Kenya

My Kenya travel summary:

Visited: February 2005, December 2025

Duration of visit: 16 days

Capital city: Nairobi

Population: 57 million (2025)

Kenya travel blog reading time: 12 minutes

• A full-day ride on a livestock truck from Ethiopian border to Marsabit.
• Spectacular three days safari in Masai Mara National Park.
• Spotting flamingos, giraffes and rhinos in Nakuru National Park.
• Enjoying leisure time at Watamu beach.
• Significant disappointment at Malindi beach, which was overrun by a large group of Italian tourists.
• Learning about the Kakuma refugee camp and colorfully adorned Turkana women.

Kenya was part of my overland trip from Europe, through the Middle East and East Africa – the African Big Tour. I was experienced and knowledgeable about Africa by the time I reached Kenya, but still got caught up in some of the biggest logistic and unhuman adventures in the northern part.

The country with the world’s best safari destination, home to diverse wildlife, which Kenya protects within 50 epic national parks and reserves did not leave me indifferent.

The Great Rift Valley, formed more than 25 million years ago, offers unique habitats for wildlife safaris. Kenya, with 62 languages, hosts Africa’s second-highest mountain and long-distance runners who inspire people surviving day-to-day hardships.

The beginning of my Kenya travel adventure was no different than the last weeks of travelling through southern Ethiopia. Although Kenya is significantly more developed than Ethiopia, this is not the case in the northern part, yet. From the border town of Moyale to Marsabit there is 250 kilometers of dirt road. It is mainly used to transport livestock to Nairobi.

The only one bus a day available for passengers, with twice as many people on board as there are seats, leaves early in the morning. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to purchase a ticket, let alone getting an informal seat on the bus. I had no choice but to ride on the top of a truck designed to transport livestock to Nairobi slaughterhouses.

Kenyan truck drivers do not provide seats or benches for a more comfortable journey. I had to find a place on the metal structure with approximately 30 cows and bulls squeezing under my feet.

I was so worn out at the end of the trip, that all my appetite was gone. The next day I crawled into bed with a dangerously elevated body temperature and a sore throat. The whole body started to ache, desire to eat and drink disappeared; I was certain that I had contracted malaria. Lucky enough, a quick test in a rudimentary medical clinic confirmed that I had only pharyngitis and a sore throat.

The next stage from Marsabit to Isiolo was slightly more comfortable in a jeep labeled with local telecommunication company logo. We left Marsabit with two hours delay at 5:00pm and quickly reached maximum travelling speed at 110 kilometers per hour on a dirt road. Just after the sunset a coolant system broke down. The driver applied a quick solution: he mixed water with paprika powder. It worked.

Approaching midnight, the driver became too tired to continue. He poured a bucket of water over his face to refresh. Only fifteen minutes later he stopped in an undistinctive village and announced three hours siesta break. I laid down on a bench under the stars in the comfort of my sleeping bag.

After one-hour drive, we finally arrived to Isiolo, just on time for a beautiful sunrise. Every decent hotel was fully booked. I collapsed down in a dump that would hardly deserve a name of a guesthouse, light up a mosquito coil and fell asleep immediately.

The following day I visited the local market, where people were rather aggressive and strange, looking at me with distrust. A man followed me through the village all the way to my hotel, where the security guard finally pushed him away.

There is always sunshine after the rain. Dirt roads transformed into a paved road leading south towards Nairobi – the capital of Kenya. I arrived at the main station in a comfortable bus, feeling like royalty. The area was completely messed up with up to six meters high piles of sand, surrounded by ditches filled with muddy water.

Nairobi was actually only a transit point to new adventures, even though camping in the outskirts of the city was a much better option than any accommodation so far in Kenya. I didn’t focus much on sightseeing or landmarks in Nairobi, as Kenya offers the most spectacular places to visit in its wild nature and along the coast. Some good meals, two night in a secured campground and tour package negotiation for safaris were the most memorable moments.

Nairobi was actually only a transit point I n my Kenya travel journey to new adventures, even though camping in the outskirts of the city was a much better option than any accommodation so far. I didn’t focus much on sightseeing or landmarks in Nairobi, as Kenya offers the most spectacular places to visit in its wild nature and along the coast. Some good meals, two night in a secured campground and tour package negotiation for safaris were the most memorable moments.

Despite Nairobi’s reputation for danger, I found myself feeling quite at ease while walking around and exploring modern downtown. It is also a good place to arrange visas for further destinations in the surrounding countries with many embassies knowing how to deal with foreign tourists.

In 2025, I returned to Nairobi for three days. I explored some interesting places to visit, though there were no particularly famous landmarks.

Nairobi’s weather was perfect. Daytime temperatures stayed around 25°C, while nights dropped to about 18°C, Since the temperature is similar all year round, air conditioning or heating is unnecessary.

This time I stayed in the relatively upscale neighborhood of Westlands. I walked through the busy streets of the CBD, where company headquarters, banks, upscale restaurants, and international organizations are located. Even though traffic during rush hour is heavy, the area feels more orderly, clean, and organized than many other parts of the city.

