Kembu Cottages Campsite Farm Stay Njoro Nakuru

Kembu Cottages, Campsite and Farmstay is a family-owned country retreat set on the 900-acre (400 ha) Kenana Farm in Njoro, Highland Kenya. Offering self-catering and fully serviced holiday cottages, Kembu is known for its unique, characterful accommodations and lush 9-acre rambling gardens, set in secure grounds on a working up-country farm.

It’s a popular weekend getaway for families, groups, and couples looking to experience real up-country Kenyan farm life, with a magical climate and the freedom to enjoy long walks, relax, or pursue any of the many activities available nearby. Kembu is also environmentally conscious, investing in tree planting and rain catchment.

With a wide variety of activities, dining options, and facilities, Kembu offers something for everyone, from a lively bar and barbecue to badminton, volleyball, dartboard, pool table, and a splash tank, alongside easy access to some of the Rift Valley’s best-known natural attractions.

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Location & Accessibility

Kembu Cottages are located on Kenana Farm, just outside Nakuru town,  a perfect base from which to explore the Rift Valley.

✓ Approximately 180 km from Nairobi
✓ Approximately 8 km beyond Njoro town
✓ Approximately 30 minutes’ drive from Nakuru town
✓ Approximately a 3-hour drive from Nairobi County
✓ Located on the 900-acre (400 ha) Kenana Farm in Njoro

Nearby Attractions

✓ Mau Forest
✓ Menengai Crater
✓ Ruko Conservancy
✓ Lake Nakuru National Park
✓ Lake Baringo National Park
✓ Lake Bogoria National Reserve
✓ Mount Kiplombe and Loindiani
✓ ~ 56 km (1.5hrs drive) from Mount Kiplombe (also known as Kilombe Hill) is an extinct volcanic crater and stunning natural conservation area located in Baringo County, Kenya, near Eldama Ravine

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Accommodation

Kembu offers a collection of 9 characterful cottages set within secure grounds on the farm, each with its own personality, history, and setting, from converted railway carriages to colonial-era farmhouses. All cottages are hosted for meals at the farmhouse, or guests can dine privately, per preference.

Kenana Cottage – (Sleeps four: 1 double, 1 twin, both en suite)

A modern yet colonial-style cottage fitting for the location, with a huge veranda spanning the length of the cottage, affording wonderful views over the sunken garden and the vastness of the Great Rift Valley.

✓ Double bedroom and twin bedroom, both en suite
✓ Open-plan kitchen, breakfast bar, and seated dining area
✓ Central social area with a lounge tucked around a cozy fireplace
✓ Each bedroom has its own separate French windows onto the veranda
✓ Designed with mobility-impaired access in mind: single-level building, drive-up access to the veranda, wide doorways, grab rails, easy-to-use taps, and seating in the showers

Beryl’s Cottage – (Sleeps four: 1 double, 1 twin, both en suite)

The childhood home of infamous early aviator Beryl Markham. This quaint wooden home, originally built in 1914, was relocated and restored for its centenary as a live-in shrine to this spirited lady.

✓ Kitchen and dining room
✓ Open-plan lounge with fireplace
✓ Double bedroom and twin bedroom, both en suite
✓ Verandah with stunning views of the Great Rift Valley

Acacia Cottage – (Sleeps two: double room, en suite)

A romantic, relaxing retreat perfect for a couple wanting to get away for the weekend and enjoy the tranquility of a country lifestyle.

✓ Blue tile, brickwork, and brass bathroom
✓ Double bedroom leading through a small annex with a brew point
✓ Glassed-in conservatory, the cottage’s most loved feature, overlooking a wide, spacious lawn
✓ Meals can be taken in the conservatory, hosted at the main farmhouse, or informally in the bar

Tree House – (Sleeps two: double room, en suite)

Set against a monstera-covered nandi flame tree and engulfed in a huge bougainvillea, the Tree House suits those who enjoy the informal nature of the campsite setting.

✓ Small elevated patio
✓ Double bedroom with en suite bathroom
✓ Elevated views enjoyable from the double bed or private veranda

Octagon Cottage – (Three Bedroom Holiday Home)

To be Opened in October 

Cedar Cottage – (Sleeps four: 1 double, 1 twin, both en suite)

A spaciously designed holiday home set in its own private garden, with a large social area making it an ideal choice for larger family groups using it alongside another cottage. Maximum of 2 extra beds for children allowed.

