One fine Thursday morning, we set out from Nairobi at 6:00 am and drove to Nyeri county to hike the beautiful Zaina Falls. Zaina Falls is some kilometres past Ihururu town. The hike to the waterfall is a simple and quick walk along the Chania River. The Zaina river joins the Chania river to form the Chania River. 

If you plan to hike Zaina Falls in the next few months, don’t make the mistake we made – wearing tight sportswear. There are tsetse flies along the river whose bites are so itchy but not infectious unlike what you’d find in Western Kenya.

If you decide to look for the Mau Mau caves, it’s a steep climb up the hill just off the river. The Mau Mau were a Kenyan freedom movement that fought against British colonial rule in the 1950s. They waged a guerrilla war primarily in the forests of central Kenya, including parts of Nyeri, where Zaina Falls is located.

Many Mau Mau fighters (also known as Mau Mau rebels) used caves deep in forests as hideouts to evade British troops and their allied home guards (local collaborators who supported the colonial government). These caves provided shelter, storage for weapons, and strategic meeting points for planning attacks.

 

 

The whole waterfall and caves chase took 2 hours and 47 minutes thereabout. It’s a beginner friendly hike and the waterfall brought much respite against the tsetse bites.We got to Zaina falls some minutes past 9 am and started our hike 10 minutes to 10 am. At the start of the trail is this cabbage tree whose bark the locals boiled to help women in postpartum. 

 

 

There’s a lot of items to muse about, such as seeing where the two rivers meet, collecting bird feathers and eating berries from the forest. At the Waterfalls, we changed into new outfits and took a couple of pictures as usual, before starting the uphill climb to the mau mau caves.

 

After what seemed like forever, we got to the caves and unanimously agreed that the reason the MAU MAU used the caves is because there was no way the colonizer would have gone there searching as it’s too high and too steep. 

 

 

 

Unless of course they used the homeguards. From the top of the hill we could see the waterfall and the river down below. We took a couple of pictures before descending down to the starting point of the hike.

 

 

Best Tips for Visiting Zaina Falls

• Wear loose clothing to help against tsetse flies.
• Carry bug repellent.
• Carry sunscreen, a change of clothes, snacks and 2L of water.

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