Safari to Mara Sekenani

for most people, an area to be avoided

Mara Sekenani is the main point of access into the Maasai Mara for overland traffic arriving from Nairobi.

The landscape is largely hilly to the east, descending through dense acacia and leleshwa forest before opening out into open grasslands to the west.

This is the busiest and arguably least attractive part of the Mara, with lots of big hotel lodges, budget tented camps and apparently uncontrolled local development, all contributing to the substantial fleets of minibuses that saturate the area.

On a more positive note, a substantial area to the northeast of the main Sekenani Gate has been incorporated into a conservancy, where a few better quality lodges are attempting to kick the trend and provide a higher quality safari experience. But we fear they remain very exposed to traffic when venturing into the main reserve.

Mara Sekenani is definitely our least favourite part of the Mara, not only for the reasons described above, but also because we find this eastern side of the main reserve rather less interesting from a safari perspective.

We therefore very rarely, if ever, recommend including it in trips. In fact we even try to avoid driving through here when connecting other higher quality areas. We would love to see the park authority take a lead and try to tidy the place up.

When looking for accommodation on this eastern side of the reserve we would more commonly look at the Mara Naboisho area, a private conservancy to the north where there are no such traffic issues.