Ol Arabel (or Olarabel) is a river in the
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it ...
of
Kenya
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that feeds
Lake Baringo
Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of and an elevation of . The lake is fed by several rivers: the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel. It has no obvious outlet; the waters ar ...
. It gives its name to a forest covering its headwaters and to a region.
River
The Ngusero and Ol Arabel rivers drain the northern end of the
Aberdare Range
The Aberdare Range (formerly the Sattima Range, Kikuyu: ''Nyandarua'') is a 160 km (100 mile) long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi with an average elevation of . It straddles across the counties of Nyandarua, Nye ...
.
The river forms a delta where it enters the southeast of Lake Baringo at , and this forms a dense marsh during periods when the lake level is relatively high.
The river is seasonal and in the dry period of the early 2000s no longer reached the lake.
Historical land use
In the past the region was used by
Il Chamus herders.
In the 1930s growing numbers of
Tugen agropastoralists moved into the area, with some official encouragement.
In the 1940s squatters moved into the Ol Arabel Forest Reserve in
Laikipia District
Laikipia County is one of the 47 Counties of Kenya, located on the Equator in the former Rift Valley Province of the Country. Laikipia is a cosmopolitan County and is Listed as County number 31. The county has two major urban centres: Nanyuki t ...
and cultivated 84 acres of land, eventually being evicted in 1947.
In the 1970s the government operated a settlement scheme in Ol Arabel, but later attempted to convert the land back to forest.
The Harambee settlement scheme involved to be used for cattle raising and cultivation of maize.
Forest reserve
The Ol Arabel Forest Reserve is part of the
Marmanet forests on the eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley, north of
Nyahururu
Nyahururu (formerly known as Thomson's Falls) is a town in Kenya, lying north east of Nakuru. The town derives its name from the Maasai word e-naiwurruwurr, meaning waterfall and/or windy or place of storms. It is located in Laikipia County. Desp ...
.
The forest reserve, which is part of the upper catchment of the Ol Arabel River, once covered , but were excised in 1993.
No boundary plan was defined.
As a result, about 80% of the forest had been settled by the
Mochongoi settlement scheme as of 2008.
In May 2007 it was announced that the European Union was funding efforts to replant forests in the region, including the Ol Arabel forest.
In the past ten years Lake Baringo had been silting up and shrinking in area due to increased agriculture and reduced forest cover in its watershed,
with economically important fish stocks dropping significantly.
In September 2011 an officer of the Green Belt movement said the Ol Arabel forest was almost extinct due to illegal loggers and particularly to charcoal burners.
The police were making no effort to prevent their activities.
The rivers fed by the forest were about to dry up.
References
External links
*
{{Great Rift Valley, Kenya
Rivers of Kenya
Laikipia County