Seven tents and no fence in Lemek Conservancy

Mattikoko Safari Camp is a Maasai-owned tented camp in Lemek Conservancy, just north of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Its name means “the place where I belong”.

Titimet’s camp

Titimet (Moses) Nampaso opened Mattikoko with no outside investors. He trained at Koyiaki Guiding School, holds KPSGA Gold – Kenya’s highest guiding qualification – and is a trustee of Enonkishu Conservancy. His wife, Marion Nampaso, runs the camp day to day. The whole team, from the guides to the kitchen, comes from the community around the camp.

Five members of the Mattikoko team, three men in red Maasai shukas and two women in white dresses, standing beside a Land Cruiser under an acacia with storm clouds behind

Seven tents on a rise

The seven en-suite tents stand in croton bush on a rise in the middle of the conservancy, looking out to the Kileleoni Hills. Each sits on a stone base, with steps up to the door and a veranda with chairs. Inside are beds with quality linen under mosquito nets, and solar lighting and charging.

A safari tent on a raised stone base, stone steps up to the open door, a director’s chair on the veranda and a hurricane lantern in front

No fence

There is no fence around the camp. Elephant, giraffe, zebra and impala pass between the tents by day; at night hyenas come close and lions can be heard from bed. Maasai askaris keep watch through the night and walk guests to their tents after dark.

The view from a tent veranda: a director’s chair under the canvas, stone steps down into the bush and hills on the horizon

Pauline McAleese, from the United Kingdom, wrote in a guest review published on mattikoko.com: “It was lovely to be immersed in the Mara, surrounded by the animals, yet feeling very safe.”

Days in Lemek

Lemek is a private conservancy, owned and managed in partnership with the local Maasai community. It limits vehicle numbers and allows off-road driving, so a vehicle from camp is often the only one at a sighting. There are two game drives a day of about three hours each, at dawn and in the late afternoon, in open-sided Land Cruisers. Walks with a Maasai guide go out in the cooler parts of the day, and night drives with a spotlight run on request.

A giraffe walking across golden grass in Lemek, a game-drive vehicle of photographers on the plain behind it

Drinks come out on the evening drive as the light goes. Dinner is in the dining tent, under the stars or out in the bush by lantern light, and some of the ingredients come from Titimet’s own garden. Back at camp, the fire is lit in the open-air boma.

A table laid with red-checked cloths out in the bush at dusk, lanterns set in the grass around it and a Maasai host standing nearby

Photographs from mattikoko.com, by Martin van Herwaarden, Kaleel Zibe, Alan Hewitt and Tay Belcher.

Plan a stay: https://mattikoko-safari-camp.netlify.app