Nairobi National Museum is located at the Museum Hill, approximately 10 minutes from the Nairobi city center which is accessible both public and private means, is a state corporation that manages museums, sites and monuments in Kenya. It carries out heritage research, and has expertise in subjects ranging from palaeontology, ethnography and biodiversity research and conservation, its headquarters and the National Museum (Nairobi National Museum) are located on the Museum Hill, near the Uhuru Highway between central Business District and Wetlands in Nairobi.
The National Museum of Kenya was founded by the East Africa Natural History Society (E.A.N.H.S) like Aubyn Rogers, some government officials C.W.Hobley and John Ainsworth, doctors, dentists, big-game hunters and plantations owner, in 1911 they established the Natural History Museum and library with an honorary curator.Aladina Visram put up the money for a one story, two-room building.
The society’s main goal has always been to conduct an ongoing critical scientific examination of the natural attributes of the East African habitat. The museum houses collections, and temporary and permanent exhibits. Today the National Museum of Kenya manages over 22 regional museums, many sites, and monuments across the country.
The Nairobi National Museum is a very nice museum with information of art, animals, the evolution of humans, music instruments, general information on Kenya throughout the days, a bird collection with all the birds of Kenya and more, it is really nice for 2 hours and a nice way to spend your time in Nairobi. Some of the most notable attractions in Nairobi National Museum of Natural History include the Tree of life, Lolong the skeleton of the Philippine’s largest crocodile in captivity, Rainforest Diorama, Mangrove Diorama and many more. The National Museums of Kenya holds more than 350,000 fossils in its collection, about 700 of which belong to ancient humans. Proconsul Africans lived about 25 million years ago.
Kenya’s wonderful National Museum, housed in an imposing building amid lush, leafy grounds just outside the center, has a good range of the cultural and natural-history exhibits. Aside from the exhibits, check out the life-size fiberglass model of pachyderm celebrity Ahmed, the massive elephant that became a symbolic Kenya at the highest of the 1980’s poaching crisis. He was placed under 24-hour guard by President Jomo Kenyatta, he is in the inner country and next to the shop.
The museum’s permanent collection is entered through the Hall of Kenya, with some ethnological exhibits such as the extraordinary Kalenjin cloak made from the skins of the Skye’s Monkeys and a mosaic map of Kenya made from the country’s butterflies, but this is a mere prelude, a huge galley of at least 900 stuffed specimen. In an adjacent room is the Great Hall of mammals, with dozens of stuffed specimens. Off the mammals room is the cradle of Human kind exhibition, the highlight of which is the Hominid Skull Room an extraordinary collection of skulls that describes of the early human fossils in the world.
Upstairs, the Historia Ya Kenya display is an engaging journey through Kenyan and East African history, well presented and well documented, it offers a refreshing Kenyan counterpoint to the colonial historiographers. Also on the 1st floor, the Cycles of life room is rich in ethnological artefacts from Kenya’s various tribes and the ethnic groups, while at the time of writing there was also an exhibition (which may become permanent)of Joy Adamson’s painting covering Kenya’s tribes.
If you are keen to really get under the skin of the collection (or the adjoining Snake Park), a consider a tour with one of the volunteer guides who linger close to the entrance of both the national Museum and the Snake Park. Tours are available in English, French and possibly other languages, there is no charge for guide services, but a tip is appropriate.
The Nairobi National Museum aims to interpret Kenya’s rich heritage and offers a one stop for visitors to sample the country’s rich heritage both for education and leisure, in addition to the museum, visitors are treated to a variety of shopping and dining facilities, as well as botanical gardens that offer a serene environment during your Kenya safari in Kenya.
