DignityHousingforwildliferangers

Rangers spend weeks at a time living where the wildlife they protect lives. For years, many of them did so in basic tents and worn-out shelters, in the rhino sanctuary of Nairobi National Park and beyond.

The project began in March 2021, with a warden’s idea. Joseph Dadacha, Senior Warden of Nairobi National Park, wanted to replace the small tents that housed the rhino rangers living inside the park’s rhino sanctuary. The tents had no beds, no bathroom and no kitchen. Maniago Safaris, the foundation and Stand Up Shout Out designed and built the first two self-contained container homes together and moved them into the first two rhino blocks, then fitted water tanks, plumbing and solar power so that the rangers had running water, warm showers and electricity. There are twenty-five rhino blocks in the park, and the foundation set out to build a home for every one of them: twenty-five fully fitted homes at US$14,000 each, a programme of US$350,000.

The first two homes were in place by April 2021, a bio-digester dug in beside them and bushes planted around them as camouflage. The third and fourth followed that August. In September 2021 the foundation brought Martin Meyer and prospective donors into the park to see them, and Senior Warden Dadacha explained what these particular rangers do: through their determination, their training and sheer commitment, not one rhino had been poached in Nairobi National Park in over seven years, while the population went on growing with new calves.

The Luigi Footprints Foundation developed Dignity Housing to give these rangers self-contained container homes. Each home has three beds, a small kitchenette, a shower and flush toilet, solar power for lighting and hot water, and large water tanks. The foundation has now built these homes across three landscapes: Amboseli, Nairobi National Park and Samburu National Reserve. Around the homes, the foundation and the rangers plant trees together.

The fifth house was launched there in July 2025, when the Kenya Wildlife Service read a message of appreciation for the partnership between KWS, Maniago Safaris, the foundation and Stand Up Shout Out, and the sixth was handed over to the Rhino Rangers in October 2025.

In October 2025 the work crossed to Samburu National Reserve. After a meeting by the Ewaso Nyiro River between the foundation's Peter Karanja, Honorary Warden Annabella Francescon and Reserve Director Tom Lesarge, ground was broken in November with Tom Lesarge and contractor Benson Omolo, and construction ran through December. The units were donated by trustee Annabella Francescon.

In early 2026 the Governor of Samburu County, H.E. Jonathan Lati Lelelit, officially opened the Samburu Dignity Housing: eight units, a kitchen and washrooms at a bridge crossing that had never had a permanent ranger base. The security point can now be manned, and rangers can respond faster. On World Ranger Day 2026 the foundation returned to plant trees around the homes.

Each fully fitted home costs US$14,000, and twenty-five of them come to US$350,000. If a whole unit is funded, a plaque with your name or the name of your organisation goes onto the home.