Giraffe gives birth to twins in rare occurrence at Nairobi park

Rare twin giraffes have been born at Nairobi National Park, Wildlife and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has said.

The CS on Tuesday took to Twitter to celebrate the news.

"One of the Maasai giraffes has given birth to twins, this is an extremely rare occurrence. We welcome the newborns with love," he said in a tweet.

The incident last happened in October 2014 when a tour operator Andreas Knausenberger captured the birth during a safari in the Masai Mara National Reserve.

The tour operator described the moment he and his tour group spotted the giraffe giving birth as special.

"When we approached the giraffes we noticed something dark hanging out of one of their backs and we immediately realized she was in labour," he said.

"Not to disturb them, we waited a good distance away and it was really interesting to watch the others guard the one in labour as there were some hyenas sniffing around."

"After about 30 minutes the baby came out bit by bit and finally fell about two metres onto its back," Knausenberger, from Extrakt Exclusiv Travel, said.

According to experts, the twinning rate in giraffes is one in every 280,000.

This explains the phenomenon that there are a whole lot more human twins in the world than there are giraffes in zoos globally.

So rare are twin births for giraffes that experts report that out of 8,600 normal births worldwide, there are less than 40 twin births.