Kenya Trip Guide

Kenya Culture, Sustainability & EcologyWelcome to our Kenya Culture, Sustainability & Ecology tour through central Kenya. On this trip we willhave the opportunity to go on award-winning safaris while also getting a one-of-a-kind experience livingwith locals in Nairobi and the nearby village of Murang’a. We are embarking on a journey where we willget to experience Kenya in a variety of capacities and be an active participant in this multi-facetedadventure. Along the way we will be learning about specific aspects of Kenyan culture, biodiversity andaspects of our ecological footprints. Our days will include projects or focused activities that allow us toexperience these concepts more fully. As we explore these topics, we will take time out to discuss keypoints and observations as a group so we can continue to process our journey and learn from others’experiences as well.



NairobiWe begin our travel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital and largest city. We will have a couple nights here to getour bearings and begin to immerse ourselves in Kenyan culture. Nairobi is a bustling city filled with thecontrast of modern technology, architecture and business with a melting pot of multi-ethnic culture andhosting the only game reserve in the world within a major city. Nairobi was founded in 1899 as a raildepot during the Uganda Railway construction under British rule. It became the capital of Kenya in 1907and remained so in 1963 when the Republic of Kenya gained independence.Our first night in Nairobi we will simply focus on taking in our surroundings, resting up and combatingour jet lag. On our full day in Nairobi we will spend the day exploring. We will take a matatu (local bus)out to the Karen Blixen museum and the Bomas of Kenya museum. A shuttle will pick us up and bring usback into town mid-day, and for those interested we can hop over to the Nairobi National Museum inthe afternoon. The focus of these museums is to start to set the tone for our trip. We will begin to get apicture for the cultural history of Kenya’s 52 tribes as well as how colonialism shaped the country.In the evening, we will have a group home-cooked meal with our hosts. You can choose to rest after orhelp out with the preparations. During dinner we will have the opportunity to get to know our Nairobihosts better and learn more about life in Kenya.Musings:What are your initial impressions of life in urban Kenya? How do those differ from any preconceptionsyou may have had?For those of you who traveled through Dubai, what contrasts do you see from there and your hometown and from Nairobi?

Murang’a TownAs we drive north out of Nairobi, we will start to notice the city give way to hilly farmland. About anhour outside of the city we enter Muranga county and head northwest from Makayu to Murang’a town.Muranga county lies east of the Aberdare Range and southwest of Mount Kenya. This fertile landbordered by mountains is fed by waters of the Aberdares and is the heart of the Kikuyu tribe. The Kikuyucommunity and their ten clans populated this area long before colonials divided the land into 20locations and named the central town Fort Hall. The area also claims to be the birth-place of thecontroversial Mau Mau uprising that played a role in Kenya's independence struggle. Sinceindependence, the town's name evolved to Murang'a and is the center of Muranga county.Murang'a has a population of almost 12,000 and hosts the majority of the social and economic servicesof the county. These facilities include the Murang'a district hospital, a national library and teaching,technical and medical colleges. The main source of income in the area stems from agriculture, dairyfarming, macadamia farming and sand, brick and stone quarries. The agricultural products are mainlytea and coffee cash crops and are farmed on small family land holdings. Before heading to ourhomestay, we will drive around the county getting a feel for the area's geography and sites. We will visitMukurwe wa Nyagathanga heritage site to learn more about the Kikuyu community and the history oftheir ten clans. We will arrive at our homestay in the late afternoon on the 10th and spend the rest ofthe day getting settled and acquainted with our hosts. We will be divided between a few homes neareach other in the town and will rotate between the houses for group dinners.

In the next four days we will be immerse ourselves in the community of Murang'a-- its people andbusinesses, the agriculture, farming and the challenges of the town's sustainability. On March 11th wewill mostly stay within the town and get a chance to explore the infrastructure of the area. We willmostly travel by foot and matatu while we visit the local hospital, the teaching college, the market and afew other businesses. On our tours we will start focusing not only on what the residents of Murang'ahave access to, but what are their continued needs and challenges. We will hear from locals in many ofthe business and social sectors of the community discuss accomplishments as well as their frustrationsand hardships. In the discussions during and after these visits, we should feel free to share similar joysand challenges from our lives. Many people in developing communities get the impression thatAmerican life is all rich and rosy-- connecting on basic levels health, education and socio-economicstruggles can help bridge cultural gaps.On March 12th and 13th we will have another guide take us out into the country as we really start to getour hands dirty while experiencing how the community is meeting its basic challenges of foodproduction and clean water dispersal. Muranga county is most notably known for farming coffee, tea,maize, beans and macademias. The area also has a number of fisheries, dairy cows and honey bees.While these products have historically thrived in the area, depletion of resources, soil destruction andmonoculture farming techniques (in conjunction with global warming) have left the locals with majorchallenges. We will tour one of the local coffee farms to get an idea of typical land practices of the areabefore going to a site supported by the Permaculture Research Institute- Kenya. On this site we willlearn about the concepts of agro-forestry, permaculture farming and sustainable technology andbuilding. PRI-Kenya strives to teach communities to grow a variety of food and cash crops whilesimultaneously maintaining soil health and conserving water.

