The Maasai Mara & the Rift Valley

The Rift Valley holds some of humanity's deepest roots. Fossils from around Lake Turkana, including the near-complete skeleton of the Turkana Boy found on the western shore in 1984, and the stone hand-axes of Olorgesailie in Kajiado, record early humans over hundreds of thousands of years and more. In later centuries Nilotic herders — the Maasai in the south, the Kalenjin peoples in the western highlands, the Turkana, Pokot and Samburu in the north — spread across the valley and its grasslands.

The Uganda Railway crossed the valley in 1899–1901, and the Nandi fought it for years until their leader Koitalel Arap Samoei was killed in 1905. The Maasai were moved by treaties in 1904 and 1911 from the central Rift and Laikipia into a southern reserve, opening the land to settlers who laid out wheat, cattle and tea estates around Nakuru, Eldoret, Kericho and Nanyuki. In 1952–53 Jomo Kenyatta and five others were tried at Kapenguria in West Pokot, a trial remembered as a turning point in the independence struggle.

After independence the Rift became a heartland of Kalenjin politics under Daniel arap Moi and, later, William Ruto. Land disputes between long-settled and newer farming communities made it a centre of the 2007–08 post-election violence, including the burning of a church at Kiambaa near Eldoret and reprisal killings in Naivasha and Nakuru. In the north, the Ilemi Triangle is claimed by both Kenya and South Sudan and controlled in practice by Kenya, and oil was found in Turkana in 2012.

The region is home to several of Kenya's best-known pastoral peoples. Maasai families in Narok and Kajiado keep cattle at the centre of life; age-sets pass young men from boyhood through the moran warrior stage, and red cloth and bead collars are worn daily, not only for visitors. The Samburu, close relatives of the Maasai, and the Turkana and Pokot of the north keep camels, goats and cattle in harder country.

The Kalenjin — among them the Kipsigis, Nandi, Keiyo, Marakwet and Tugen — dominate the western highlands. Their initiation traditions and fermented milk remain strong, and they have produced a remarkable run of Olympic and marathon champions, from Kipchoge Keino to Eliud Kipchoge, both from Nandi. Iten in Elgeyo-Marakwet is a renowned training base, and thousands of athletes from Kenya and abroad train on its dirt roads at about 2,400 metres. Christianity is widespread, alongside older beliefs in the north, and cattle raids, bride wealth and grazing rights still shape relations between communities.

Nakuru and Eldoret are the region's cities, each with around half a million people; Naivasha, Kericho, Kitale, Nanyuki, Narok, Kitengela and Lodwar are important towns. Farming drives the economy: tea around Kericho and Nandi Hills, maize and wheat on the Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia plateaus and in Narok, dairy in the highlands, and the large horticulture farms along the shores of Lake Naivasha. The Olkaria plants near Hell's Gate produce much of Kenya's geothermal power.

Tourism is concentrated in the Mara, Amboseli, Naivasha and Laikipia's private conservancies, and many Maasai landowners now lease land to conservancies. The north lives with drought, poverty and the large Kakuma refugee settlement in Turkana, which hosts people from South Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere. Rising lake levels have flooded shoreline homes and farms around Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria since about 2010.

The Rift's pastoral peoples live on milk and meat. Mursik, the Kalenjin fermented milk, is stored in a gourd lined with charcoal from a particular tree, which gives it a smoky flavour; it is offered to returning athletes and at celebrations. Maasai diet has traditionally centred on milk, meat and, on special occasions, blood from cattle, while everyday meals now include ugali and tea. Kimnyet, the Kalenjin name for ugali, is eaten with cooked greens such as African nightshade, and with milk.

Nyama choma is taken seriously here, and Kajiado towns such as Kitengela are known for goat roasted over charcoal. Around Lake Naivasha and Lake Baringo, fried tilapia is sold at the roadside, and Turkana families rely on goat, camel milk and fish from the lake. Chai is made with the tea grown in Kericho and Nandi, and wheat from the plateaus supplies Kenya's bread and chapati.

In the south, the Maasai Mara National Reserve and its neighbouring conservancies hold lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and, from about July to October, the wildebeest migration across the Mara River. Amboseli National Park, in Kajiado, spreads swamps and dusty plains beneath Kilimanjaro, whose peak stands just over the border in Tanzania; Lake Magadi and the prehistoric site of Olorgesailie lie in the same county.

The valley lakes are the next chain. Lake Naivasha, a freshwater lake, has hippos, Crescent Island's walking safaris and, beside it, Hell's Gate National Park, a gorge of red cliffs and steam vents explored on foot or by bike, with Mount Longonot's crater rim nearby. Lake Nakuru National Park holds flamingos and rhino, and with Lake Elmenteita and Lake Bogoria, known for its geysers and hot springs, it forms the UNESCO-listed Kenya Lake System; freshwater Lake Baringo lies just to the north.

West of the valley, Eldoret and the running town of Iten look down into the Kerio Valley, and Kericho's tea estates spread across green hills. Laikipia's plateau holds Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home of the last two northern white rhinos, and the equator town of Nanyuki. In the far north, the Samburu National Reserve borders the Ewaso Ng'iro River, and Lodwar is the gateway to the western shore of Lake Turkana.