Selenkay Conservancy

16 kms north of the northern boundary of Amboseli Park is the 15,000 acres Selenkay Conservancy. The Conservancy is one of the pioneers of community conservation in Kenya.

Selenkay shares the same eco-system as Amboseli and is established on lands leased from the local Maasai by Gamewatchers Safaris Ltd with the aim of protecting the habitation and encouraging wildlife conservation as an alternative to farming as a means for the local population to earn a living.

Migrating species previously killed or driven off land set aside for farming are now encouraged to make the conservancy their home. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in wildlife numbers with elephants returning to make the land their own after a 20 year absence.

Roads into the very heart of Selenkay’s Maasailand have been created and a single camp built. The camp’s remote location off the beaten tourist track means that the local wildlife is unused to vehicle traffic, which it rarely encounters, and therefore behaves in its natural manner.

Visitors to Porini Amboseli Camp (only 18 at any given time) benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Maasai employed as game rangers, trackers and camp staff and from an environment still in its wild and unspoilt state.

Wildlife: Visitors can expect to see elephants, Thomson and Grant’s gazelles, lions, cheetahs and leopards, bat eared fox, mongooses, porcupine, giraffe and yellow baboon among the many now indigenous species

Activities: Morning, evening and night game drives. Escorted guide walks with the expert Masaai guides. Sundowners at scenic points within the conservancy. Visits to a local Masaai village.

Getting there: Road: 175 kms from Nairobi, down the Mombasa road and via Emali (roughly 4 1/2 hours).  Air: Chartered flights are able to land at the Selenkay airstrip, located 5 minutes drive from Porini Amboseli Safari Camp.

Where to Stay: Within the Selenkay Conservancy there is the Porini Amboseli Camp with 9 tents accommodating a maximum of 18 guests and a seasonal mobile camp, the Gamewatchers Adventure Camp which also has 9 tents for up to 18 guests.

This is a total of 18 tents in 15,000 acres which is 1 tent per 722 acres, following our conservancy formula of not more than 1 tent per 700 acres to ensure low-density tourism with minimal impact.