Sirai House is served by team of 40 dedicated and attentive staff. Accomplished head chef George creates bespoke and mouth-watering meals using ingredients sourced locally or grown in the estate’s organic ‘shamba’.  Milk and cream come from Sirai’s Jersey cows and delicious beef from the Borana cattle herds, eggs are from the house’s chickens and honey from its bees. 

What to eat and where and when is entirely at guests’ discretion – whether in the grandeur of the formal dining hall, al-fresco on one of many verandas and terraces, in the poolside loggia or at a sumptuous picnic out in the bush. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free diets are all happily accommodated.

Great care has been taken by the owners to select exquisite wines to accompany George’s wonderful food. Champagne, house wines, cocktails, vintage ports and digestifs, smoothies, juices and soft drinks are all on tap throughout every stay.  A private cellar houses an additional 3,000 bottles of fine wine and vintage Champagne from the world’s most prestigious vineyards.

The six double bedroom suites are dramatic, stylish, refined and romantic. Natural stone and wood blend with raw linen, suede, sheepskin and sisal. Handmade furniture, dramatic chandeliers and African artefacts mingle with vintage and contemporary photographs and an array of beautifully-chosen objets d’art. The results are harmonious, sophisticated and irresistible.

All the suites are connected to the main house via easy pathways, and their bedrooms, bathrooms, sitting rooms and terraces all feel intimately at one with nature. The bathrooms feature separate showers, capacious free-standing tubs, twin hand basins and separate lavatories. Three of the suites have additional outdoor showers, and all have warming indoor fireplaces and flat-screen televisions.

Bedroom linens are of 400-thread count Egyptian cotton, sourced direct from the Nile Valley. Pillows are American-sized and available in both feather and hypo-allergenic options.  A private rim-flow plunge pool leads off the master suite bathroom – it measures 4x 4 metres, and 1.8 metres at the central deepest section.

Conservation is ingrained within the DNA of Sirai House. As well as helping to fund the operational costs of the conservancy, the Borana Conservation Trust, established by Sirai House, has donated over $400,000 over the past five years to various specific projects supporting local communities through education and health initiatives, as well as via employment and sustainable tourism.

It has helped to provide local schools with learning materials, with financial assistance for secondary and tertiary school fees and with clean water for the pupils.  It has also funded the Borana Mobile Medical Clinic which brings vital care to more than 2500 vulnerable people each year in Laikipia’s most remote areas, and has provided high-end medical equipment for Nanyuki Cottage Hospital.

Other habitat and wildlife conservation initiatives and research programmes include supporting the welfare of rangers working on the frontline to protect against rhino and elephant poaching, funding additional rhino protection and conservation in the conservancy and the installation of electric fencing to enhance elephant conservation, community protection and agriculture security.

Straddling the Equator and stretching from the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya to the eastern rim of the Great Rift Valley, the Laikipia plateau is one of Africa’s most exciting and exclusive wilderness safari destinations – with abundant wildlife, spectacular scenery, extraordinary cultural and bio-diversity and some of East Africa’s most successful nature and game conservancies.

Ranching, conservation and high-end tourism go hand-in-hand, with few of the constraints that often apply in Kenya’s national parks and reserves.  Night game drives, bush walks, bike tours, horse-riding, camel treks, scenic flights and helicopter safaris are a few the exhilarating pursuits on hand in the extensive private ranches and conservancies that make up much of the region.

The 32,000-acre Borana Conservancy sits just 27 kilometres north of the Equator, 40 kilometres north west of Mount Kenya and 2000 metres above sea level on the Eastern edges of the Laikipia Plateau. Borana is a non-profit organisation and all conservation fees paid by visitors are invested into the sustainable conservation of land and wildlife and into building local livelihoods.

Borana is home to over 50 species of mammal including some of the world’s rarest and most endangered animals, such as Wild Dog, Leopard, Cheetah, Elephant, Lion and Grevy’s Zebra.  Borana is an incredible conservation success story – the fences were removed between Borana and the neighbouring Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in 2014, forming the Lewa-Borana Landscape – one of East Africa’s largest continuous rhino habitats at over 90,000 hectares and home to large and increasing numbers of Black and White Rhino.