Lake Kenyatta, also Lake Mukunganya, is a lake in
Lamu County
Lamu County is a county of Kenya located along the North Coast of the country and is one of the six Coastal Counties in Kenya. Its capital is the town of Lamu. It borders Tana River County to the southwest, Garissa County to the north, Somal ...
, in southeastern
Kenya
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.
Location
The lake is located in Lamu County, approximately , southwest of the town of
Mpeketoni
Mpeketoni is a town in Lamu County, on the Kenyan coast. It is a settlement scheme started in 1960s by the first president of the Republic of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta near a fresh water lake bearing his name.
Location
Mpeketoni lies in Lamu County, ...
. (est. pop. 50,000 in 2015). This is approximately , by road, southwest of the port city of
Lamu. The coordinates of the lake are: 2°24'45.0"S, 40°40'53.0"E (Latitude:-2.412494; Longitude:40.681396).
Fauna
The lake supports herds of
hippopotami
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
,
zebra
Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...
,
monkeys,
waterbuck
The waterbuck (''Kobus ellipsiprymnus'') is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus '' Kobus'' of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies ar ...
,
buffalo and
warthog
''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly co ...
. Also, a large number of wild birds are found here.
Silting
Due to encroachment from the rapidly increasing population in Mpeketoni, the lake is shrinking as a result of (a) silting (b) humans invading its wetlands (c) drilling of many boreholes in the catchment area and (d) invasion by large herds of domestic cattle.
See also
*
Rift Valley lakes
The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...
*
List of rivers of Kenya
This is a very short list of rivers in Kenya.For a list of more than 3,800 rivers of Kenya, see :sw:Mito ya Kenya This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name.
Mediterranean Sea
...
*
Mpeketoni
Mpeketoni is a town in Lamu County, on the Kenyan coast. It is a settlement scheme started in 1960s by the first president of the Republic of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta near a fresh water lake bearing his name.
Location
Mpeketoni lies in Lamu County, ...
References
External links
How squatters became land owners in Lamu
{{Authority control
Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...
Lamu County