The Kafue River sustains one of the world's great wildlife environments. It is a major tributary of the Zambezi

Zambezi

The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...

, and of Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

's principal rivers, it is the most central and the most urban, and the longest and largest lying wholly within Zambia.
The Encyclopedia Britannica reports the course of the Kafue River as 960 km long, however, having to follow intricate meanders, a boat trip would be about 2000 km.

The river drains a basin of 155,000 km² and has a mean flow rate of 320 m³/s through its lower half, with high seasonal variations.