Qualla: Nairobi National Park

Nairobi National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A2613, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the early 1900s, residents of Nairobi carried guns at night to protect themselves from lions. Giraffes trampled flower beds. Zebras wandered through neighborhoods. The city had 14,000 residents by 1910, and the line between urban settlement and African bush was not a line at all but a gradient that shifted with the seasons and the moods of the animals. Nairobi National Park exists because of that original proximity, and what makes it extraordinary today is that the proximity never entirely went away. The park boundary is ten minutes from the city center, and the skyline of a modern capital of over four million people is visible from inside a wilderness where black rhinos, lions, leopards, buffalo, and more than 400 bird species go about their lives as though the concrete and glass on the northern horizon were simply another range of hills.

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Image: A2613 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Nairobi National Park: A Paradise Quickly Disappearing

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Mkimemia at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Mervyn Cowie was born in Nairobi and left as a young man. When he returned in 1932 after a nine-year absence, he was stunned. The Athi plains east and south of the city, once thick with game, had been overtaken by farms and livestock. The wildlife was vanishing. At that time, the...

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Image: The original uploader was Mkimemia at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Nairobi National Park: Skyline Safari

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A2613, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park covers 117 square kilometers, open on three sides and fenced only along the northern boundary where the city presses closest. The southern edge remains unfenced, allowing seasonal migration of wildebeest, zebras, and other herbivores between the park and the Athi-Kapiti ...

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Image: A2613 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Nairobi National Park: Ivory in Flames

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Najla Khairani Siregar, CC BY-SA 4.0. On a July day in 1989, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi stood inside Nairobi National Park and set fire to twelve tons of confiscated elephant ivory. The pyre was worth millions of dollars, and the act was a deliberate message to the world: Kenya would not profit from poaching, a...

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Image: Najla Khairani Siregar | CC BY-SA 4.0

Nairobi National Park: Ten Minutes from Downtown

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ami Gorasia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nairobi National Park sits off Langata Road, roughly ten minutes from the city center. The proximity makes it unique among Africa's game parks: it is a genuine half-day safari destination for travelers with limited time, and for Nairobi residents it functions as something between...

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Image: Ami Gorasia | CC BY-SA 4.0