Is Kenya safe for a safari?
A straight answer from people who live here.
It is the question we are asked most often and the one operators answer least honestly. Here is the version we would give a friend.
The short answer
Yes. Kenya receives well over a million visitors a year and the overwhelming majority have an entirely uneventful trip. The safari areas — the Mara, Amboseli, Samburu, Laikipia, Tsavo — are among the safest places in the country, because they are remote, sparsely populated and watched over by people whose livelihood depends on visitors being fine.
Where care is genuinely needed
Nairobi is a large African city and it deserves the same caution as any large city anywhere. Do not walk with a phone out at night, use a car rather than walking after dark, and take registered taxis or Uber rather than hailing. The parts of Nairobi visitors actually spend time in — Karen, Westlands, Gigiri, the airport road — are ordinary and busy.
The north-eastern border with Somalia and parts of the far north carry travel advisories. No safari itinerary we sell goes anywhere near them.
The risks nobody mentions
The genuine dangers on a safari are not what people expect. Road traffic is the real one — which is a reason to fly between regions rather than drive, and a reason to insist on a driver who is not also doing fourteen-hour days. Sun and dehydration come second. Wildlife is a distant third, and almost every incident involves somebody who left a vehicle when they were told not to.
Practical things
Take out travel insurance that covers medical evacuation — flying doctor cover costs very little and Kenya has an excellent air ambulance service. Bring any prescription medication in its original packaging. Leave the good jewellery at home. Tell us if you have a condition that would matter in an emergency, because we would rather know before you are four hours from a road.
And ask us anything you are worried about before you book. We live here. We would rather have the conversation than have you not come.