✓ Double bedroom and twin bedroom, both en suite
✓ Open-plan social area including kitchen, dining area, and lounge with a brick fireplace
✓ Elevated, spacious verandah overlooking an expansive private garden with views of the farm and Great Rift Valley
✓ Designed with mobility-impaired access in mind: single-level building, paved access from car park to kitchen veranda, wide doorways, grab rails, easy-to-use taps, and wheelchair-accessible showers

Albizia Cottage – (Sleeps four: 1 double, 1 twin, both en suite)

Built during the late twenties and restored into a unique but affordable self-catering holiday home. The farm was the south-eastern corner of Lord Delamere’s original Equator Ranch, and the cottage displays historical photos of Major Herbert Pease and his family, who developed the farm after his retirement from the police force in Sudan.

✓ Well-equipped kitchen
✓ Lounge and dining area with a cozy fireplace
✓ Spacious verandah, ideal for morning sunshine
✓ Double bedroom and twin bedroom, both en suite

Mutati Cottage – (Sleeps four: 1 double, 1 twin, shared bathroom)

Named after the parasol tree growing in its private garden, Mutati offers a quaint, comfortable hideaway and an affordable self-catering holiday home, with a homely setting of driftwood and plasterwork throughout.

✓ Compact kitchen
✓ Lounge with a cozy fireplace
✓ Two bedrooms with a shared bathroom
✓ Verandah, great in the morning sunshine
✓ Upstairs master bedroom with an elevated 180° view across the Rift Valley from its own private patio

Cobb’s Carriage – (Sleeps two: double room, own bathroom)

Converted by Powys Cobb from a hardwood railway carriage into a caravan in the late 1920s, for use on his farm on the Mau, it’s now retired to its own private garden in a corner of the campsite grounds.

✓ Double bedroom
✓ Own outhouse bathroom and loo
✓ Covered cooking and picnic areas
✓ Tastefully modernized with electricity

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Dining & Ammenities

All Kembu cottages are self-catering, but guests aren’t limited to their own kitchens; meals can also be hosted at the farmhouse, or taken in-cottage privately, depending on preference.

✓ Buffet
✓ A la carte
✓ Full board
✓ Half board
✓ Self-catering
✓ Accommodation only

Bar

Kembu has a lively bar, a popular spot for guests to unwind after a day of farm walks or activities.

✓ Lively on-site bar
✓ Barbecue facilities available

Facilities

✓ Volleyball
✓ Pool table
✓ Dartboard
✓ Splash tank
✓ Badminton
✓ Internet access
✓ Postal, fax, and email services
✓ Child / family-oriented facilities
✓ Eco-friendly practices, including tree planting and rain catchment initiatives
✓ Campsite with camping and bedding equipment available for hire (advance booking only)

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Activities & Experiences

Kembu sits on a working up-country farm with a wide range of activities on offer, both on the property and out in the surrounding Rift Valley highlands. Some of the activities include:

Farm Walks

Treat yourself to a walk around Kenana Farm; visit the racehorses, the dairy herd, calves, and chickens along the way.

✓ Fantastic birding across the farm
✓ Colobus monkeys in the forested areas
✓ Chance sightings of duiker, reedbuck, mongoose, genet, or serval
✓ Quiet woodlands, grassy meadows, and marked trails to explore at your own pace
✓ A genuine opportunity to slow down, clear your head, and take in the sounds, scents, and scenery of the farm

Kenana Knitters

Kenana Knitters was set up to support women in the local community by providing a source of income using their spinning and knitting skills, founded on the premise of “changing lives stitch by stitch.”

✓ Based on the farm, just a 5-minute walk from Kembu
✓ Wool is coloured using natural plant dyes grown in the area
✓ Each design is hand-crafted and bears the signature of the woman who made it
✓ Guests can wander down, meet the Knitters, and enjoy a brief tour of their work
✓ On-site retail outlet at the workshop purchases directly support the women and their families
✓ Supports over 300 knitters and over 200 spinners, who hand-spin wool into yarn using recycled bicycle parts turned into spinning wheels

Obstacle Course

A confidence obstacle course designed to build confidence and strength by testing balance and muscular strength, without the pressure of speed or time.

✓ Participants can skip any obstacle they’re unwilling to try
✓ Instructor-led, with guidance on the best technique to overcome each challenge
✓ 24 obstacles, each with its own technique and purpose, ranging from fairly easy to moderately difficult
✓ A great way to build team skills; the course can be adapted for more challenging group navigation as confidence grows

Bird Watching

Kenana Farm sits on the western wall of the Great Rift Valley, backing onto the forested Mau highlands, with views north over Kenya’s drylands, a geographical ecotone that creates an extraordinary wealth of birdlife.

