The Kenya Wildlife Service welcomes you to Kakamega Forest National Reserve. In our efforts to maintain and preserve wildlife diversity, the importance of preserving a fragile ecosystem like forests cannot be overstated. With their unique flora and fauna, forests are important resource reserve for genetic banks, the medicine industry, nutrient recycling and C02 sequestation. The loss of such systems would therefore be a great loss to humanity. With this in mind we have put concerted efforts towards preservation of this unique ecosystem. It is our hope that apart from its aesthetic value, its life supporting values will be understood and highly appreciated now and in the future.
Therefore, as you walk along the trails, as you observe the unique and beautiful vegetation, as you walk along the riverside, remember you can and are contributing to the conservation of this important ecosystem. We hope that you will visit again and again for fun, leisure and educative purposes.
For bird and butterfly watchers, this is the place of choice for you. Being such a food rich reserve habitat, the park supports over 300 bird species, over 350 species of trees, 27 species of snakes… our snakes are friendly given the wet nature of the forest throughout the year... no history of snake bites since the park started 20 years ago. The forest is also home to over 400 species of butterflies (about 45% of all recorded butterflies in Kenya), reptiles, mollusks and 7 primate species
