Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya
Photo by Roman Bruehwiler.

Mount Kenya National Park / Natural Forest protects the afro-alpine region surrounding Mount Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa at 5,199 m.

The mountain is an extinct volcano with 12 remnant glaciers on its slopes, which are retreating rapidly. Also, there are several small lakes and it is the main water catchment area for two large rivers in Kenya; the Tana and the Ewaso Ng'iso North. The site also comprises the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve in the foothills, which are within the African elephant migration route.

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2 Locations 1 Reviews 17 Ratings 45 Connections 63 Visitors Plaques

Map of Mount Kenya

Community Reviews

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Zack Culvert

USA - 04-Mar-06 -

There is a drought now all over Kenya, as the mini rainy season of Nov 2005 did not come. So the Masai bring their cattle and sheep up to the tourist area. This drove away the animals. The cows meanwhile are dying from the altitude and new germs which they have no resistence to. Seeing a lot of dead and dying cows being butchered was not fun.

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Site Info

Full Name
Mount Kenya National Park / Natural Forest
Unesco ID
800
Country
Kenya
Inscribed
1997
Type
Natural
Criteria
7 9
Categories
Natural landscape - Mountain
Link
By ID

Site History

2013 Extended

To include Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve

1997 Inscribed

Site Links

Unesco Website
Mount Kenya National Park / Natural Forest
Official Website

Ngare Ndare Forest Trust

Kenya Wildlife Service

Related

Wiki on Mount Kenya

In the News

Why Africa’s Mount Kenya risks becoming as polluted as Kilimanjaro, as access to its peaks is made easier for visitors (2023.12.08)

For more than a week, devastating fires have raged in Mount Kenya National Park (2019.03.05)

Mt Kenya to get electric fence to stop wildlife straying (2012.09.08)

Elephants, wildlife flee as fire spreads across Mount Kenya (2012.03.20)

Locations

The site has 2 locations

Mount Kenya: Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest
Mount Kenya: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

Connections

The site has

Constructions
Via Ferrata: "In July 2012 a new via ferrata developed by the Kenyan Wildlife Services (KWS), opened on Mount Kenya" (Wiki)
Damaged
Wildfires: 2019: "fires have already destroyed more than 80,000 hectares of forest and grassland, which represents almost half the area of the World Heritage site"
Poaching: Subsistence hunting is carried out in the forested lower slopes, and to a lesser extent at higher elevations where its impact is limited due to the extremely rugged terrain and difficulty of capturing prey species. The few remaining critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes are at high risk to subsistence hunting. The African elephant remain also at high risk due to ivory poaching.
Ecology
Elephants: African elephant
Rhino habitat: black rhinoceros
Stratovolcanoes: "Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano that was active in the Plio-Pleistocene." (wiki)
Big Five: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy: It ... includes the big five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and African Buffalo) (wiki)
Critically endangered fauna species: (Eastern) Black Rhino: "Lewa holds over 12% of Kenya's eastern black rhinoceros population" (wiki)
Eagles: Ayres hawk eagle (Official description)
Lions: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy : "There are currently 44 lions acros the Lewa-Borana Landscape."
Megaherbs: giant groundsels
Mammal Migrations: "Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve also lie within the traditional migration route of the African elephant population of the Mount Kenya – Somali/Maasai ecosystem and has always been the traditional dry season feeding area for elephants." (OUV)
Somalia-Masai regional centre of endemism: "the area lies at the interface of the Afromontane and Somali biomes and within the Somali – Maasai Center of Endemism" (AB ev)
African Wild Dog: Known to use the (elephant) wildlife corridor (IUCN Outlook 2020)
Geography
Highest (over 5000m): Mt Kenya (5119m)
Equator: its peak "is about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 miles) south of the equator" (wiki)
Territorial Highest points: 5199m/17057ft
Glaciers: Northey, Krapf, Gregory, Lewis, Diamond, Darwin, Forel, Heim, Tyndall, Cesar, Josef. (Not expected to last longer than another 30 years)
Volcanic plugs: "The summit of Mt. Kenya is the remnant of a volcanic plug which was left as softer materials were eroded by glaciation" (AB ev)
World's most prominent mountains: 32nd most prominent (3825m/1374m/Kilimanjaro)
Human Activity
Canopy Walkways: Ngare Ndare Forest: "A 450 m long bridge suspended 30 feet above the ground, longest in East Africa."
Individual People
Leakey Family: Gray Leakey, a cousin of Louis Leakey, was taken captive and led into the forests of Mount Kenya, high up on the mountain, where "he was buried alive and upside down in deep red soil" (during the Mau Mau insurgency 1952-1960)
Charles Darwin: The Darwin Glacier was named by the geologist John Walter Gregory - the first person to reach the icefields of Mt Kenya in 1892/3.In his book "The Great Rift Valley" he describes that this "was so named as we owe to Darwin the first precise description of a glacial valley in England"
Sir Wilfred Thesiger: 1970
Religion and Belief
Sacred Mountains: It has been regarded as a sacred mountain by neighbouring Kikuyu and Meru people.
Axis Mundi
Timeline
Pliocene: Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano that was active in the Plio-Pleistocene (wiki) / It is an ancient extinct volcano, which during its period of activity (3.1-2.6 million years ago) is thought to have risen to 6,500 m (AB ev)
Trivia
Fatal Accidents or 'disasters': "On July 19, 2003, a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya at Point Lenana: nobody survived"
Depicted on National Coat of Arms: Kenya
On beer cans and bottles: White Cap Lager depicts the snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya.
Visiting conditions
Foreigner prices: Different prices for Citizens, Residents and Non-Residents. From 430 Kenyan shilling to 52 USD.
High entrance fees: 52 USD
WHS Names
Country named after them: The mountain was named by Krapf as both Kenia and Kegnia when he first sited it in 1849 apparently using a native word which he recorded (possibly Kikuyu Kirinyaga?). The colony in which it stands was originally known just as "British East Africa Protectorate" but the growing number of white settlers led to a change of status in 1920 when the "Kenya Colony" was created - named after the mountain. Because of their indiginous origins the names of both the mountian and the country were carried forward unaltered into the post colonial era.
Named after a Mountain: Mt Kenya 5199m
WHS on Other Lists
World Biosphere Reserves: Mount Kenya (1978)
World Heritage Forest Programme
Biodiversity hotspot: Eastern Afromontane
IUCN Green List: Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
Alliance for Zero Extinction: Grammomys gigas (Giant Thicket Rat)
WWF Global 200: Terrestrial, Montane Grasslands and Shrublands: (104) East African Moorlands
Centres of Plant Diversity: Af62 Mount Kenya - "Vegetation varies with altitude and rainfall and the property supports a rich alpine and subalpine flora"
World Heritage Process
First inscriptions: Kenya: two inscriptions in 1997, with Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest as the lowest number
Extended: 2013: To include Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve

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