Mount Kenya, Meru & the East

The region has two histories. In the south, Bantu-speaking peoples settled the fertile slopes and plains: the Meru, whose council of elders, the Njuri Ncheke, still has standing, the Embu, the Mbeere and the Tharaka around Mount Kenya, and the Kamba of Machakos and Kitui, who in the 18th and 19th centuries became long-distance traders carrying ivory to the coast. Machakos became the first British administrative centre in the late 19th century.

The north was pastoral country, grazed by the Borana, Gabbra, Rendille and, increasingly from the 19th century, Somali clans moving south and west. Britain ran it as the Northern Frontier District, a closed area with restrictions on movement. As independence approached, most Somalis in the district sought union with Somalia, and after 1963 an insurgency known as the Shifta War lasted until 1967. Security operations continued for decades, including the massacre of Degodia Somali men by Kenyan soldiers at the Wagalla airstrip near Wajir in 1984, later examined by Kenya's Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

Since the 1990s the Dadaab camps in Garissa County have sheltered hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees. Since Kenya's military entered Somalia in 2011, al-Shabaab has carried out repeated attacks in the border counties, among them the 2014 attacks on a bus and a quarry near Mandera and the 2015 attack on Garissa University College that killed nearly 150 people. The 2010 constitution's devolution brought new county governments and investment to places long left out.

The Kamba are known for wood carving, basketry and pottery, and for dances that display acrobatic skill. The Meru, Embu and Tharaka share Bantu languages and customs close to those of the Kikuyu, and Meru elders of the Njuri Ncheke still settle disputes and preside over ceremonies. Christianity is the majority faith in these southern counties.

North of Isiolo the culture changes. The Borana, Gabbra, Rendille and Samburu herd camels, cattle and goats, and the Somali of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera are overwhelmingly Muslim, with life shaped by prayer, clan ties and the Somali language, poetry and trade. Isiolo is a crossroads where Borana, Somali, Turkana, Meru and Samburu communities meet, and Moyale, divided by the border, links Kenya with Ethiopia. The small El Molo community on Lake Turkana is one of Kenya's smallest ethnic groups.

Machakos, Meru and Embu are the largest county towns, and Nairobi's growth now reaches into Machakos at Athi River and Syokimau. Farming dominates the south: tea and coffee around Meru and Embu, and drought-tolerant crops and livestock in Machakos, Makueni and Kitui, where water is the constant concern. Miraa, the stimulant leaf also called khat, is a major cash crop in Meru County, sold across Kenya and exported.

In the north, livelihoods depend on camels, cattle and goats, and repeated droughts have destroyed herds and pushed families into towns. Garissa is a trading hub on the Tana River, and Moyale on the Ethiopian border and the Lake Turkana Wind Power project near Loiyangalani in Marsabit have brought new roads and investment. Schools, clinics and trade in the north-east have been disrupted by insecurity.

Kamba cooking uses maize, beans, cassava and sweet potatoes. Maize and beans boiled together make an everyday meal, and in these dry counties the size of the harvest depends on the short rains. Around Mount Kenya, the Meru and Embu eat much as the highland Kikuyu do, with bananas, arrowroot, yams, beans and greens, and the slopes grow coffee and tea.

In the north the diet rests on livestock. Camel milk, fresh or soured, is drunk daily, and camel and goat meat are the main meats. In Somali towns such as Garissa and Wajir, breakfast is often canjeero, a thin, slightly sour pancake, and meals include rice or pasta with goat or camel meat, alongside sweet spiced tea. Somali restaurants in Isiolo and Garissa serve the same dishes to travellers on the northern roads.

Mount Kenya's eastern trails are the region's classic climb. The Chogoria route, from the Tharaka-Nithi side, passes the deep Gorges Valley and Lake Michaelson on the way to Point Lenana, and the Sirimon route approaches from the north-west. The mountain's national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Below it, Embu and Chuka are the gateway towns of the southern slopes.

East of Meru town, Meru National Park is a lesser-visited park of rivers, bush and doum palms, where Joy and George Adamson returned Elsa the lioness to the wild. Beyond Isiolo, the Samburu-side reserves of Buffalo Springs and Shaba line the Ewaso Ng'iro River, with Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe and oryx.

Further north, Marsabit National Park covers a forested volcano with Lake Paradise in one of its craters. Past the Chalbi Desert, Lake Turkana's eastern shore holds Loiyangalani and Sibiloi National Park, with the fossil beds of Koobi Fora, part of the Lake Turkana National Parks World Heritage Site. To the south, Machakos lies at the heart of Kamba country. The Somali-border towns of Garissa and Wajir are regional trading centres rather than destinations, and travel there is advised against.