RUMA NATIONAL PARK

Lake Retreat of the Roan Antelope

Ruma National Park lies in Western Kenya, close to the shores of Lake Victoria. An island of wilderness in  sea of intensive cultivation, the park is situated in one of the most productive and populous regions in Kenya, and is one of the country's rewarding but less well known Parks. A mosaic of landscapes, ranging from the 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.

The Park was initially established as the Lambwe Valley Game Reserve to protect its indigenous population of Rare Roan Antelope, which only exists at the park. Nowhere else in Kenya, will you find it.
Ruma lies on the flat floor of the seasonally watered Lambwe River Valley. Bordered by the Kanyamwa Escarpment to the South -East, and by the volcanic plugs of the Ruri Hills to the north, the park is a long, narrow corridor of land contained on a fist- shaped peninsula extending into lake Victoria. The terrain is mainly rolling grassland with tracts of open woodland thickets while the soils are largely black cotton clay.

Apart from one of the rarest and third largest of Kenya's antelope's, the Roan( or Korongo as it is known in Swahili), the small and graceful oribi antelope( known as a Taya in Swahili) has a conspicuous bare glandular patch below the ears, a short black tipped tail and black knee tufts, also call the park home. Living in strongly bonded pairs or small groups, Oribi inhabit grassland and dense undergrowth.

Ruma, like all other National Parks and Reserves in Kenya, offers visitors an opportunity to see various wildlife species including the Rothschild's giraffe, serval cat, hyena, impala, vervet monkey, bohor reedbuck, leopard, buffalo and Jackson's Hartebeest.

It is not known to many that the National Park offers the best views of Roan Antelope, Oribi and Jackson's hartebeest then anywhere else in Kenya, the Maasai mara included.

It does not stop there. There is more. Ruma's birdlife is exceptional. The park is also the only protected area in Kenya where the globally threatened blue swallow( there is an illustration of how it looks just above. I dont know anyone with a picture of it, because it is endangered!!!!!! so forgive my antics..........), a scarse intra- African migrant. 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.
Ruma also has an exceptional snake population. Easily spotted species include the African Spitting cobra, forest cobra, eastern green mamba, black mouthed mamba and puff adder. Moreover, numerous  lizard, skink and gecko can also be found here.