Welcome to the Kenya Museum Society!

Who we are

The Kenya Museum Society (KMS) is a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1970 to support and promote the National Museums of Kenya.  You are invited to join the Society and find out more about Kenya, its people, history, prehistory and culture. KMS organises many activities for members, including the two-week-long intensive Know Kenya More which is an informal learning programme popular with expatriates, longtime residents and those involved in the tourism and travel industry. | read more...

The Karura Forest rejuvenated

Cooperation from the local community is essential for the protection of threatened lands like Nairobi’s Karura Forest, says Alice Macaire, whose locally based efforts to protect the forest have led to its rejuvenation.
The Friends of Karura Forest conservation effort began in 2007, building on earlier effort by Professor Wangari Maathai, who originally rescued the forest from development. Electric fence now encloses 900 hectares of the forest, and 29 rangers and scouts patrol the area full-time. | Read more...

Protecting a 60-year investment in world-renowned replicas

KMS funds shelving for the NMK Casting Department

By Benson Kyongo
Casting Department head

The Casting Department was established in 1963 as an answer to a pressing need at the museum. The National Museums of Kenya have the finest collection in the world of hominid fossils, along with many other examples of African flora and fauna. There is a tremendous demand from researchers around the world to study these artifacts. But original fossil skulls and bones are both too valuable and too fragile to handle frequently. So the Casting Department produces precise casts—or replicas—of these fossils that can be sent to other researchers for study. | Read more...

Karen Blixen Museum

  The Karen Blixen Museum was established in 1985 to commemorate the life of Baroness Karen Blixen, the talented Danish author, poet and farmer. Karen Blixen is the author of several books including the famous “Out of Africa” later documented into a movie with the same title. Karen Blixen lived in the Museum house, Mbogani as it was then known from 1917 to 1931.  She sold the house with the 6000 acres she owned to a land developer in 1931 when she left Kenya. The land developer split up the property into smaller acreage to create a housing estate which he named Karen after its previous owner. Mbogani house also changed named at time to Karen house.  | read more...