Sep 20 – A team of 21 hikers drawn from various companies has begun a three-day ascent of Mount Kenya to raise awareness and funds for the conservation of the critically endangered Mountain Bongo.
The group set off from the Naro Moru Gate of Mount Kenya National Park, targeting to mobilise Sh100 million in support of the Mount Kenya Bongo Conservation Sanctuary under the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy (MKWC).
Organisers said the trek has already secured at least Sh7.1 million in pledges — Sh5 million from the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) Foundation and Sh100,000 contributed by each of the 21 participants.
“We have come together to save this beautiful animal, which is on the verge of extinction. Currently, there are fewer than 100 mountain bongos left in the wild,” said Rachel Gathoni of the KPC Foundation, urging Kenyans to back the appeal.
MKWC’s lead researcher Dr Albert Aloho said decades of poaching, habitat loss and disease had devastated the population, but a sustained programme combining captive breeding, rewilding and habitat restoration offered a realistic path to recovery. “Our long-term goal is to grow the population from under 100 to at least 750 individuals through coordinated conservation,” he said.
The Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) is a large, elusive forest antelope once widespread across the montane forests of Mount Kenya, the Aberdares, Mau and Mount Elgon. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with the remaining wild population largely confined to Mount Kenya and the Aberdares. Distinguished by a rich chestnut coat with vertical stripes and long spiralled horns, both males and females carry horns — a rarity among tragelaphids.
MKWC’s programme — developed with government agencies and conservation partners — centres on breeding, rewilding at the 776-acre Mawingu Sanctuary within the Mount Kenya Forest Reserve, ecological monitoring and research, habitat restoration, and community engagement to reduce threats and improve coexistence. The KPC Foundation’s Sh5 million investment this year supports these pillars.
Beyond wildlife protection, the hike underscores the Foundation’s broader environmental portfolio, which includes mangrove restoration at Jomvu Creek (over 750,000 seedlings planted), support for ecobusinesses along the coast and fencing of the Aberdare Forest to protect vital water catchments. Since 2016, the Foundation says it has invested over Sh800 million across 377 projects in education, environmental conservation, livelihoods, health, water, sports and humanitarian aid.
The hikers are expected to traverse high-altitude moorland before descending to Naro Moru, with fundraising continuing during and after the trek. Funds raised will go to breeding, rewilding, habitat restoration and community programmes aimed at stabilising and growing Kenya’s remaining Mountain Bongo population.
