Prominently lying above the Athi plains, Oldonyo Sabuk is referred by the local Kamba community as Kilima Mbogo – The mountain of the buffalo’ and to the Maasai community as ‘The big mountain’. The Park can be indistinctly viewed from Nairobi and it particularly attracts day trippers, hikers or groups of friends and families yearning for a bit of adventure out of their normal routine and confinement.
The park was once an expansive farm and home to William Macmillan, an American settler from America, who visited and settled in Kenya in 1901. On different occasions, he hosted explorer and former American President Theodore Roosevelt and British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. Another interesting fact is that the late Tom Mboya, a popular politician in President Jomo Kenyatta era was born at Ol Donyo Sabuk where his father worked as a casual laborer at Macmillan’s sisal farm. The vegetation here is essentially comprised of the giant lobelia commonly associated with the Afro-alpine zone of Mt. Kenya and Mt. Elgon. The park offers great camping, picnicking hiking, game viewing and team building grounds.
