Our Story

Tassia opened in 1999. The Lekurruki community had watched neighbours like Il Ngwesi, Borana and Lewa turn conservation into jobs and security, and they wanted the same for their own land, which had suffered from poaching, insecurity and damaged grazing.

The Yaaku community built the lodge with help from good friends: Lucy Moris from the UK, Michael Dyer of Borana, the late Gilfred Powys and Ian Craig of Lewa. Together they set out to show that tourism could look after people and nature at the same time.

Here’s how it works. Of the money the lodge earns, 40% covers running costs and 60% goes straight to the community. Over the years that has paid for local jobs, soil erosion control and better grazing plans. It has kept children in school through bursaries and feeding programmes, and helped bring dispensaries and mobile clinics to the area.

Our Team

Ask any guest what they remember most about Tassia and they’ll usually mention the team. Our chefs, housekeepers and waiters all come from the local community, and they’ll look after you like family.

Amos Moiyare

F&B Waiter

Amos looks after food and drinks at Tassia. He’s young, skilled and takes real pride in getting every meal and every drink just right.

Beatrice Kilepan

Room Steward

Beatrice greets every guest with a big smile and takes real pride in her rooms: spotless, with fresh bedding and beds made just right.

Grace Makena

Room Steward

Grace is our room steward and our masseuse. After a long day in the bush, one of her massages is the best way to unwind.

Our community

The Yaaku are an indigenous people whose story goes back centuries, across southern Ethiopia and central Kenya. They were once hunters and gatherers, famous for their honey and beekeeping, and later became herders. Their language, Yaakunte, is now endangered, and the community is working hard to keep it alive.

Life here isn’t easy. Droughts come often, and in the worst years a family can lose up to 90% of its livestock. Many families now keep camels, goats and sheep alongside their cattle, because they cope better when the rains fail.

Through all of it, the Yaaku have held on to their land and their culture. Tassia is one of the ways they are building a future on their own terms.

Your Visit Makes a Difference

Money from your stay goes straight back into this land: ranger patrols, grazing plans, school bursaries and clinics. When you choose Tassia, you’re backing a community-led project that mixes traditional knowledge with modern conservation, and you’re supporting the 820 families who call Lekurruki home.

Wildlife

Our community rangers patrol the conservancy and stand guard against poaching, so wildlife has a safe place to live, breed and move.

Lekurruki sits on an important wildlife corridor, sharing borders with the Ol Donyiro, Leparua and Il Ngwesi conservancies. Together we give space to elephants, giraffes, lions, Grevy’s and common zebras, elands, lesser and greater kudus, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, buffaloes and warthogs, plus more birds than most guests can count. Every night you spend at Tassia helps keep this land wild.

Community

Conservation only works here if it works for the people who live here. That’s the idea Lekurruki was built on.

Our families depend on their livestock, so grazing is carefully planned. In the dry season, herds graze around Melita, Nasikor, Lolbangi, Ltirim Lesakui, Porowet, Rere, Losos and Pejeto. When the rains come, they move to the Naimarlal settlement areas and the Nadung’oru plains next to Mukogodo Forest. Our Conservancy Grazing Committee manages these moves so the grass, the cattle and the wildlife all get what they need.

Land

We plan grazing around the wildlife corridors, so people, livestock and wild animals can share the same land.

It isn’t always easy. Livestock from neighbouring communities sometimes moves onto our grazing land, which puts pressure on the grass, the wildlife and our own families’ herds. We know we can’t fix this alone, so we work with our neighbours, our partners and visitors like you to keep Lekurruki healthy for the next generation.