The following day we will engage in a variety of activities from herding and milking the dairy cattle tofishing for dinner and visiting the Ndaka-ini dam. At the dam we will examine the water cachementsystem for the area and how the Aberdares need to be managed to supply clean water to the capital ofNairobi as well as Murangacounty. We will continue our discussoin of sustainability and land usage as itapplies to the hoofstock and animal husbandry, and how livestock fit into the culture of the local Kikuyu.On our final day in Murang'a, March 14th, we will round out our understanding of sustainability byfocusing on energy usage and waste disposal. Understanding the full cycle of what we use up and whatwe leave behind is at the heart of permaculture, sustainability and our ecological footprint. In puttingtogether a community that attends to the social and financial needs of the community, while findingways of responsibly handling food, water and energy production as well as dealing with society's waste,one can get closer to a sustainable livelihood for the individuals and the community. In the end, the goalfor sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present generation withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.\"

Musings:As a developing and growing town at the center of its community, what advice and/or cautions wouldyou give to community leaders from personal experiences?How do the social services and infrastructure of the town compare to your expectations?How can the community benefit from polyculture farming when it means less income from cash crops?What are the joys and frustrations of working for your own food? Is it possible to add more self or local-grown food to your menu back home?How has your energy and waste usage changed in the last few days? What aspects of this change arepleasing and what parts are difficult?How are the townspeople connected to the land and resources? Is this different from the connectionsyou see at home?As of 2003, the average US citizen required 9.6 hectares of land for their lifestyle while the averageKenyan only required around 1 hectare. In order for there to be enough resources and land for allhumans, we need to utilize closer to 1.8 hectares per person. After living in this community, are thereways that you could personally get a smaller ecological footprint?

Lewa ConservancyStarting in the early 1980s, the Craig family started the Ngare Sergoi Rhino Sanctuary with 5000 acres oftheir cattle ranch. Today the now Lewa Conservancy has grown to 40,000 acres and is home to over 700species including the endangered black rhino and Grevy's zebra. Not only was Lewa named a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in 2011, but it has become a model for conservation that inspires tourist awarenessas well as community involvement. It is founded on \"the awareness that unless the local communitiescould be enlisted to support the protection of these endangered species, the wildlife would never besafe and there would be no chance of success.\"As we fly over Mount Kenya to the Laikipia Plateau to the north, we will get a view of the LewaConservancy and the surrounding lands of the NdareNgare Forest and Borana to the west and the IlNgwesi Community Trust and Samburu lands further north. Upon landing at the Lewa Downs airstrip, wewill have our first opportunity for a traditional safari drive on the way to the Lewa safari camp. With thehelp of our expert guides, we will learn and discuss the biodiversity of the area and the specificbehaviors of the animals we see. As we start to understand the ecology of the plateau, we will delve into the importance of biodiversity to the region and abroad.Throughout the remainder of our trip, therewill be at least parts of each day where we are out on the savanna surrounded by wildlife. We need todo our best to stay quiet and respectful of each animal’s space, and trust our guides’ knowledge anddirections.

On our first full day in Lewa, March 16th, we will visit some of the community surrounding theconservancy and particularly the social services supported by it. We will visit the local primary schooland learn about the Conservation Education Programme (CEP) and learn how the children in thecommunity are integrating conservation efforts into their curriculum. We will also visit the local clinicand get a tour of the new local water tower and farm irrigation systems. On the way back to camp wewill stop by the Lewa headquarters and see the heart of Lewa operations and learn about additionalcommunity programs supported by the conservancy such as microloans for women in business andcommunity outreach education. We will also discuss the importance of the community’s buy-in to thecontinued health of the conservancy.The next three days we will travel to the Community Trust of IlNgwesi by camel. While we continue totake in the scenery and wildlife, we will start to turn our discussions more inward and really start tothink about what sustainability and ecological footprints look like back in our home lives. As we startedto discuss in Murang’a, living a Kenyan lifestyle severely decreases our footprint on this earth. Now aswe are truly out in nature away from modern technology and fossil fuels, can we start to imagine waysin which a developed society might get closer to this? We will have come across examples of thisdeveloping world looking to the “Western” ways to meet their needs. We have seen communities thatare starting to increase their standards of living, but are still coming up short in terms of health, povertyand social services. We have started to understand the connection we all share and the importance ofbiodiversity. What do all of these things mean for you in your life?Musings:What are some ways that we can begin to decrease our personal impact on the earth when we returnhome?What examples have we seen of biodiversity directly benefitting or impacting the surroundings?How do we think our ecological footprint has changed from the town to the lodge?

