Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya

At the Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a Chimpanzee Sanctuary, the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya. It is located 200 kilometres north of Nairobi on the plains of Mt Kenya.

There are 35 chimpanzees at the sanctuary. Chimpanzees are great apes, not monkeys. Great apes (Hominids) include humans, chimpanzees (2 species), gorillas (2 species), and orangutans (2 species). Chimpanzees are not related to gibbons (16 species of lesser apes), baboons, or monkeys.

All great apes have a thick brow ridge of hollow bone that lies above the eyes. This ridge provides protection to their eyes.

Chimpanzees are shy and live in dense rainforests. There are only an estimated 150,000 to 250,000 chimpanzees in the wild. Wild chimpanzees are only found in Africa. Only five countries in west and central Africa still have significant populations of chimpanzees: Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon.

Chimpanzees are not native to Kenya, but when a rescue centre in Burundi had to be closed due to the civil war in 1993, Ol Pejeta was established. The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary was established with an agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute. Its aim is to provide lifelong refuge to orphaned and abused chimpanzees from west and central Africa.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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