KIDEPO VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

KIDEPO VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Kidepo Valley National Park is a 1,442 square kilometers (557 sq mi) national park in the Karamoja region in northeast Uganda. Kidepo is rugged savannah, dominated by the 2,750 meters (9,020 ft) Mount Morungole and transected by the Kidepo and Narus rivers.

Kidepo Valley National Park is located near Karengan in Kaabong District, in the northeastern corner of Uganda. The Park is approximately 220 kilometers (140 mi), by road northwest of Moroto, the largest town in the sub-region. It is approximately 520 kilometers (320 mi), by road, northeast of Kampala, Uganda’s capital and largest city. 

The northwestern boundary of the park runs along the international frontier with Bira, South Sudan and abuts against its Kidepo Game Reserve

The Ketebo or Mening are the original inhabitants of the area, who had been living here since 1800. It was gazetted as a game reserve by the British colonial government in 1958, and the people were evicted. The purpose was both to protect the animals from hunting and to prevent further clearing of bush for tsetse fly -control. The eviction of the resident people and the resultant famine, especially the Ketebo people who were forcefully relocated to other areas within Bira such as Napotpot, Kalo Kudo, Namosingo, Loriwo and Naurkori in South Sudan, was cited by park management as an example of the unacceptable consequences of not taking community needs into account when designating reserves. 

The newly independent government of Uganda under Milton Obote converted the reserve into the Kidepo Valley National Park in 1962. The first chief warden of the park was Ian Ross, a Briton. In 1972, Paul Ssali, a Ugandan, replaced him. Their handover and training were the subject of the 1974 American documentary film, “The Wild and the Brave.” 

Most of the park is open tree savannah. Because of differences in rainfall with annual averages of 89 cm (35 in) in Narus and 64 cm (25 in) in the Kidepo valleys, vegetation and animal populations vary between the two valleys.

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KIDEPO VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

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