Nairobi's Park Has a Fence on One Side Only — Epoche A2
Sunday, 14 June My cousin Wanjiku had one free day, so she took me to the strangest place in this city: the national park. It is not outside Nairobi. It is Nairobi. We drove about fifteen minutes from the centre, paid at the gate on Langata Road, and were inside with the animals. The first thing I saw was a giraffe, and behind the giraffe, the towers of the city centre. My photo looks like a trick, but it is not. The park touches the city. There is a fence, but only on the city side. To the south there is no fence at all, so the zebra and the wildebeest walk out to the Athi plains when the rain comes, and walk back in the dry months, when the park still has water. We watched two rhinos for a long time. Wanjiku says the park is famous for black rhinos — it is one of the best places in Kenya to see one. Sometimes, she told me, a lion walks out towards the houses at night, and the rangers must bring it home. In the evening I sat in a matatu in traffic on Langata Road, and ten minutes away the rhinos were still standing in the grass. I have lived in cities all my life. I did not know a capital could keep its animals.