'Lake Baringo' is, after
Lake Turkana, the most northern of the
Great Rift Valley lakes of
Kenya, with a surface area of about
130 km² and an elevation of 3200 ft. The lake is fed by two rivers,
El Molo and
Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters seep into lava. Despite this, it is one of the two
freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley in Kenya, the other being
Lake Naivasha. It lies off the beaten track in a hot and dusty setting and over 470 species of
birds have been recorded there, occasionally including migrating
flamingos. A Goliath Heronry is located on a rocky islet in the lake known as Gibraltar.
The area is little affected by tourism and is situated at the southern end of a region of Kenya inhabited largely by
pastoralist ethnic groups including
Il Chamus,
Rendille,
Turkana and
Kalenjin.
Fish stocks in the lake are now low and
water levels have been reduced by
droughts and over-
irrigation.
The lake has several small islands, by far the largest being
Ol Kokwe Island. The main town on its shore is
Loruk, while smaller settlements include
Kampi ya Samaki.
See also
★
Rift Valley lakes
★
Korosi, a volcano at the northern end of Lake Baringo