Laikipia Plateau — Kenya’s Most Underrated Safari Region
The Laikipia Plateau stretches across a large section of central Kenya north of Mount Kenya, covering an area larger than the Masai Mara at an altitude of around 1,700 to 2,100 metres above sea level. It is not a single national park but a mosaic of private ranches, community conservancies, and wildlife sanctuaries that together support one of the most diverse and densely populated wildlife areas in Kenya. The Laikipia ecosystem has more wildlife outside protected areas than almost anywhere else in Africa — a consequence of decades of ranching families converting from cattle to conservation, and community groups establishing conservancies on land that would otherwise have been converted to agriculture.
Why Laikipia Is Different
Laikipia’s private conservancies allow things that national parks do not: night game drives, bush walks, off-road driving, and a degree of personalised attention from guides that is hard to replicate in a vehicle convoy watching a lion kill alongside thirty other tourists. The camps here are typically small — often eight to twelve rooms — and the guiding is correspondingly intimate. You are likely to spend time with the same guide over several days, which builds a different kind of safari experience than moving through multiple parks with different guides each time.
The Wildlife
Laikipia has some of the largest Grevy’s zebra populations remaining on earth — the plateau is the last stronghold of this critically endangered species. The black rhino population here, spread across several conservancies, is one of the most significant in Kenya. African wild dogs, absent from the Masai Mara and rare elsewhere in Kenya, have been reintroduced successfully to several Laikipia conservancies and can be tracked on foot with a guide. Elephants move across the plateau in large numbers, sometimes crossing roads at night in herds of a hundred or more. Lion, leopard, cheetah, and spotted hyena are all present.
Combining Laikipia With the Rest of Kenya
Laikipia works naturally alongside Samburu on a northern Kenya circuit, and the two together offer a very different experience from the classic southern parks route. It can also be a meaningful addition to a Masai Mara trip for a repeat visitor who wants to see Kenya’s less-visited north. Tell us what you are after and we will recommend which Laikipia conservancy suits your style and budget.