Lake Elementainta

Lake Elementainta

Lake Elementainta, Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, is a heaven for birds and wildlife alike and is an important breeding site for many threatened bird species.
Located between lakes Naivasha and Nakuru, Lake Elementainta is one of the most important of the lakes of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, as it is the breeding and feeding ground for many threatened bird species. The area was declared a Ramras site in 2005.

A photo of Lake Elementainta

During the dry season, black lava islands provide the only suitable nesting and breeding groups for the Great White Pelican in the Rift Valley region. Due to the small size of the lake, fluctuations of water level affect the salinity of the lake, and therefore the conditions alter, making it an unstable place for the flamingoes to rely on for food supplies.

However, the lake is a paradise for bird lovers as it has over 450 species, including migratory birds.
Aids Cures and Rare Species
Lake Elementainta is part of the Soysambu Conservancy, founded in 2007. The lakeshore is an important area for animals such as Zebra, Gazelle, Eland, and Warthog—and a sanctuary for the rare Rothschild Giraffe. It also serves as a sanctuary for the nationally threatened colobus moneys.

Modern Human History of Lake Elementainta

The Masai have wandered the area for centuries, and the name is derived from their name, Ol muteita, which means “place of dust.” The first settler to reach the area of Lake Elmentainta was Lord Delamere in 1897, where he pioneered farming methods, and in 1906 he settled permanently at Lake Elementeita, where his descendants still live today. The landscape around the lake is diverse, with craters, lava flows, plugs, and other remnants of the area’s volcanic history.
There are also odd geometric patterns created by erosion in the very porous soil. Towards the southern end of the lake are the Kekopey hot springs, a location that is thought to be an ancient passage site involved in the yesteryear ivory and slave trades.

Now, local inhabitants depend on the hot springs around Kekopey for domestic fresh water supply, subsistence irrigation, and to water their livestock. The nomadic Maasai use the area as a grazing and natural salt lick for their cattle.

Rift Valley Lakes and Safari Lodges

Africa’s Great Rift Valley is visible from space and is home to some of the most dramatic scenery on earth, but it is Kenya where the Rift Valley is truly on show.
See Rift Valley Lakes Safari Lodge

Echoes of our Past

Lake of Pink, mountains of the moon, and plains of plenty are all part of this natural wonder we know today as the Great Rift Valley. It is a place that echoes our past, a place where the distant memories of our beginnings rise from the deep recesses of our subconscious and send shivers through the body. But it is also a place of breathtaking beauty, and this beauty is better illustrated in the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, where wildlife is prolific and the birdlife is beyond compare.
The Great Rift Valley stretches from the Arabian Peninsula down the continent into the Western or Central African rift and Eastern Rift, which stretches through Kenya.

Eight lakes make up the Kenyan Rift Valley Lake system, two of which are freshwater and the rest alkaline. The large Flamingos for which the Kenyan lakes have become famous are found on the alkaline soda lakes, feeding on tiny crustaceans.

The eight lakes that make up the Kenya River Valley are
Lake Turkana is the world’s largest alkaline lake and the furthest north of the Kenyan lakes
Lake Logipi a shallow hot spring-spring fed soda lake south of Lake Turkana
Lake Baringo is freshwater and the second largest of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes.
Lake Bogoria a shallow soda lake and now a national reserve
Lake Nakuru a shallow soda lake and a national park since 1968
Lake Elementainta a shallow soda lake
Lake Naivasha is fresh water and the highest of all the Rift Valley lakes at 1884 m above sea Level
Lake Magadi is a shallow soda lake near the southern border with Tanzania

There are four lakes in Tanzania that are part of the Rift Valley Lake system and they include the alkaline lakes Natron, Manyara, Eyasi and Makati
Although Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru, and Elementainta in Kenya have been individual protected areas they collectively recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Kenya Lake System.