✓ Forest species escaping the wet, cold mountains meet dry-land species escaping lower-altitude droughts
✓ The Great Rift Valley serves as a migratory highway, funneling trans-continental bird species through its narrowest point, just 40 km wide
✓ Recorded species include guineafowl, francolins, spurfowl, quails, grebes, ducks and geese, rails and crakes, flamingos, storks, ibises, spoonbills, herons and egrets, the hamerkop, pelicans, cormorants, and an extensive range of falcons, eagles, buzzards, harriers, and hawks

Orienteering

A combination of cross-country navigation and map-reading skill, using the farm’s ample grounds to train and challenge participants.

✓ Night-time courses available for more advanced navigators
✓ Reinforces practical life skills and decision-making under controlled risk
✓ Courses navigable in “alien” environments within the farm’s own grounds
✓ Typically begins in groups of three, honed down to individual competitors by skill level

Fly Fishing

✓ Full-day guided fly fishing trips to one of the many highland streams in the area

Camping

The campsite has been well designed to suit both large and small groups of all ages, with terraced gardens giving each group its own separate area and privacy.

✓ Terraced gardens for group privacy
✓ Suitable for groups of all ages and sizes
✓ Advance booking required for equipment hire
✓ Camping and bedding equipment available for hire (mattresses, duvets, etc.) for guests without their own gear

Other activities included: Garden Games, Golf & Educational Activities.

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Excursions from Kembu

Mount Koibatek

An extinct volcano on the western wall of the Great Rift Valley, historically known as Ol Doniyo Olooldiani (“the mountain of bamboos”) and today as Mount Koibatek in Tugen.

✓ Day trips and multi-night hikes can be organized from Kembu
✓ Steep ridges give birders access to all levels of the forest canopy
✓ Identified as excellent potential habitat for the rare forest antelope, the Bongo
✓ One of the most unspoiled remaining pieces of the once-extensive Mau Forest, due to its rugged inaccessibility
✓ Home to buffalo, bushbuck, elephant, leopard, colobus, hyrax, genets, civets, clawless otters, and hyena, though rarely seen due to thick forest cover
✓ A site of Mau Mau independence-era history, with caves showing evidence of early human habitation, including obsidian stone tools dating back around 25,000 years
✓ Home to deep forest birdlife including Brown Capped Weavers, Ross’s and Hartlaub’s Turacos, White-headed Wood-hoopoes, Crested Guineafowl, African Green Pigeons, Brown Parrots, and Golden Winged Sunbirds

Mount Kiplombe

An extinct conical volcano crater situated just northeast of Mount Koibatek, and a favorite destination for school groups and day hikes.

✓ Later served as neutral ground for talks between opposing sides
✓ A steep-sided, V-shaped valley leading to a dramatic box canyon known as “the Office”
✓ Day trips and multi-night hikes across to Mount Koibatek can be organized from Kembu
✓ Adventurous terrain suitable for families with young kids to clamber up and down the rocky riverbed
✓ An ideal outdoor classroom for students of geography, showcasing both human and physical geography first-hand
✓ Used historically by freedom fighters as an access point between settlements and forest during the independence struggle, with hollow trees and crevices once used as “letterboxes” for communication

Lake Baringo

Legendary birdlife between Kembu and Lakes Baringo & Bogoria, with over 400 species recorded in the area.

✓ Boats hired from the local community
✓ Guided birding day trips with professional guides
✓ Chance to witness a fish eagle catch, or visit a traditional Pokot village
✓ Wildlife on the lake includes hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, and ostriches
✓ Early departure with a picnic breakfast, followed by boat access onto the lake
✓ Options include a Kembu picnic, or drop-off at a lodge for lunch and a lazy poolside afternoon
✓ Approximately 130 km, all on tarmac, dropping over 1,000m in altitude into dry thorn country
✓ Freshwater lake. The first major water source southbound migrant birds reach after crossing Northern Kenya’s deserts
✓ Optional bush walk in the Ruko Conservation area (conservation fees apply): walk among giraffe, ostrich, and other wildlife on foot
✓ Baringo is a malarial area; precautions advised for overnight stays, and guides may recommend leaving by 3 pm on thundery afternoons due to potential flash flooding of dry riverbeds

Lake Nakuru National Park

A World Heritage Site renowned for its birdlife and wildlife, and considered one of the best national parks to visit for a day tour, only a half-hour drive from Kembu.

