Nairobi City and It’s Attractions

Exploring Nairobi City with Jumanji Africa Safaris allows you to experience a variety of different safari activities to make your trip even more memorable. Below are the various activities that you can take part in when you visit Nairobi City.

Karen Blixen Museum located 10km from the city center was once the center piece of a farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills owned by Danish Author Karen and her Swedish Husband, Baron Bror von Blixen Fincke. The colonial farmhouse gained international fame with the release of the movie ‘Out of Africa’ an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s life in Kenya.

The museum now celebrates her life and work and much of the original furniture has been preserved. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a colonial-era home and an interesting stop even if you haven’t read Blixen’s books.

The Museum was built in 1912 by Swedish Engineer Ake Sjogren. Karen and her husband bought the Museum house in 1917 and it became the farmhouse for their 4500-acre farm, of which 600 acres was used for coffee farming. Their marriage failed after eight years and in 1921 the Baron moved on and left the running of the farm to Karen. Karen lived at the house until her return to Denmark in 1931. The house farm was bought by Remy Marin, who broke the land into 20-acre parcels for development. Subsequent development created the present suburb of Karen.

The house was sporadically occupied until purchased in 1964 by the Danish government and given to the Kenyan government as an independence gift.

The Giraffe Centre is the creation of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W. Kenya), a Kenyan non-profit organization. Its main purpose is to educate Kenyan school children and youth on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest species, the giraffe.

While at Giraffe Center visitors will be able to get quite close to the Giraffes – feed them and watch them play.

The Africa Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W. Kenya) was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melville, a Kenyan citizen of British descent, and his American-born wife, Betty Leslie-Melville. They began the Giraffe Centre after discovering the sad plight of the Rothschild Giraffe: a subspecies of the giraffe found only in the grasslands of East Africa.

The Giraffe Centre has also become world-famous as a Nature Education Centre, educating thousands of Kenyan school children every year.

At the time, the animals had lost their habitat in Western Kenya, with only 130 of them left on the 18,000-acre Soy Ranch that was being sub-divided to resettle squatters. Their first effort to save the subspecies was to bring two young giraffes, Daisy and Marlon, to their home in the Lang’ata suburb, southwest of Nairobi. Here they raised the calves and started a programme of breeding giraffe in captivity. This is where the center remains to date.

Betty and Jock then registered A.F.E.W. in the United States and funds were raised to move five other groups of giraffes to different safe areas.

In 1983, funds raised by A.F.E.W. USA helped build the Educational Centre on a 60-acre sanctuary. This with the extraordinary vision of creating an educational institution in conjunction with rescuing the giraffe. The Giraffe Centre opened its doors to the general public and students the same year, receiving over 800 excited students.

There are now over 300 Rothschild Giraffe safe and breeding well in various Kenyan national parks. Recent herds have been introduced to Soysambu Ranch by Lake Elementaita in the Great Rift Valley, Kigio Conservancy and the Sergoit Ranch in the Mount Elgon region.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is one of Africa’s oldest wildlife charities and a leading conservation organization founded in 1977 by Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE, in memory of her late husband, famous naturalist and founding warden of Tsavo East National Park, David Leslie William Sheldrick MBE. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust claims a rich and deeply rooted family history in wildlife and conservation.
The Elephant Orphanage is open to the public visiting the orphans at the Nairobi nursery. We are delighted to share that the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust will be reopening its 11am public visit as of the 12th July 2021.

In 1948, David Sheldrick began his renowned career within the Royal National Parks of Kenya, where he worked unwaveringly for over two decades transforming Tsavo, a previously unchartered and inhospitable land, into Kenya’s largest and most famous National Park. David Sheldrick stands out, even today, as one of Africa’s most famous and proficient pioneer National Park Wardens.

His wife Daphne Sheldrick’s involvement with wildlife spanned a lifetime, and she was a recognized international authority on the rearing of wild creatures and was the first person to perfect the milk formula and husbandry needed to successfully raise infant milk-dependent Elephants and Rhinos.

Since the death of her husband, Daphne, and her family, lived and worked in the Nairobi National Park where they built The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and its pioneering Orphans’ Project into the global force for wildlife conservation that is today. Daphne’s daughter Angela worked alongside her mother running the Trust for twenty years, and since Daphne’s passing in 2018 Angela continues the mission with passion and vigor ably supported by her husband Robert Carr-Hartley, their two sons Taru and Roan and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust team. 

Sheldrick Wildlife Projects

Orphans Projects

At the heart of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s conservation activities is the Orphans’ Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its hugely successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program.

For as little as US$50 a year.

Adopt an orphan elephant, rhino or giraffe for yourself or as a gift – offering life and hope to an animal in need

Aerial Surveillance:

Aerial Unit patrols daily to monitor wildlife and deter illegal activity, while offering rapid response assistance to anti-poaching activities, incidents of human-wildlife conflict and veterinary operations in the Tsavo Conservation Area and Lamu District.  

Canine Unit:

Working with the SWT/KWS De-Snaring Teams and our Aerial Surveillance Unit, we deploy four fully trained tracker dogs and their handlers to detect illegal wildlife products, such as ivory, rhino horn, bushmeat, guns and ammunition, as well as follow poachers’ tracks.

Globally, the trade in illegal wildlife is estimated to be worth up to $20 billion. Aiding our anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts, we have specially chosen our four canines for their intelligence, athleticism and tracking ability, able to detect even the smallest traces of scent or faint footprints.

Water for wildlife

Working primarily in the arid Tsavo Conservation Area and Lamu Conservation Area, locations that historically suffer from limited rainfall and drought which can devastate wildlife populations, we work to provide permanent and temporary water sources to relieve suffering.

Anit Poaching

We currently operate sixteen Anti-Poaching Teams in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and fund two more teams operated by Mara Elephant Project (MEP) in the Mau Forest, undertaking anti-poaching operations to protect threatened wild animals and habitats in areas of natural importance within Kenya.

Ivory and rhino horn poaching, habitat destruction and bushmeat poaching are having a devastating effect on Africa’s wildlife and wild spaces. Our skilled front-line teams, accompanied by armed KWS Rangers and supported by our Aerial and Canine Units, are fully trained and equipped to deter and prevent illegal wildlife activities, as well as launch ambushes, with any necessary arrests carried out by KWS.

Nairobi National Park is a national park in Kenya that was established in 1946 and was the 1^st was the first national park established in Kenya. The Park is located about 7 km (4.3 mi) from the Nairobi’s center and covers 117km²  There is electric fencing around the park’s northern, eastern, and western boundaries

The David Sheldrick Trust runs a sanctuary in the park that hand-rears orphaned elephant and rhino calves, and later releases them back into secure sanctuaries. Orphaned and sick animals are brought to the sanctuary from all over Kenya. The sanctuary is located close to the park’s main entrance.  

The Park has a large and diverse wildlife population Species found in the park include lion, leopard, African buffalo, black rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, spotted hyena, blue wildebeest, plains zebra, cheetah, Thomson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, common eland, impala, hartebeest, waterbuck, common warthog, olive baboon, black-backed jackal, common ostrich, and Nile crocodile.