Porini Mara Camp

Mara Camp offers 5 safari guest tents that are spacious yet cosy. Each tent comes with a double and a single bed, bedside tables and lamps, a wardrobe, a writing desk and an en suite bathroom fitted with a traditional bucket shower, flush toilet and wash basin. There is also a small private deck outside with a table and chairs.

The Family Tent is much like the other tents but consists of two en suite bedrooms, each with a double and a single bed, and a lounge area in between. This tent is ideal for families or for those travelling in groups.

Porini Mara Camp provides all meals and drinks for its guests. Food is fresh, hearty and lovingly prepared with no over-the-top glitz and glam. Breakfasts, lunches and dinners are all ordered from the menu, with lunches often served down by the river, and the camp can cater to any and all dietary requirements.

Game drives make up the heart of the safari adventure. Venturing out into the savannah with an expert guide is the perfect way to experience the Kenyan wilds. You’ll see an amazing variety of wildlife within the Ol Kinyei Conservancy such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, buffalo, and elephants. Game drives also have access to the Naboisho Conservancy and Maasai Mara National Reserve.

As dawn breaks, ascend into a wildlife adventure like no other. Guests will often find themselves struck by the serene silence and stillness, the perfect setting to take in the wildlife from above without any interference. Upon landing, guests are met with a delicious bush breakfast before they drive back to camp to really finish with a flourish.

Leave the vehicles behind and take to the savannah with one of the camp’s expert guides and naturalists. Walking the same ground as the animals of the Ol Kinyei Conservancy takes safari to a far more intimate level. While learning all about the plants and their medicinal uses and Maasai folklore, guests can walk in the footsteps of all the creatures they’ve seen from afar.

Porini camps operate mindfully in order to minimise their impact on the surrounding land and help it continue to thrive. Natural flora and fauna are actively protected in areas around their camps and camp structures are thoughtfully placed around natural foliage so as not to disturb them. Their tented camps have no permanent structures so the area will be able to recover from human activity if/when the camp is eventually taken down. Porini also controls its tourism density to prevent damage that could be caused by large numbers of guests staying at one time. With the fees for each tent, around 700 acres of natural habitat are protected and there is approximately 1 vehicle for every 1,400 acres.

Porini strives to work closely with local communities living in and alongside conservancies, ensuring they actively benefit from conservation work and from tourism. Landowners receive monthly payments for renting their land as conservancy territory so not only do they have financial stability but they allow the areas of protected wildlife to expand beyond national parks. Porini camps also support local initiatives to improve the livelihoods and wellbeing of local communities. Employment priority is given to community members so they can have a stable income through sustainable tourism and strengthen the bonds between safari camps and indigenous communities.

Education is a key with the potential to open many different doors. Porini has committed itself to a number of education initiatives to help the next generation fulfil their potential and enable their society to progress further as a whole.

• The Selenkay Smart Learning Project – The SSLP was introduced as a means to empower the local community and provide equal learning opportunities. Its main objectives include introducing digital learning, providing the appropriate training for teachers and other community members, utilising Bluetooth and enabling digital access to lessons for students.
• Ol Kinyei Bursary Fund – The Bursary Fund was set up to relieve families of some of the financial pressures that come from education. The Fund pays for things such as term fees, uniforms, books, school equipment etc. and has a number of impactful benefits. The Fund aims to improve access to education for both boys and girls, help students move between different levels of education and negate the barriers caused by poverty.
• The Koiyaki Guiding School Scholarship Fund – The KGSSF was set up to create opportunities for students who showed an aptitude for conservation but were struggling with school fees. Donations to the Fund go towards enrolling a student on to a course in Tour Guiding and Operations and help with paying for tuition fees, accommodation, meals and excursions.
• Ilmonchin School Sanitation Project – The ISSP addresses the critical need for children in rural Kenyan schools to have access to clean and safe facilities on the campus. Good sanitation has been shown to profoundly benefit students’ comfort, wellbeing and performance. Porini is working to raise $14,000 for the Ilmonchin Primary School.
• The Maarifa Foundation – The Foundation works alongside Porini camps to support children living in Kenyan community conservancies and to provide education on the importance of conservation and wildlife. It’s their aim to inspire and guide the next generation to be mindful and active in building sustainable communities.

As conservancies expand, more rangers are needed to protect wildlife and their habitats. The company is continuing to hire rangers and donations towards the fund helps to pay for training, wages, equipment such as GPS devices, binoculars and smartphones, and uniforms. All of these contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the rangers in the day-to-day duties.

Bomas are enclosures constructed of chain-link fencing, wooden posts and secured gates. The programme aims to reinforce predator-proof bomas so that predators cannot enter or threaten Maasai villages and livestock enclosures. By doing this, both the local communities and the predators themselves are protected. The enclosures encourage predators to hunt their natural prey instead of livestock and will prevent them from becoming victims of revenge killings. They will further be less likely to become victims of poaching as they won’t form habits of leaving the protected conservancies looking for easy kills.

Recent periods of drought have made it increasingly difficult for members of the community around the Selenkay Conservancy to have reliable access to water. Porini is working to counterbalance this by providing water for two of the nearby villages. Each village has been equipped with a 2,000 litre water tank and water deliveries are made twice a week.

Porini camps are actively keeping up to date with the most efficient and eco-friendly practices when it comes to camp design, pollution control, waste minimization strategies, training of staff, reporting methods and setting goals in order to improve their systems and to minimise the impact on the local ecosystems. The overall aim is to achieve the lowest possible eco-footprint in the ecosystems where they operate, while ensuring responsible management of natural resources with minimal impact on the indigenous biodiversity.

Porini camps use a number of methods to reduce their energy consumption and make use of clean energy alternatives. All camps make use of energy-efficient lightbulbs and solar energy, which has a really beneficial impact on the environment because it’s the most efficient renewable energy source, reduces air pollution in replacing fossil fuels and doesn’t require water to make energy. There are energy saving policies such as switching off all lights and equipment when not in use and turning off safari vehicle engines while waiting etc. They also make sure to use no bush charcoal whatsoever in their camps as deforestation has been a huge problem in Kenya to the point of reaching a national crisis level.

Porini camps have implemented recycling systems for all kinds of waste produced. Waste is put into categories e.g. plastics, metal, glass, batteries, and then each type can be dealt with in the most efficient way. Most waste is taken to Nairobi to be disposed of and recycled properly. To reduce waste overall, Porini camps actively support local business making reusable non-plastic bags, purchase goods in bulk to lower the amount of packaging, use reusable water bottles, cups and containers, and use eco-friendly bio-degradable chemical products.