By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 9 December 2025 - Kenya has officially launched the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary, now the largest rhino sanctuary in the world, covering over 3,200 square kilometres.
Speaking at the launch in Taita-Taveta County, President William Ruto framed the initiative as both a national and global responsibility.
“Across the world, few nations are called to carry the weight of global heritage on their shoulders.
Kenya is one such nation,” he said, emphasizing the country’s leadership role in wildlife conservation.
The sanctuary expansion addresses urgent ecological challenges.
The Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, which for decades has housed nearly 150 black rhinos in just 92 square kilometres, had become dangerously overcrowded.
President Ruto explained, “This extreme congestion has suppressed breeding, intensified territorial conflict, reduced calf survival, and placed the rhino population under dangerous ecological stress.”
The new sanctuary allows for the merging of the 150 rhinos in Ngulia with 50 rhinos from the Tsavo West Intensive Protection Zone, creating a single founder population of 200 black rhinos—the largest in Kenya and one of the most significant on the continent.
Historically, the greater Tsavo ecosystem was home to over 8,000 black rhinos in the early 1970s. By 1989, that number had fallen to fewer than 20 due to poaching, drought, and land pressures.
“Today, as we restore Tsavo as a continental stronghold for the black rhino, we are correcting history with resolve and in a decisive way,” President Ruto said, highlighting Kenya’s long-term commitment to reversing past losses.
The sanctuary incorporates some of the most advanced wildlife protection systems in Africa. President Ruto detailed, “We have deployed AI-enabled camera systems, drone and aerial surveillance, expanded Long Range Wide Area Network connectivity, encrypted digital radio networks, patrol vehicles, over 300 security personnel, and a dedicated fixed-wing aircraft for rapid response.”
In addition, over 250 kilometres of upgraded fencing, 40 ranger houses, access roads, cutlines, firebreaks, and improved water infrastructure have been constructed.
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The largest rhino monitoring and tagging exercise ever undertaken globally has equipped 89 rhinos with tracking devices, enabling real-time monitoring of movement, health, and security.
The expansion is expected to significantly boost Kenya’s rhino population.
“With increased space, upgraded security, improved genetics, and reduced density, Kenya is now positioned to raise the national black rhino population growth rate from 5 to 8% annually,” the President said, outlining targets of 1,450 rhinos by 2030 and 2,000 by 2037.
Currently, Kenya is home to about 2,100 rhinos, including 1,060 black rhinos, 1,040 southern white rhinos, and the world’s last two northern white rhinos, representing nearly 78% of the global Eastern Black Rhino population.
Beyond conservation, the sanctuary is being positioned as an economic driver under Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
President Ruto stressed, “Conservation must also work for the people. The Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary is already creating jobs in ranger deployment, surveillance, monitoring, fencing, roadworks, construction, and logistics. It is stimulating local supply chains, transport services, community enterprises, and small businesses linked to a growing wildlife economy.”
Projections suggest that by 2030, the sanctuary will create over 18,000 jobs and generate more than $45 million in conservancy and tourism-linked revenue.
President Ruto framed the initiative as a national asset and a model for sustainable development.
“We are redefining conservation in Kenya, not as a cost to the taxpayer, but as a national investment class,” he said. He emphasised that the program ensures community participation, noting, “We will ensure communities are not spectators in this journey, but shareholders in Kenya’s green future.”
In merging advanced technology, scientific monitoring, and economic integration with community engagement, the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary sets a new benchmark for wildlife conservation.
President Ruto said , “It is my solemn honour to officially launch the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary and declare this expanded landscape open for the future of Kenya’s black rhino,” marking a historic milestone in Kenya’s efforts to protect both its natural heritage and its people’s livelihoods.
