Saiwa Swamp

Minh, a fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioner serving in Bolivia, came to Kenya to visit Mary and us, during November. We had a wonderful visit during the four days she was in Kitale. One day we visited Saiwa Swamp National Park located only about 20 miles away. It is the smallest national park in Kenya with an area of less than 3 square kilometers. There are no vehicles allowed in the park so you see everything on walking trails and observation towers built at strategic spots within the park. The park has a typical African wetland climate with two rivers, the Kipsaina and Kapenguria, feeding the swamp.

The national park was created to protect the habitat of the endangered sitatunga antelope and de Brazza’s monkey. Over 372 bird species have been spotted there. We saw many, but don’t really know much about birds. There are many small animals in the park including otters, aardvarks, civit cats, and servals that we didn’t get to see. However, we saw the rarest and most famous.

The sitatunga antelope has splayed hooves that allow it to walk on submerged vegetation. It is reddish-brown in colour with very large ears. It spends most of its day submerged resting in shaded areas. When in danger it submerges all by the tip of its nose. We were able to see one from a distance from one of the observation towers. It was a good thing we had brought our binoculars!

When you hear rustling in trees, look up because it is probably monkeys in the

trees. We were able to see De Brazza’s, colobus, and sykes monkeys. The de Brazza’s monkeys are also called swamp monkeys. They have rarely been captured because they are so good at camouflaging themselves when in danger. The colobus are easy to sight because they are black and white looking very much like a flying skunk. The sykes’ monkey is also called the blue monkey because its fur is grey to black in color.

Minh was a great guide. She was able to spot small interesting plant life along the paths including mushrooms, lichens, different type of mosses, and orchids. We picked up several varieties to bring home and plant in our garden, but I’m afraid most of them have died because it just isn’t moist enough right now. Perhaps if we were still early in the rainy season.

It was a fun outing that provided plenty of exercise and interesting things to see.
To see more photos click here.