Giraffe Centre Nairobi: Feeding Rothschild Giraffes Up Close

The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife's Giraffe Centre in Langata, on the southern edge of Nairobi, is one of East Africa's most genuinely joyful wildlife experiences. Elevated wooden walkways bring visitors to head height with a resident herd of Rothschild giraffes — one of the most endangered giraffe subspecies, with fewer than 800 remaining in the wild — allowing up-close feeding, eye-contact, and the bizarre experience of having a giraffe's 45-centimetre purple tongue extract a food pellet directly from your hand or mouth (the mouth-feeding option is more popular than the hand-feeding one, which tells you something about human nature).

The Giraffe Centre was established in 1979 by Canadian expats Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville after they adopted a baby Rothschild giraffe and discovered the subspecies was nearly extinct. The breeding programme has since reintroduced over 40 giraffes to protected areas across Kenya. The centre is now also a conservation education facility, particularly for Kenyan schoolchildren.

The giraffes are present year-round and can be fed at any time during opening hours (9am to 5pm daily). The afternoon session (2–4pm) sees slightly fewer visitors. The centre also houses a warthog called Spartacus who has made the property his territory and appears unexpectedly at various locations — part of the charm. A connected nature trail through indigenous forest offers birdwatching and the chance of seeing Nairobi's resident colobus monkeys.

The centre is in Langata, about 20 minutes from central Nairobi by Uber. It combines well with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage (10 minutes away) for a morning of wildlife encounters before the city heat builds.