A working conservancy on the Laikipia plateau. An Ol Pejeta Conservancy safari means the largest black rhino population in East Africa, and conservation you can see the workings of.
Established2004
Area364 km²
Drive from Nairobi3.5 hours
Flight45 minutes
Best monthsJanuary to February, June to October
Safaris from$1,180
An Ol Pejeta Conservancy safari is not a national park trip, and the difference is the point.
Ol Pejeta sits between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. It is a conservancy rather than a park. Cattle and wildlife share the ground, and the economics of that arrangement are part of what you come to see.
What an Ol Pejeta Conservancy safari allows
Black rhino, the largest population in East Africa
Because this is private land, it permits things the parks do not. Night drives. Guided walks. Lion tracking with the research team. Rhino tracking on foot.
None of that is available inside a national park, and it is the practical reason to add Ol Pejeta to a longer trip.
The rhinos
The Sweetwaters sanctuary, opened in 1993
It holds the largest black rhino population in East Africa. It is also home to Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos alive.
Both are female. The subspecies is functionally extinct. What happens next depends on IVF work that may or may not succeed. Standing in front of them is a strange and quiet experience, and it is not a cheerful one.
The chimpanzee sanctuary
White rhino grazing on the conservancy
Sweetwaters, next door, houses chimpanzees rescued from the black market, mostly from West and Central Africa. Chimpanzees are not native to Kenya. This is a sanctuary rather than a wild population, and the staff are straightforward about that.
What else you will see
Lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, cheetah, Grevy’s zebra and Jackson’s hartebeest. Mount Kenya on the horizon on a clear morning.
How to visit
A giraffe on the track with Mount Kenya behind
Most people see Ol Pejeta as the first leg of the five-day Mara circuit. It also breaks the drive home from Samburu. Two nights is enough to use the walking and the night drives properly.
Practical notes
Two nights lets you use the walking, the night drive and the rhino tracking without rushing. One night means picking one of the three.
Cattle share the ground with the wildlife, the conservancy’s whole model
It sits at 1,800 metres on the equator, so it is warm by day and cold before dawn. The extra activities are charged separately by the conservancy and are worth budgeting for. A night drive and a guided walk together usually add around $100 per person.
Book the walking in advance. Guide numbers are limited and it fills.
An elephant wanders through the golden savanna grass, silhouetted against the brilliance of the setting sun.
Gazetted in 2004. What it was created to protect, and what threatens it now.
Ol Pejeta is not a park. It was a colonial cattle ranch, bought in 2004 by Fauna & Flora International with support from the Arcus Foundation and turned into a not-for-profit conservancy. Cattle still run on it, and the herd helps pay for the wildlife.
That model is the point. Ol Pejeta exists to demonstrate that livestock and wildlife can share the same ground profitably, and it publishes its accounts to prove it.
It now holds the largest black rhino population in East Africa, a chimpanzee sanctuary opened in 1993 for animals rescued from the trade, and the last two northern white rhinos alive: both female, both under armed guard, and the subspecies functionally extinct.
Wildlife
What you come to Ol Pejeta for
The species this place is genuinely known for, not a big five checklist that would fit any park in Kenya.
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Eastern black rhino
Diceros bicornis michaeli
Browsers, solitary and short-tempered. Ol Pejeta holds the largest population in East Africa and permits tracking them on foot with rangers.
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Southern white rhino
Ceratotherium simum simum
Ol Pejeta also holds Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos alive. Both are female, the subspecies is functionally extinct, and what happens next depends on IVF work that may not succeed.
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Chimpanzee
Pan troglodytes
Not native to Kenya. The Sweetwaters sanctuary houses animals rescued from the black market, mostly from West and Central Africa.
Kenya's parks are small. Almost everything that decides whether the wildlife survives happens on the land around them, and that land belongs to somebody.
The communities
Ol Pejeta sits in Laikipia, which has the most complicated land history in Kenya, colonial ranches, Maasai communities moved off that land under the 1904 and 1911 agreements, and Samburu and Pokot herders who still drive cattle through in drought years.
None of that is settled, and grazing incursions during dry seasons are a real and recurring source of conflict.
The conservancy runs schools, clinics and water projects in the neighbouring communities and reports the spending publicly. Whether that is sufficient compensation for the underlying history is a fair question, and the staff will discuss it if you ask.
Curio shops and what to buy
The conservancy runs a craft shop at the main gate stocking work from the surrounding communities: beadwork, woven baskets, and figures carved from olive wood.
The distinctive thing here is jewellery made from recycled brass and reclaimed snare wire, the wire is lifted from the conservancy by anti-poaching teams and sold back as bangles, which is a neat piece of circularity.
Proceeds go into the community development fund. Prices are fixed and receipts are itemised, so you can see the split.
In pictures
Ol Pejeta in six frames
Every caption describes the photograph above it.
Open grassland with Mount Kenya behindBlack rhino, the largest population in East AfricaThe Sweetwaters sanctuary, opened in 1993White rhino grazing on the conservancyA giraffe on the track with Mount Kenya behindCattle share the ground with the wildlife, the conservancy’s whole model
Every safari on this site comes as a printable itinerary with day-by-day detail, what is included, and the price. Send it to whoever you are travelling with. We will add you to a short monthly note on when to travel and what it costs, and nothing else.
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