centre. Taxis are readily available at both airports (officially regulated tariffs should be displayed).

Internal air travel Frequent flights (both scheduled and charter) operate from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport and from Mombasa and Malindi to the main towns and national parks.

Fort Jesus, Mombasa

Historical sites Kenya has over 400 historical sites ranging from paleolithic remains, 14th century slave trading settlements, Islamic ruins and the 16th century Portuguese Fort Jesus.

Fauna There are 80 major animal species and around 1,137 species of birds. Spotting over 100 bird species in a day is not uncommon. © Safarilink

60 WHY I LOVE KENYA September-October 2017

The Kenya Tourism Federation (KTF) is the umbrella body representing the interests of the tourism industry’s private sector. Its mission is to provide a single voice for the industry, to enhance standards, and to engage with Government on issues affecting its members. In recent years, KTF has taken an active role in destination marketing and was the driving force behind the Why I Love Kenya campaign.

The KTF member associations are: Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (KAHC); Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO); Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA); Kenya Association of Air Operators (KAAO); Ecotourism Kenya (EK); Kenya Coast Tourism Association (KCTA) and the Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya (PERAK).

For more information visit: www.ktf.co.ke

The Kenya Tourism Federation gratefully acknowledges the support of our Gold Sponsor, Swahili Beach