Our Story
“Some think the best large-scale operation after the war… was the one launched over a drink or two on the veranda of the Imperial Hotel in Addis Ababa.”— Bartle Bull, Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure, 1988
Like so many great ventures, Ker & Downey Safaris was born from a chance encounter. Donald Ker and Syd Downey, two big-game hunters from Kenya, had been fighting with the British in Ethiopia shortly before the fall of Addis Ababa in 1941. Newly released from Italian imprisonment, Syd bumped into Donald at a hotel bar — and with one car and a lot of bravura, the pair resolved to build “the best safari company the world has ever known.”
It was not until January 1946, newly discharged from the army, that Syd and Donald took out their first safari — running camp for the Hollywood production of The Macomber Affair, starring Gregory Peck. It was the beginning of a long love affair with the film industry that would see “K&D” outfit some of the greatest films ever shot in Africa.
Through the 1960s and ’70s the company spread into Botswana, the Congo, Ethiopia and Sudan. By 1977, when hunting was banned in Kenya, K&D had already transformed itself into the leading provider of customised mobile photographic safaris on the continent — a title it holds to this day.
Three generations of guiding lineage.
Born in England in 1905 and raised in Kenya from the age of six, Donald became a ‘learner hunter’ under the Cottar family before hunting with Denys Finch-Hatton and the Prince of Wales. By the war’s end his eyes were on photographic safaris.
A professional hunter from 1930 and a fixture of the Maasai Mara, Syd was described as “possibly the greatest hunter after Frederick Selous.” He met Donald Ker after being released from Italian imprisonment in Ethiopia in 1941.
One of the ‘greats’ of Africa’s hunter-guides, John joined K&D in 1951 and led the transition to photographic safaris, later running a 340-person tented camp for Out of Africa.
Guiding from 1959 and a K&D partner from 1964, David led safaris across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Zaire and Botswana for clients from Stavros Niarchos to the King of Bhutan.
A K&D guide for 35 years and chairman from 1997, Allan helped develop the mobile photographic safari model and remains a driving force in Kenya’s conservancy movement.
Protégé of Syd Downey from the early 1970s, Nigel’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Africa’s wild places inspired guests for over 40 years. His son Sean continues the family’s guiding line today.
Chairman of the board until 2019, James founded The Mara Conservancy in 2001 — a pioneering public-private partnership protecting the wildlife corridors north of the Maasai Mara.