Loiyangalani is a small town located on the southeastern coast of
Lake Turkana in
Kenya
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. The town has a population of 5,117. Loiyangalani means "a place of many trees" in the native
Samburu tongue. It is home to
Turkana people
The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana County in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburu people to the south, Uganda to the west, and South Sudan and Ethiopia ...
and was founded near a freshwater spring in the 1960s where the
El Molo people live. Its main industries include fishing, tourism and
gold panning
Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...
. It is a popular tourist destination in Northern Kenya, as the surrounding
El Molo and Turkana villages offer unique (although somewhat commercialized) experiences.
In June 2008, the 1st Cultural Festival took place at Loiyangalani and united all tribes of the Lake in celebration for one weekend.
The town is home to an airstrip and lies near
Mount Kulal (50 km), known for its forest and stones. There are a few Lodges in the area, the "Oasis Lodge", the "Palmshade Camp", the "Mosaretu Women's Groupe Lodge", and the "Sailo Bandas" all located only a few hundred meters from the airstrip.
''Loiyangalani Division'' of
Marsabit County
Marsabit County is a county in Kenya. Covering a surface area of 66,923.1 square kilometres. Marsabit is the second largest county in Kenya. Its capital is Marsabit and its largest town Moyale. According to the 2019 census, the county has a po ...
is headquartered in Loiyangalani town. The town is sometimes spelled as ''Loyangalani''.
Loiyangalani was the setting for
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
's novel ''
The Constant Gardener
''The Constant Gardener'' is a 2001 novel by British author John le Carré. The novel tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the t ...
'', and was also a location for the
film of the same title. In 2010, Loiyangalani was briefly made a district on its own from the former Laisamis district by the President of Kenya,
Mwai Kibaki.
References
{{First and second-level administrative divisions of Kenya
Populated places in Marsabit County
Lake Turkana