Official Samburu County Government rates
Samburu National Reserve entry fees
None of these three reserves is a KWS park. Samburu National Reserve belongs to Samburu County. Buffalo Springs and Shaba belong to Isiolo County. The rates are set by county finance legislation, not by the national tariff, which is why the KWS price list and the eCitizen booking system do not apply here.
If you only want the answer
They are not one price. A foreign adult pays $85 at Samburu National Reserve and $70 at Buffalo Springs or Shaba, because those are two different counties charging under two different laws. Almost every tour operator quotes a single figure for all three. There is no published combined ticket and no evidence of one, so budget for paying twice if you cross the river.
Updated 2026-09-18
Entry per person, per day
| Samburu National Reserve, non-resident adult | $85 | child $50; resident KES 1,600; citizen KES 1,600; resident child or student KES 800 |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Springs National Reserve, non-resident adult | $70 | child $40; resident KES 1,000; citizen KES 500 |
| Shaba National Reserve, non-resident adult | $70 | same Isiolo County schedule as Buffalo Springs; the law lists one table for both |
Neither county's law states how long a ticket is valid, and neither sets an age for the child rate. Every site that tells you a Samburu ticket runs for 24 hours is repeating something that appears in no legal text we could find. Ask at the gate and get it in writing on the receipt.
Updated 2026-09-18
Vehicle entry
| Samburu: under 6 seats | KES 800 | 6 to 12 seats KES 1,600; 24 to 25 seats KES 4,800 |
|---|---|---|
| Isiolo (Buffalo Springs, Shaba): under 6 seats | KES 500 | 6 to 12 seats KES 1,000; 24 to 25 seats KES 4,000 |
Vehicle charges are in shillings for everyone, unlike the person charge. The gap between the two counties runs right through the schedule: Isiolo is cheaper on every line.
Updated 2026-09-18
Camping (per person, per night)
| Samburu National Reserve, non-resident adult | $25 | non-resident child or student $15; resident adult KES 800; resident child or student KES 500 |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Springs and Shaba, non-resident adult | $30 | under the Isiolo County schedule, which covers both reserves |
| Site reservation charge | KES 12,000 per week | Samburu; Isiolo charges KES 10,000 per week per site |
Camping is charged on top of entry, not instead of it. The cheapest legal night inside Samburu National Reserve is therefore $110 per person, being $25 of camping plus $85 of entry. On the Isiolo side the same sum comes to $100. Neither county publishes a phone number, an email address or a booking form for camping.
Updated 2026-09-18
What the counties do not charge for
| Guide or ranger fee | not in the schedule | camps supply their own guides and build it into the rate |
|---|---|---|
| Night drives | not permitted | the reserves close to visitors after dark; night drives here happen in the neighbouring conservancies, not in the reserves |
| Conservancy fees | separate | Westgate, Kalama, Namunyak, Sera and Ol Donyo Sabache each charge their own bed-night or conservancy fee, collected by the camp |
If your camp is in a conservancy rather than in one of the three reserves, you pay that conservancy instead, and you only pay a reserve fee on the days you drive into one.
Something this page does not answer?
Fees are the one thing park authorities change without telling anyone, and some of them publish nothing at all.
Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.
Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.