Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 90,000-acre not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in Laikipia, central Kenya, on the equator between the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. It holds the largest black rhino population of any sanctuary in East and Central Africa, more than 180 animals in 2025, and it is home to Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos on earth. Kenya's only chimpanzee sanctuary is here too, all of the Big Five live on the conservancy, and Nairobi is about four hours away by road.

Ol Pejeta was a cattle ranch from the 1940s. In 1988 the Sweetwaters Game Reserve was set up beside it, and in 2004 Fauna & Flora International and its partners secured the land as a conservancy, held in trust for the people of Kenya. Cattle still graze alongside the wildlife, and the ranch helps pay for the conservation work.

Rhinos are why most people come. At the end of 2025 Ol Pejeta counted 240 rhinos of all species and reported eight years in a row without a single poaching incident. Najin and her daughter Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos, have lived in a guarded enclosure here since 2009. Neither can carry a calf, so scientists are trying to save the subspecies with embryos placed in southern white rhino surrogates; by April 2026 none of the transfers had led to a lasting pregnancy. Visitors can meet the pair with their keepers.

The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary was founded in 1993 with the Jane Goodall Institute and the Kenya Wildlife Service, after a rescue centre in Burundi had to close during the civil war there. Chimpanzees are not native to Kenya, and the sanctuary is the only place in the country to see them: around 35 live in large natural enclosures on either side of the Ewaso Nyiro River. It reopened to visitors in March 2024 after three years closed.

Away from the rhinos and chimps, Ol Pejeta works like any good private reserve. Night game drives, lion tracking, guided walks, horse riding and a morning with the anti-poaching dog unit are all possible, and the open plains give clear views of Mount Kenya on fine mornings.