Lake Nakuru might double its initial size within the next four years due to unabated flooding, which experts have attributed to a combination of factors.
The Executive Director of Flamingo Lakes Conservation Network (Flamingo-NET), Jackson Raini said if urgent environmental conservation and restoration measures are not undertaken in the Lake’s catchment area, its size is projected to swell and claim 82 square kilometres, a huge increase from the original 43 square kilometres in 2010.
Raini was appointed a member of the multi-agency team jointly constituted by the government in 2023, through the National Treasury, the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assess the impacts of rising water levels of Nakuru.
The Executive Director indicated that various scientific studies and environmental assessments have established that the Lake will not recede soon as climate change was a critical factor and projections show its water levels will continue to rise.
Raini, who is the National Coordinator of Integrated Lake Basin Management Program and a member of Nakuru County Environment Committee, noted that in 1991, Lake Nakuru Catchment had a forest cover of 40 percent spanning 40,000 kilometres, but currently it had been reduced to a mere 7 percent, covering only 1,800 square kilometres.
According to the expert in Environmental Planning, Management, and Governance, the water body lost 35,000 square kilometers of its forest cover in 2001, when it was cleared for human settlement.
“The cleared catchment played a critical role in preventing flooding of the lake by acting as a natural, biological infrastructure that managed water flow, absorbed excess rainfall and stabilized soil to reduce the volume and speed of surface run-off,” noted Raini.
He added, “Tree roots act as natural sponges, loosening the soil and creating channels that allow water to infiltrate deep into the ground rather than flowing over the surface. This reduces the volume of water flowing into rivers and streams, lowering peak flood levels”.
Raini added that the immediate intervention was to restore 200 square kilometres of the lake’s catchment as tree roots also hold the soil together, preventing it from being washed away.
By reducing soil erosion, he noted, forests prevent silt from entering rivers and lakes. This keeps waterways deep and clear, allowing them to carry more water without overflowing.
Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes have received global attention due to rising water levels. Lakes Nakuru, Naivasha, Baringo, Ol’ Bolossat and Bogoria have expanded to levels not seen in 80 years. The phenomenon is replicated across Lakes Solai, Elementaita, Kamnarok and Oloiden.
Raini highlighted the importance of county governments adopting the ‘sponge city’ concept in their urban planning and development. This will reduce storm water surface run-offs and waste that usually ends up in natural water bodies, thereby compromising their holding capacity and polluting them.
A sponge city is one that is built to passively absorb, clean and use rainfall in an environmentally friendly manner, reducing polluting and hazardous run-off.
The approach also comprises permeable roadways, rooftop gardens, rainwater harvesting, rain gardens, green spaces, and blue spaces such as ponds.
The multiagency team’s report, Raini disclosed, has since generated a Cabinet memo, which was discussed to formulate long term strategies and immediate interventions to address the natural disaster.
The report indicated that the lake increased its flood area from a low of 3,268.71 hectares in January 2010 to a high of 5,400.27 hectares in October 2020, an increase of 2131.56 hectares, when it first started displacing a section of the residents of Barut East Ward within Nakuru Town West Sub-County.
According to Raini, increased rainfall in Kenya’s Rift Valley Lakes’ catchment zones is also one of the major causes of the rising water levels in the water bodies.
He indicated that mean annual rainfall for 2010−2020 period increased by up to 30 percent in the Rift Valley region due to the effects of climate change on rainfall patterns.
According to the expert, though actual evapotranspiration in Rift Valley (the process by which water is transferred from the surface to the atmosphere by evaporation) also increased over the period, it was to a lesser extent compared to rainfall.
Environmental Law Advocate, Bernard Kipkoech, said the priority currently should be to beacon riparian areas and factor in the extent to which this water can in worst cases scenario flood, with a view of involving government agencies for these areas to be used for conservation in future.
He noted that riparian boundaries of flooding lakes in Rift Valley region should be remarked with authorities enforcing buffer zones.
Kipkoech stated it would be fair to compensate and resettle all affected residents, especially those with genuine title deeds, whose land has been submerged by floodwaters.
He argued that the flooding had effectively destroyed their homes and livelihoods, amounting to a violation of constitutional rights including the rights to property, housing, human dignity and a clean environment.
The counsel noted that many of the displaced are retired civil servants, businessmen and ordinary workers who invested their savings in land they believed was safe.
He also urged relevant state agencies to crack down on illegal fishing in Lake Nakuru, which has become a significant, hazardous and prohibited trade.
“The detection of heavy metals in the fish, even in small concentrations, may not have immediate health threat on consumers of fish and fish products from Lake Nakuru, but will likely have adverse effects if there is prolonged consumption of the fish species, since heavy metals accumulate,” stated the Counsel.
According to Julius Mutisya, one of the affected individuals, the residents were grappling with food shortage after farmlands were destroyed by floods, which have ravaged the region for more than five years now.
He indicated that he sold his property elsewhere, bought a half an acre of land, where he invested in residential houses that had a net income of over Sh100,000, but have now been submerged by the lake.
The rising levels in Lake Nakuru had aggravated human-wildlife conflicts and exposed thousands to water-borne diseases including malaria and bilharzia.
“Attacks by hippos, which were previously unheard of in this region have become commonplace. Buffalos are now grazing in homesteads, while baboons are destroying household goods and food stuffs,” Mutisya added.
In the wake of its swelling in 2020, the waters from the lake destroyed social amenities including learning institutions, electricity lines, water supply and sanitation units as well as road networks in the region.
Mutisya appealed to the county government to set aside money to help the thousands of displaced persons who are going without food and other basic needs at the Baruti Trading Center.
For 84-year-old Damaris Wairimu, settling in Baruti in 1972 after acquiring 4 acres was a dream come true as she had always aspired to be a farmer.
Her entire parcel of land is now a fishing ground for enterprising youth and fishmongers from various markets in the region.
Wairimu said some of the displaced families that put up makeshift structures on the shores of the swollen water body were in urgent need of water, food, mattresses and blankets, mosquito nets, masks, sanitizers and hand-washing stations.
“There is also an urgent need for pit latrines, bathrooms and sanitary towels. But of urgency now are many vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly who are exposed to the vagaries of weather and unhygienic conditions,” she indicated.
Onesmus Kihiko, a retired employee of the defunct Municipal Council of Nakuru said he watched in desperation as his Sh4 million from his retirement benefits went down the drain, when the flooding waters walloped his 3-acre farm.
“I had invested in the dairy business after building structures, buying 8 dairy cows, planting Napier grass and building a modern house. I had to relocate and seek shelter from a well-wisher as I watched my savings get drain away by this flooding waters,” he lamented.
He explained that when they settled in the area, it had very few inhabitants and they never thought that someday they would be displaced by rising water levels.
“Through the local chief, we received allotment letters after demarcation. Some residents displaced by the waters owned between half an acre and 20 acres,” Kihiko said.
For the past 50 years, Humphrey Maina had known no other home other than Mwariki Village.
Maina said the victims had lost about 4,000 acres of land, with some being displaced from their ancestral lands while scores of others are now internally displaced persons at Baruti Trading Centre.
He further claimed that cases of attacks by wild animals have also increased as a result of the shrinking habitat within the Lake Nakuru National Park and Bird Sanctuary.
By Jane Ngugi & Dennis Rasto
