Endemic to East Africa and confined to the Eastern Arc mountain and coastal forests. In the Eastern Arc Mountains found in forests associated with the Shimba Hills in Kenya and south into Tanzania on the Pare, Usambara, Nguu, Nguru, and Uluguru mountains. A population in the Ndundulu Forest of the Udzungwa Mountains appears to be surrounded by Rhynchocyon cirnei. Along the coast populations occur in small and fragmented forests from Diani Forest, Kenya, south to the Rufiji River, Tanzania, including the islands of Zanzibar (= Unguja) and Mafia.