Ngabunat Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Ngabunat Cave, Kibabet Tea Estate, Nandi County, Kenya. 1.7 km hike, 30 min. (0.116660, 35.306482)
Open:	no restrictions. [2026]
Fee:	free. [2026]
Classification:	Erosional Cave Caves Behind Waterfalls
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Ngabunat Cave, Tel: +254-.
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History

Description

Ngabunat Cave is a cave behind a waterfall, we have unfortunately almost no information about it. It seems it is located on private property and the owner has built trails to the waterfall including a stone staircase. There is also the idea on Google that there are open hours, which probably would require gating. As far as we understand there is no such thing, this is a sort of park which is named Sirua Garden, and which is under some kind of protection. On the other hand it is freely accessible except for the fact that the dirt road is very bad. The cave is located in the Nandi Hills, an area which has numerous tea farms, and the cave is located either on or beneath Kibabet Tea Estate.

We were not able to find out much about the cave itself. The location is quite spectacular behind a waterfall, and so the guess that it is a waterfall cave, is quite obvious. On the other hand it is actually too big and has a passage with a second entrance. The only possible origin of such a passage is actually a river flowing through eroding it. So it’s probably a combination of a river cave and a waterfall cave, most definitely created by erosion.

There are numerous local legends about the cave, about elephants walking down the hill to drink at the river. There was a fight between the people who live here and the Maasai in the 18th century. The cave was used as a hideout. Unfortunately we could not find a written version of the legends, only the fact that they exist. Te whole site is, as most in Kenia, very badly documented, and so we strongly recommend to hire a local guide for the visit, preferably with a car which allows to navigate the poor roads.