Meet one of Africa’s rarest antelopes, found only in Kenya. The Mountain Bongo is a creature of the highland forests, a ghost of the mist and the ancient trees. With its rich chestnut coat, narrow white stripes and long, spiralling horns, it is a sight that few will ever witness in the wild.

It is also a species on the very edge of existence. Entirely endemic to Kenya, the Mountain Bongo is found only in the Aberdares, Mount Kenya and the Mau Forest Complex. It is classified as Critically Endangered, with just 66 to 100 individuals remaining in the wild. In the 1970s, the population stood at around 500. Today, fewer than 100 survive. There are more bongos in zoos around the world than in their native forests.

That is why today matters.

In Nanyuki, conservation leaders, scientists and communities have gathered for Africa Species Day. Kenya has launched the National Recovery and Action Plan for the Mountain Bongo (2026–2030), a roadmap with a bold vision: to rebuild a self-sustaining wild population of 750 individuals by 2075.

This is not a plan built on hope alone. It is built on the hard-won lessons of two decades of work. Since 2004, the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy has developed one of the world’s most successful bongo breeding programmes, now managing over 100 individuals. The Mawingu Mountain Bongo Sanctuary, a 776-acre protected forest within the species’ former range, serves as a crucial halfway house where captive-bred animals are gradually prepared for life in the wild.

The plan will take protected forests, real science and monitoring, stronger breeding and reintroduction work, and communities at the centre of it all. It will build on recent successes, including the repatriation of bongos from Europe and the United States to strengthen genetic diversity, and the discovery of a hidden breeding population in the Maasai Mau forest, representing unique genetic lines found nowhere else on Earth.

Protecting the bongo means protecting the forests and water catchments that millions of people depend on too. These highland forests are Kenya’s water towers, feeding the rivers that sustain agriculture, industry and homes. When we save the bongo, we save the forests. When we save the forests, we save ourselves.

The KWS Strategic Plan 2024–2028 prioritises fostering thriving wildlife populations and building resilient ecosystems. The Mountain Bongo recovery plan is a living embodiment of that vision. It is conservation at its most ambitious and most urgent.

Want to be part of the Bongo’s comeback? Click the link below to see how you can contribute to our efforts: https://kwspay.ecitizen.go.ke/donate.