The Ngong Hills are a ridge of seven peaks rising to 2,460 metres on the southwestern edge of Nairobi, forming a dramatic skyline visible across the city. For most Kenyans, the hills carry two distinct meanings: the romantic colonial association with Karen Blixen, and the darker resonance as the site where the body of JM Kariuki was found in 1975.
Key Facts
- Located approximately 20 kilometres southwest of central Nairobi; the name derives from Maasai word enkong'u, meaning "knuckles", referring to the shape of the peaks
- Karen Blixen, the Danish author of Out of Africa (1937), farmed in the area now called Karen at the foot of the hills; she wrote of the Ngong Hills as the place she loved most in Africa; her lover Denys Finch Hatton is buried there
- On 4 March 1975, the mutilated body of MP JM Kariuki was found near the Ngong Hills, the site was chosen for its remoteness and the body was left where it would eventually be discovered; the location entered Kenyan political memory as a symbol of impunity
- Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement planted trees across the Ngong Forest Reserve adjacent to the hills, her environmental activism intersected here with the politics of land and state violence
- The Ngong Hills area is now a national reserve managed by the Kenya Forest Service; it is also home to wind turbines operated by KenGen, Kenya's state power company, making it a site of both memory and modern infrastructure
- A horse racing track at the foot of the hills, the Ngong Racecourse, was a colonial institution that persists into the present
See Also
Related
JM Kariuki | Wangari Maathai | Kenyatta Presidency | White Highlands