The Long Run | Lengishu House

Lengishu House

BORANA CONSERVANCY, LAIKIPIA, KENYA

Lengishu is an exclusive-use family home at the heart of the 32,000-acre Borana Conservancy, Kenya’s newest and most successful rhino sanctuary. The property opened in 2019 and sustainability has been front of mind from the outset (for example, electricity and hot water comes from a 74 KW solar farm). The locally crafted exposed Kenyan timber work, stone floors, and thatch roof blend seamlessly with the undulating Laikipia Plateau.

Working alongside the Borana Conservancy, Lengishu is passionate about the guiding principles of the 4Cs:

Ensuring wildlife has a secure habitat within which to breed and thrive in perpetuity.
Demonstrating the advantages of preserving wildlife through employment, enterprise, development and commerce.
Supporting local people and their culture.

The main house forms the focal point and accommodates up to 12 guests. There are four further cottages arranged along the hillside, each elegantly furnished with Kenyan goods and crafts. Activities onsite include an infinity pool, gym, billiards, and petanque. Offsite, the wilderness offers endless opportunity for bush walks, horse riding, tracking, fishing, and mountain biking.

www.lengishu.com

The 4Cs

Lengishu joined The Long Run in 2020 to embark on a sustainability journey underpinned by the 4Cs (Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce).

As shareholders of Borana Conservancy, Lengishu contributes to the core conservation costs of Kenya’s most successful rhino habitat. Collectively, it supports numerous health, education and microenterprise programmes outside the conservancy. The 4Cs are Lengishu’s guiding principles:

CONSERVATION

Alongside the Borana Conservancy community, Lengishu ensures that the wildlife has a secure habitat within which to breed and thrive in perpetuity. Securing and expanding this ecosystem and managing the interaction between humans and wildlife is the underlying mission. Lengishu encourages all guests to get a true behind the scenes view of the conservation efforts on Borana by joining the rangers to track rhino on foot, accompanying rangers on their evening deployments, or helping the monitoring team to track lion each day. This enables guests to understand better the conservation efforts taking place.

COMMUNITY

Supporting the community is hugely important to Lengishu owners Joe and Minnie MacHale. They believe that it’s essential to raise the value of conservation through employment, and the opportunities to use the land for enterprise, development and commerce. Borana Conservancy operates a mobile health clinic and supports a substantial number of nearby schools. Lengishu is currently funding a sanitary pad programme at the nearby Lokuseru school, which has the highest number of female students in the Borana Education Support Programme. This project ensures that all girls who attend the school can do so year-round so as not to disrupt any of their studies.

CULTURE

Ensuring that local employment and successful commerce continues to thrive, together with good healthcare and education, is vital for preserving local culture and removing the need to seek employment further afield. Lengishu employs 20 people from the local community, the majority of which have been at Lengishu since its inception.

COMMERCE

Lengishu is working side by side with Borana Conservancy to leverage the power of sustainable tourism to maximise employment, taxable revenues, agriculture and productive land use.