IlNgwesiIl Ngwesi means “people of wildlife” in the Laikipiak Masai language. The Il Ngwesi lodge was the firsteco-lodge in Kenya that is completely owned and operated by the local community and has received anumber of awards in ecotourism and community supporting conservation. Combined with the NorthernRangelands Trust they hope to strengthen wildlife security and provide continued education, health,water, jobs, food security and infrastructure to the villages within the trust. As we come down off of theLaikipia plateau, the land will become drier and flatter with a few hills rising out of the plains. The IlNgwesi lodge covers of one of these hills with its rooms built along the hillside overlooking wateringholes, other nearby hillsides and the plains stretching further north.On our first evening there, March 20th, we will visit a nearby boma (village) and be given a tour of thebuildings, demonstrations of hunting methods and will get to watch some of the traditional dances. Wewill stay there for a goat feast and before dinner can buy local crafts from the village women. Thefollowing day, we will take a walking tour out into the bush with Maasai guides learning how they usethe resources of their environment and what living alongside the animals means to them. We will findthat they are truly a community trying to find the perfect balance of sustainable livelihood. They areusing tourism and government connections to help provide sustenance and social support for thecommunity. The Il Ngwesi people are not living on the outskirts of the trust, but rather throughout asprotectors of the land and its creatures. They are aware of the important interconnections and strive tofind new ways of conservation while preserving their heritage.

Musings:What ways have we seen tourism help foster a stronger community? How could tourism help even moreand how could it be a detriment to the culture and ecosystem?Are there aspects of the preserved culture that are difficult for you to understand in terms of “Western”ideals? If so, how do you reconcile wanting to experience these while also hoping they will change?What are your thoughts on the Maasai presentations and dances? Did they seem authentic or just a sideshow to the tourist?At Lewa, most animals are kept out of the camp by electric fence while at Il Ngwesi there is simply thedeterrent of a steep hill. This allows smaller animals like monkeys and hyraxes to be more prevalent incamp and even in our rooms. How does the removal of barriers make you feel? Do you think you couldlive more harmoniously with animals—even potentially dangerous ones?At Lewa and Il Ngwesi, the lodges are set up to host a multitude of tourists with varying demands. Arethe lodges still able to fit into a small ecological footprint? If so, how are they accomplishing this?

Lewa Part 2For our last couple nights in Kenya, we will return to Lewa (this time via a safari jeep) and this time focuson the accomplishments and struggles of conservation in the area. We have already focused on thecommunity aspects being supported by the conservancy, but now we must focus on how the local andglobal communities are integral to conservation. For those who are living in Kenya, it is not always easyto live among the animals. Predators and large mammals can be a detriment to livestock and crops. Inmany areas of Kenya, there are extensive efforts made for villages to alert when elephants are movingthrough cropland so they can be shooed away. Similarly people have been coming up with inventions toward predators away from ranges that not only protect the livestock but the predators themselves.Land use and the connection of areas suitable for wildlife are also dwindling and efforts to connectthese pathways for the utmost biodiversity health are underway. On March23rd we will visit theelephant corridor leading from Lewa to Mount Kenya. The A2 highway has long been a perilous obstaclefor elephants and other animals that are reliant on the ability to migrate depending on food availabilityand time of year. After failed attempts at keeping the boundary fence in place near this area due to onestubborn elephant, Tony, a team of local agencies built the underpass. After some tentative moments,cameras caught Tony leading a group of elephants under the highway and the corridor continues to be asuccess for connecting the two important ecosystems of Mount Kenya and the Laikipia plateau.

Unfortunately for some of the more magnificent animals in Kenya, poaching continues to be prevalent.Pressure from around the world to purchase pelts, ivory, rhino horns and more creates a demand forlocals to participate in poaching. Often times Kenyans in poverty are sadly lured by the opportunity for apayout that is worth months of their salary. Getting the community to have a strong buy-in to theconservation is particularly important here to stop the supply of animal parts. Likewise, it is of greatimport that we change our ideals on these goods as a global society. After we visit the elephant corridorwe will visit the center of Lewa’s anti-poaching unit. We will hear from the rangers who roam Lewa fordays straight to watch for poachers and protect the animals. We will also get a hands-on experiencewatching the scent dogs on the “hunt” and learn about their training and abilities.Musings:How does the elephant corridor support our understanding of biodiversity and island geography?How would you reconcile the challenges of living in this ecosystem with the challenges of making aliving?Why does the developing world continue to support activities that lead to poaching? Do you see anysolutions?How important is the connection between the conservation and the local communities? What programsthat we have seen/heard about do you think will prove most successful in bringing everyone together?

On our final day in Kenya, we will take the small Safarilink plane back into Nairobi midday. For thosewho are flying back to Seattle, we will go into the city and visit the David Sheldrick Rhino and ElephantOrphanage and have one last Kenyan dinner before heading to the airport. Those taking earlier flightscan catch a shuttle from Wilson airport directly to the Nairobi airport. We hope that you have enjoyed your journey and are heading home with fond memories, new ideas and a greater sense of our interconnected world.In a few weeks we will be making contact via email for an optional follow-up discussion. We hope that you will have discovered that there are more possibilities for incorporating the principles ofsustainability and ecological footprints into your daily life. Again, please feel free to reach out to your trip guide if you are interested in further information or contacts. We encourage continued communication and support of all people and programs visited.