✓ Surrounded by green acacia forests, Rift Valley ridges, and bushy grasslands
✓ Significant population of leopards and lions, often seen basking in the early morning sun
✓ Several in-park lodges offer lunch menus, swimming pools, and bars for a relaxed midday break
✓ Sanctuary for both black and white rhino, with a strong record in rhino conservation and breeding
✓ Early morning game drives recommended, with a picnic breakfast prepared by the Kembu kitchens
✓ Best late-afternoon game viewing from around 6:00–6:30 pm before heading back to Kembu for a hot meal
✓ Home to the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, alongside thousands of buffalo, zebra, gazelle, waterbuck, and eland

Lake Bogoria National Reserve

A scenic national reserve rather than a wildlife haven, a desolate, beautiful landscape epitomizing the Great Rift Valley, with a long, green soda lake sunk between steep escarpments.

✓ Little dik-dik and calling hornbills along the entry route
✓ Elusive Greater Kudu can sometimes be spotted along the northern headlands
✓ Recommended departure by 4:00 pm via the main Baringo road back to Kembu
✓ A giant fig tree grove at the lake’s southern tip offers natural shade to stretch your legs
✓ Recommended approach from the south through the Mogotio sisal plantations and Emsos Gate, a 4×4-only track
✓ Geothermal steam jets and geysers along the lakeshore, best seen halfway up the western shore, often surrounded by feeding Lesser Flamingos
✓ Exit via the northern Loboi Gate to reach Lake Bogoria Hotel, which has a hot spa pool fed by natural hot springs, plus snacks (best ordered well in advance)

Njoro Club

Founded in 1901, Njoro Country Club began as a stopover and meeting point for traveling White Settlers, a need born out of the construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway. British travelers moving across the country by rail would stop here to rest and refresh before continuing their journey. Over time, the club evolved into a full recreational center, growing to include a vast golf course, a polo field, a racecourse, and a small training airstrip, with a ballroom and tennis court added later.

✓ Gym
✓ Chess
✓ Darts
✓ Airstrip
✓ Lounge
✓ Scrabble
✓ Tennis court
✓ Kids’ play area
✓ Accommodation
✓ Well-stocked bar
✓ Full-size billiards
✓ Lawn bowling green
✓ Manicured golf course
✓ Grounds available for hire
✓ Dining area & conference hall

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Highlights

✓ Approximately 30 minutes from Nakuru town and 3 hours from Nairobi
✓ Environmentally conscious property, investing in tree planting and rain catchment
✓ Lush 9-acre rambling gardens and easy access to farm walks, hiking, and fly fishing
✓ On-site recreation including a splash tank, badminton, volleyball, dartboard, and pool table
✓ Family-owned, working up-country farm offering a genuine highland Kenya farmstay experience
✓ Well-designed campsite with terraced gardens for group privacy, plus equipment hire for guests without their own gear
✓ Easy reach of Lake Nakuru National Park, Lake Bogoria, Lake Baringo, Menengai Crater, the Mau, and Ruko Conservancy
✓ Flexible dining options, self-catering, full/half board, à la carte, or buffet, hosted at the farmhouse or privately in-cottage
✓ 9 characterful cottages set on the 900-acre Kenana Farm, each with its own history and design, from a converted 1920s railway carriage to Beryl Markham’s restored childhood home

Kembu Cottages & Campsite is located in Kenana Farm – just outside Nakuru town, about 180 km’s from Nairobi. Kembu is a perfect place from which to explore the Rift Valley. The cottages are a 3-hour drive from Nairobi County.

Within easy reach are Lake Nakuru National Park, Lakes Baringo & Bogoria National Parks, Mount Kiplombe and Loindiani, the Mau, to name but a few. Kembu Cottages are located on a large 900-acre/400 ha farm just 8 km beyond Njoro and a 30-minute drive from Nakuru Town.

The 9 beautiful cottages with rambling gardens are set in secure grounds on a working up-country farm – a magical climate and your home away from home. Guests can enjoy the freedom to go on long walks, relax, or pursue any one of the many activities nearby Kembu.

These cottages include Beryl’s Cottage, Cedar Cottage, Acacia Cottage, Mutati Cottage, Albizia Cottage, Kenana Cottage, Cobb’s Carriage, Three House Cottage, and a campsite.

Some of the activities include day trips to Lake Nakuru, hiking trips to Mt Kiplombe, the Mau, and Mt Loidiani, day trips to Lake Bogoria, Lake Baringo, and the Ruko Conservancy, or full-day guided fly fishing trips to one of the many highland streams, etc.

Kembu has a Campsite which has been well designed to suit both large and small groups of all ages. Terraced gardens mean each group has its own separate area and privacy.

For those who don’t have their own camping gear, Kembu has plenty of safari canvas dome tents, mattresses, duvets, etc for hire. Advanced hotel bookings only.

Mobile: + 254-721-242-711
WhatsApp: +254-721-242-711
Reservations: +254 718-179-967
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://africanspicesafaris.com