Lake Baringo

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Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Great Rift Valley lakes of Kenya, with a surface area of about 130 sq km 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.

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.