For my onward journey to northwestern Kenya, I bought my ticket in Eastleigh.

A district called Little Somalia hosts one of the largest ethnic Somali communities outside Somalia.

It is a chaotic Somali neighborhood full of goods and food from Somalia and nonstop street activity.

Vendors shout over one another while matatus, motorbikes, and buses squeeze through the crowds. Beside the street buzz, I was impressed by many colorful matatus – public service vehicles, that start as simple chassis, before they undergo flashy modifications, including offset rims, colorful graffiti, loud music, and flat-screen TVs.

For most travelers, a Kenya travel adventure is defined by safaris. Kenya is the original home of the safari with a land of sweeping savannah grasslands, inhabited by charismatic mega-fauna. It’s still one of the finest safari destinations on the continent, offering an impressive range of animals, including the Big Five. Kenya has many game parks and reserves, including the famous Masai Mara, Samburu, and Amboseli National Parks.

Safari is one of the top things to do for any visitor in Kenya. Upon evaluating various alternatives, reviewing my financial status and making calculations, I decided to visit Masai Mara and Nakuru National Parks.

They would offer me an opportunity to observe most of the animals at reasonable price.

During a three-day safari in Masai Mara NP we saw most of the wild beasts: from lions (about thirty in three days), to elephants, giraffes, leopard on a distance, buffalos, hippopotamus, black mamba, birds, zebras, wild pigs and antelopes. The most impressive were large groups of elephants, the easiest to spot were lions. Tourist buses always surrounded them. Therefore, they we could easily detect from a distance. I found out that lazy lions rest most of the timed during the day.

Safari trip was not only about chasing animals, but also having good time with other people in the group We laughed together at the never-ending vehicle problems that seemed to follow me throughout Kenya.

Most of other groups rode around the park in coaster type buses, which was a kind of touristy and not really fitting into wildlife environment perception. Our group was proudly moving in a bright green, experienced Landcruiser with open roof and comfortable seats. Our driver Jeffrey was calm, skillful and knowledgeable about the nature around us.

On the second day, the driver unexpectedly lost control of the vehicle, when a gear lever broke and stayed in his hand. Luckily, there was a mechanic next to our lodge, where Jeffrey was a regular customer with his 40+ years-old jeep. The mechanic fixed the gear and, just in case, welded the car’s engine to the frame, because it had almost fallen off.

On the third day, Jeffrey struggled for half an hour to tighten the only wiper, which died after the first drops of rain in the afternoon. In the end, the engine started to release smoke right under my feet. The driver just waved his hand and yelled at me to open the window, so we could at least breathe.

The left rear window vibrated too much, while the right one was gone a long time ago. In order to observe what was going on behind the vehicle, Jeffrey had to look back through open windows, which almost caused a crush into a tree once. As we approached the end of our expedition, the radio antenna of was lost in the savannah.

We slept in a simple campground, where tents were equipped with real beds that were extremely comfortable; the food was decent. Some animals walked around the camp.

Beside regular game trips, we also visited a Maasai village. Dancing performance, posing and house tour seemed very touristic, since many groups pay visit to the same village daily. However, the quality of the dance with high jumps and unobtrusiveness of souvenir vendors was appreciated.

I wanted to combine Masai Mara NP with another game park to see different animals and gain a contrasting wildlife perspective. Nakuru National Park seemed the best alternative.

Lake Nakuru National Park is famous for its birdlife, nearly a hundred endangered black and white rhinos, and rare Rothschild’s giraffes. It also hosts over fifty other species, including buffaloes, waterbucks, lions, and impalas. Probably the main attraction are numerous flamingos that flock in large numbers along the shores of Nakuru Lake.

The lake is a shallow soda lake that attracts flamingos to its alkaline shores as they feed on blue-green algae. A large pink spot with more than a million flamingos covers the peripheral parts of the lake. When I got too close to it, the flamingos slowly moved away to a safe distance. The huge availability of food on the lake keeps the flamingos hooked on the lake’s shores.

I had the opportunity to get closer to zebras, giraffes, monkeys and gazelles. For the first-time, I spotted thousands of flamingos, pelicans, various white rhinos and wild dogs.

The whole experience of the trip was marred by inappropriate behavior of our driver who wanted to overcharge us. I didn’t give up and fought for every penny that he promised to return me if I found more passengers to share the costs.

An old Austrian explorer, Pepe, with his buddy joined us in front of the park entrance and kept us entertained with antique camera and stories about his decades of travelling around the world. When Pepe realized that he had overpaid twice for park guide services, he went completely crazy.

He physically attacked the driver and knocked him down, breaking his fake watch of very little value. The driver scared him with a suit and simulated a broken arm. This, of course, was just one of the lies and exaggerations he bombarded us with all day.

This part of my Kenya travel journey shifted from dust and wildlife to heat, ocean air, and beachside culture.

Mombasa was only a transit point between Nairobi and the coastal town of Malindi, where I was going to spend a few days relaxing on the beach. A neglected place, smelly and full of garbage, was filled with strange people and extremely uncomfortable infrastructure for walking, offering hardly any appealing things to do. The extreme heat with high humidity didn’t make my visit any better.

