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D. O. Olago et al.
central rift lakes of Kenya since 2010 which have resulted in submerged buildings
and road infrastructure, and displacement and/or disruption of the socio-ecological
system. Implementation of viable and sustainable management and use options is
critical, but it is currently precluded by myriad factors, including lack of timely
and adequate data for decision-making, siloed sectoral approaches, jurisdictional
challenges at sub-national and regional scales, overlapping institutional mandates,
and diverse and uncoordinated stakeholder groupings. A pathway for development of
lake basin-specific management plans in Kenya is outlined, based on the Integrated
Lake Basin Management (ILBM) approach, that can help to ensure the health and
sustainability of the lakes and their basins and continued provision of goods and
services to the people and wildlife that are dependent upon them.
Keywords Kenya lakes · Climate change · Aquatic systems · Anthropogenic
pressures · Management
1 Introduction
Kenya has a number of lake basins, most of which, with the exception of Lake Victoria
and some minor seasonal/quasi-perennial lakes such as Chalbi and Lake Kenyatta, are
in a topographically closed depression (bordered by mountains and plateaus) known
as the Kenya Rift Valley. This region has two end-member lakes: Lake Turkana to
the north and Lake Natron to the south (Fig. 1). Several aspects of the development
of Kenya’s lakes through geological time and their associated climatic/hydrological
evolution have been synthesized in a number of previous studies (Tiercelin and Lezzar
2002; Odada and Olago 2005; Olago et al. 2009; Olago 2013; Woldegabriel et al.
2016). Generally, it is the case that within the western branch of the East African
Rift System (EARS), older lake basins that are not in existence today (palaeolakes)
were initiated in the Neogene. The present-day lakes Baringo, Nakuru, Elementaita,
and Naivasha are smaller representations of older large lakes that developed during
Lower-Middle Pleistocene times (Tiercelin and Lezzar 2002; Woldegabriel et al.
2016). In and off the rift flanks, related volcanism has been associated with the
development of craters, some of which host well-known crater lakes such as Sokorte
Dika on Mount Marsabit, Sacred Lake on Mount Kenya, and Lake Challa on the
border of Kenya and Tanzania. Lake Victoria, in contrast, was formed in the late
Pleistocene (ca. 400,000 years ago) by uplift along the western branch of EARS and
back-ponding of rivers that previously drained westwards (Johnson et al. 1996).
The present-day lakes in the Kenya Rift are generally small (a maximum of
30 × 20 km) and shallow (mean water depths ranging from 1 to 10 m), with the
exception of Lake Turkana. The lakes are more-or-less saline-alkaline (with the
exception of Naivasha and Baringo), mainly because they lie in areas under semiarid climatic conditions and/or have no outlet. These rift lakes have been termed,
“amplifier lakes” (Street-Perrott and Harrison 1985) because they are sensitive to
climate shifts as a consequence of their closed basins and small sizes relative to their
D. O. Olago et al.
central rift lakes of Kenya since 2010 which have resulted in submerged buildings
and road infrastructure, and displacement and/or disruption of the socio-ecological
system. Implementation of viable and sustainable management and use options is
critical, but it is currently precluded by myriad factors, including lack of timely
and adequate data for decision-making, siloed sectoral approaches, jurisdictional
challenges at sub-national and regional scales, overlapping institutional mandates,
and diverse and uncoordinated stakeholder groupings. A pathway for development of
lake basin-specific management plans in Kenya is outlined, based on the Integrated
Lake Basin Management (ILBM) approach, that can help to ensure the health and
sustainability of the lakes and their basins and continued provision of goods and
services to the people and wildlife that are dependent upon them.
Keywords Kenya lakes · Climate change · Aquatic systems · Anthropogenic
pressures · Management
1 Introduction
Kenya has a number of lake basins, most of which, with the exception of Lake Victoria
and some minor seasonal/quasi-perennial lakes such as Chalbi and Lake Kenyatta, are
in a topographically closed depression (bordered by mountains and plateaus) known
as the Kenya Rift Valley. This region has two end-member lakes: Lake Turkana to
the north and Lake Natron to the south (Fig. 1). Several aspects of the development
of Kenya’s lakes through geological time and their associated climatic/hydrological
evolution have been synthesized in a number of previous studies (Tiercelin and Lezzar
2002; Odada and Olago 2005; Olago et al. 2009; Olago 2013; Woldegabriel et al.
2016). Generally, it is the case that within the western branch of the East African
Rift System (EARS), older lake basins that are not in existence today (palaeolakes)
were initiated in the Neogene. The present-day lakes Baringo, Nakuru, Elementaita,
and Naivasha are smaller representations of older large lakes that developed during
Lower-Middle Pleistocene times (Tiercelin and Lezzar 2002; Woldegabriel et al.
2016). In and off the rift flanks, related volcanism has been associated with the
development of craters, some of which host well-known crater lakes such as Sokorte
Dika on Mount Marsabit, Sacred Lake on Mount Kenya, and Lake Challa on the
border of Kenya and Tanzania. Lake Victoria, in contrast, was formed in the late
Pleistocene (ca. 400,000 years ago) by uplift along the western branch of EARS and
back-ponding of rivers that previously drained westwards (Johnson et al. 1996).
The present-day lakes in the Kenya Rift are generally small (a maximum of
30 × 20 km) and shallow (mean water depths ranging from 1 to 10 m), with the
exception of Lake Turkana. The lakes are more-or-less saline-alkaline (with the
exception of Naivasha and Baringo), mainly because they lie in areas under semiarid climatic conditions and/or have no outlet. These rift lakes have been termed,
“amplifier lakes” (Street-Perrott and Harrison 1985) because they are sensitive to
climate shifts as a consequence of their closed basins and small sizes relative to their