Game Drive at Ruma National Park: A Trip Report
Ruma National Park is Kenya’s last remaining sanctuary for the endangered roan antelope. It lies on the flat floor of the seasonally watered Lambwe River Valley, bordered by the Kanyamwa Escarpment to the south-east and the volcanic plugs of the Ruri Hills to the north. Our main mission was to explore the park and look for the roan.
Ruma’s birdlife is exceptional too. It is the only protected area in Kenya where the globally threatened blue swallow is regularly recorded. These scarce intra-African migrants depend on moist grassland for feeding and roosting; they arrive from their breeding grounds in southern Tanzania around April and leave again in September.
Getting there
We left Nairobi at 3:00 AM in a 7-seater Land Cruiser. The drive to Homa Bay County took about six hours, including stops for sightseeing and breakfast in Nakuru.
We arrived around 9:00 AM, checked in to our hotel and relaxed by Lake Victoria until the afternoon game drive. At about 4:00 PM we set off for Ruma, around 42 km from Homa Bay town. The main road is good; the last stretch to the gate is a rough road of about 20 minutes.
Good to know: park fees are reasonable for both citizens and foreigners, and payment is cashless — have M-Pesa or a card ready.
The game drive
The park is covered in beautiful long savannah grass, and a Land Cruiser is the best vehicle for it — we saw other vehicles, but I would highly recommend a Cruiser.
Wildlife in Ruma includes Rothschild’s giraffe, serval cat, hyena, impala, vervet monkey, roan antelope, oribi, bohor reedbuck, leopard, buffalo and Jackson’s hartebeest. Black rhino, white rhino and Burchell’s zebra have been introduced or reintroduced. Roan antelope, oribi and Jackson’s hartebeest are easier to spot here than anywhere else in Kenya.
The park also has an exceptional snake population — African spitting cobra, forest cobra, python, eastern green mamba, black mamba and puff adder — along with plenty of lizards, skinks and geckos.
Our game drive took two hours and we saw all the animals we hoped for. Many of them were far away, so bring good binoculars and a camera that can zoom in.
Worth it?
Absolutely. Ruma is a giraffe paradise if you are as crazy about giraffes as I am, and because it is far less visited than other Kenyan parks, it feels like a true hidden gem. After the drive we continued to Rusinga Island.
Want to go? Ruma is part of our Homa Bay day tour and our 7-day Homa Bay itinerary.
