5-522: The Giraffe Centre is located in Lang'ata , approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the centre of Nairobi , Kenya . It was established in order to protect the vulnerable giraffe , that is found only in the grasslands of East Africa . In 1979, the Giraffe Center, a nature sanctuary for visiting and including wildlife conservation education for urban school children, was started by Jock Leslie Melville,
10-782: A tourist destination just outside Nairobi. The main attraction for both school children and visitors is feeding giraffes from a raised observation platform. The Giraffe Center is also home to several warthogs which freely roam the area along with the giraffes. Lang%27ata Lang'ata is a predominantly upper middle-class residential suburb of Nairobi in Kenya . The suburb consists of many smaller housing developments, referred to as estates. They include Nairobi Dam, Otiende, Southlands, Ngei, Jambo estate, Onyonka, Madaraka Estate , Kutch Prant, Rubia, NHC Langata, Akiba, Sun Valley, Royal Park and many others. These developments are primarily maisonettes or apartment blocks. Lang'ata lies southwest of
15-759: The Giraffe Centre , the Uhuru Gardens, and a tourist village Bomas of Kenya . Lang'ata also has the Carnivore Restaurant and adjoining Carnivore grounds, where concerts are hosted. Wilson Airport, the largest private airport in Kenya, can also be found in Lang'ata. Lang'ata is also name of the Langata Constituency , which covers affluent estates Karen and Lang'ata, but numerically most its voters come from Kibera ,
20-540: The Kenyan grandson of a Scottish Earl, when he and his wife Betty captured two baby giraffe to start a programme of breeding giraffe on their Langata property, site of the present Centre. Since then the programme has had huge success, resulting in the introduction of several breeding pairs of Rothschild Giraffe into Kenyan national parks. By 1983 enough money had been raised to establish the Giraffe Visitor Center as
25-775: The city's central business district , east of Karen , approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi), by road, from the centre of Nairobi. It lies mainly along the similarly named Langata Road, which runs from the Mombasa Road junction at Nyayo Stadium to Karen Shopping Centre, at the Ngong Road junction. However, the area known as Lang'ata terminates at the Magadi Road Junction at the Galleria Mall. The coordinates of Lang'ata are:1°21'58.0"S, 36°44'17.0"E (Latitude:-1.366111; Longitude:36.738056). Lang'ata has several attractions such as
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