Nairobi National Park- Self Drive in Kenya

Nairobi National Park is located approximately 7 kilometers south of the center of Nairobi covering an area of 117.21 km2, Kenya’s capital city, established in 1946 as Kenya’s first national park.

The park is the only protected part of the Athi- Kapiti ecosystem, making up less than 10% of this ecosystem with a diverse range of habitats and species. This park is the only natural safari park that has a city scape background that can be seen from almost any part of the park,

The park has a large and diverse wildlife population and they include Cape buffalo, baboon, eastern black rhino, gazelle, Grant’s zebra, cheetah, Coke’s hartebeest, hippopotamus, African leopard, lion, eland, impala, Masai giraffe, ostrich, vultures and waterbuck. Herbivores, including wildebeest and zebra, use the Kitengela conservation area and migration corridor to the south of the park to reach the Athi-Kapiti plains. They disperse over the plains in the wet season and return to the park in the dry season.

Wildlife in Nairobi National Park.

The concentration of wildlife in the park is greatest in the dry season, when areas outside the park have dried up. Small dams built along the Mbagathi River give the park more water resources than these outside areas. The park has a high diversity of bird species, with up to 500 permanent and migratory species in the park and the dams have created a man-made habitat for birds and aquatic species.