Last retreat of the roan antelope
Ruma National Park lies in Western Kenya, close to the shores of Africa’s largest inland lake, Lake Victoria. An island of wilderness in a sea of intense cultivation, the Park is situated in one of the most productive and populous regions in Kenya; yet it is one of the country’s least visited and little known Parks.
A mosaic of landscapes, ranging from riverine woodland and rolling savannah to magnificent escarpments and towering cliffs, Ruma National Park promises undiscovered wildlife treasures and undisturbed peace. It is also Kenya’s last remaining sanctuary for the endangered roan antelope.
Fact File
- Altitude: 1,200-1,600 meters above sea level.
- Area: 120 sq km.
- Location: Suba District, Nyanza Province.
- Distance from Nairobi: 425 km west of Nairobi. 10 km east of Lake Victoria and 23 km south-west of Homa Bay.
- Gazetted: first gazetted in 1966 as the Lambwe Valley Game Reserve, acquiring National Park status in 1983.
- Climate: the Park has a humid climate, the long rains falling April-June and the short rains falling October-December.
- Vegetation: savannah grassland and woodland with extensive acacia thickets.
- Wildlife: includes: roan antelope, oribi, bohor reedbuck, leopard, buffalo, Jackson’s hartebeest, Rothschild’s giraffe, serval cat, hyena, impala and vervet monkey.
- Birds: the Park is renowned amongst ornithologists for its rare intra-African migrant, the blue swallow.
- Roads: 4WD is recommended all year round and essential in the rainy seasons.
Major highlights:
A vivid and varied landscape
The Park lies on the flat floor of the seasonally watered Lambwe River Valley. Bordered by the Kanyamua Escarpment to the south-east, and by the volcanic plugs of the Ruri Hills to the north, it is a long, narrow corridor of land contained on a fist-shaped peninsular extending into Lake Victoria. The terrain is mainly rolling grassland, with tracts of open woodland thickets. The soils are largely ‘black cotton’ clay.
Flourishing wildlife
Pristine, seldom-visited and largely undiscovered, Ruma offers unrivalled wildlife viewing opportunities. Wildlife photographers may also like to note that roan antelope, oribi and Jackson’s hartebeest are more easily spotted in Ruma than anywhere else in Kenya.
Last refuge of the roan antelope
Ruma is unique among Kenya’s Parks and Reserves in that it is the only place to offer the two extremes of antelope: the enormous horse-like roan and the miniature oribi.
One of Africa’s rarest antelopes and the third largest of Kenya’s antelopes, the roan (or Korongo as it is known in Swahili) is a large, grey to rufous-coloured antelope with a distinctive black and white face, not unlike a tribal mask. It also boasts a conspicuous mane of stiff, black-tipped hair, long, narrow, pointed ears with brown tassels at the tip, and thick heavily ridged scimitar-curved horns in both sexes. Sometimes associated with eland and other plains animals, the roan is a grazer and prefers a diet of tall grass supplemented by twigs and leaves from the denser habitats. With an approximate lifespan of 15 years, roan live in herds of up to 20 members, led by a bull. Rutting males can be seen jousting with their rivals by going down on their knees and making sweeping movements with their horns.
The small and graceful oribi antelope (known as a Taya in Swahili) has a conspicuous bare black glandular patch below the ears, a short black-tipped tail and black knee tufts. Living in strongly bonded pairs or small groups, oribi inhabit grassland and dense undergrowth. Largely diurnal, they feature a relatively long neck and straight upstanding horns (in the male), while the colour of their silky coat varies from drab fawn to bright rufous. When alarmed the oribi will give a loud shrill whistle or a sneeze and leap straight up into the air before bounding off into the undergrowth.
Jackson’s hartebeest
Red to tan-coloured the Jackson’s hartebeest is confined to the Lake Victoria area and is slightly smaller and lighter than its cousin, the Coke’s hartebeest, which is found in the rest of Kenya. A medium sized antelope, it is easily recognized by its long narrow face and short horns (which are heavily ridged and form a heart shape, hence its name which derives from the Afrikaans words for ‘heart beast’). A social animal, the hartebeest feeds primarily on grass and often mingles with other grazers such as zebra and wildebeest. Known as a Kongoni in Swahili, it can often be seen perched atop an abandoned termite mound spying out its territory.
Realm of rare birds
Seldom visited and undisturbed by the attentions of man, Ruma’s birdlife is exceptional.
The Park is also the only protected area in Kenya where the globally threatened blue swallow, a scarce intra-African migrant, is regularly recorded. Blue swallows, which depend upon moist grassland for both feeding and roosting, arrive in Kenya from their breeding grounds in southern Tanzania around April and depart again in September.
Rich in reptiles
Ruma has an exceptional snake population. Easily spotted species include: the African spitting cobra, forest cobra, eastern green mamba, black-mouthed mamba, gaboon adder and puff adder. The Park also abounds in lizard, skink and gecko; the large (but harmless) monitor lizard and the glorious sapphire and tangerine Agama lizard being those most easily seen.