The coastal town of Malindi could be renamed to a Little Italy due to so many Italian tourists.

It seems that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed here to open the way for many Italians who either visit the area for vacations or settle down for years.

The atmospheric old town remains a melting pot of local cultures with a rich and fascinating history, while offering delicious Italian food in many high-quality restaurants. My original plan was to stay in Malindi, but the polluted river flowing into the sea made swimming unsuitable.

As one of the popular places to visit, Malindi Marine Park was a big disappointment. Unspectacular corals, very few fishes, limited visibility and thousands of jellyfishes that allowed me only 20 minutes of swimming before I would finish stung all over.

I continued to Watamu Beach, which proved to be significantly more tranquil and served as an ideal final destination for relaxation and rejuvenation. It also provided me with the opportunity to reflect on the various exciting moments I had encountered during my Kenya travel adventure.

In 2025, I visited the Turkana region during my overland journey from Nairobi to Juba in South Sudan. The 700-kilometer bus ride from Nairobi to Kakuma turned out to be exhausting and chaotic. We were supposed to leave at 3:00pm, but the bus finally departed at 4:00pm.

One of the staff quickly checked my ticket and directed me to seat 7B. The bus was half empty at first, so I comfortably used both seats until we reached Nakuru about four hours later. The trip should have taken only two hours, but mechanical problems slowed us down.

After dinner at a small restaurant near the bus stop, more passengers started boarding until the bus became completely full. Plastic boxes were placed in the aisle to create seats for people without reservations. Suddenly, a woman arrived with a child and claimed the same seat number as mine, 7B. When the assistant checked my ticket again, he realized it was actually valid for the next day.

When I had bought the ticket, I had tried to make sure it was for Friday, but I never checked the printed date. The seller had cheated me. Fortunately, the assistant and the woman with same seat number were kind and allowed me to stay, finding another place for her instead.

The rest of the overnight journey was uncomfortable. I was extremely tired. Instead of arriving in Kakuma at 7:00am, we finally reached it at 10:30am.

While I was sitting in Kakuma, drinking a cold soda and figuring out how to visit the refugee camp, a local man from South Sudan approached me.

“My name is Anok. I am a boda boda driver, and I have lived in Kakuma Refugee Camp for over ten years,” he said.

“I can take you there if you want.”

From what I knew, visitors were supposed to get special permission, which I had unsuccessfully tried to obtain in Nairobi. No one ever replied to my application.

“You don’t need any permit,” Anok smiled. “There is no fence and no checkpoint.”

I left my backpack in a nearby shop, climbed onto Anok’s motorbike, and soon we were heading toward the camp.

The paved road quickly turned into muddy tracks full of deep puddles, and we squeezed past other motorbikes and pedestrians.

Anok took me to his home, where I met some of his family. They lived in very basic conditions, without electricity or running water. Before leaving, I asked what they would like me to buy from the shop. Cold Coca-Cola and a few packets of cookies made them very happy.

Later, I invited Anok to lunch at a small Burundian restaurant near the central market of the camp. I learned that inside Kakuma camp, different communities have formed (Burundian, Somali, Congolese, Sudanese, Eritrean), each with its own shops and social circles.

Many people have lived here for more than a decade, turning the refugee camp into a permanent home.

A small town of Lokichogio was the last stop before the border with South Sudan. While waiting for a car to fill up, I visited the Turkana community just off the main street. Everyone welcomed me warmly, greeting me, starting conversations, and even inviting me into their homes and small businesses.

The igloo-shaped houses are built on a wooden frame made of domed saplings covered with straw and tied palm leaves or animal skins.

Turkana people wear modern fabrics with traditional adornments. The most outstanding part of their dress code are beaded necklaces. Colorful, long necklaces don’t represent only beauty, but are also symbols of power, identity, and belonging. The more elaborate the necklace, the greater the prestige. Therefore, materials, design and length are all important.

I saw many young girls already wearing colorful necklaces and walking around proudly to preserve their tradition.

The design and composition of necklaces change as a woman grows older.

They introduced me to locally brewed drinks, similar to those made by other tribes across Africa. One was a very strong, distilled spirit, called chang’a. The weaker, cloudy busaa is made from fermented sorghum, maize, or millet. Both drinks were kept in plastic bottles and served in small shared cups.

Although I felt tempted to try them, I decided not to because of the unhygienic conditions.

From difficult logistics in the much less visited north area of Kenya to national parks and coastal pleasures on Watamu Beach, facing Indian ocean, I covered a variety of topography from savannah, lake lands, the dramatic Great Rift Valley and mountain highlands.

Kenya is regarded as the cradle of humanity, one of the greatest sites to discover wildlife, and a melting pot of African, Arab, and Indian civilizations. There are parts of the country where ancient tribes still live in harmony with the natural world, but technology, desire for higher income and comfort will change this in the future, when immigration to the cities will increase.

In conclusion, my lasting impression of Kenya will be its most distinguished attribute, which the name Kenya has come to represent – African wildlife safari.

This recognition is certainly well deserved!