Background Parents of children with intellectual disabilities may develop depressive symptoms and are prone to stigmatization due to stressful challenges encountered when providing care for their children. The study objective was to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and stigmatization among parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Method A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to sample 121 parents of children with intellectual disabilities in four public primary special schools in Nairobi, Kenya Data were collected using a researcher designed socio-demographic questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) to screen depressive symptoms and the DISC-12 used to determine stigmatization among parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the depression scores, discrimination and stigma scores. Independent samples t-test, and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to identify group differences at the bivariate level. Generalized linear models were used to identify independent predictors of discrimination and Stigma. Results Of the 121 parents assessed for depression 24% (n=29) of parents met the criterion for being at risk of depression using BDI scores (score of 21 and above). Stigma and discrimination were significantly related to parent’s depressive symptoms, independently of other variables. On multivariate linear regression individual predictors showed that being female (P=<0.001), younger age of between 18-26 (P=<0.003), being divorced/ separated (p=<0.0001), lower education (P=<0.0001) and caregiver burden (P=0.033) were predictors of depression and high levels of stigmatization. Conclusions The risk of depression is high among parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Results of this study suggest that interventions could be developed that have a focus on the health or well- being of parents. Reduction of societal stigma could reduce psychological distress to parents.