Rift Valley Lake Swells 1.5km Inland, Threatening Naivasha Tourism and Submerging Kihoto District

The tourist boats that normally ply Kenya’s famed Lake Naivasha have had a different task in recent weeks: evacuating hundreds of flooded homes.

Although the lake’s level has been rising for more than a decade and has repeatedly breached its banks, locals in the modest district of Kihoto are still astonished by the scale this year.

The Rift Valley lake has travelled up to one and a half kilometres inland.

Joyce Cheche, head of disaster risk management for Nakuru County, estimates that seven thousand people have been displaced by the rising waters, which have also impacted wildlife and threaten tourism and other businesses.

Others have lost everything. Hundreds of homes are completely submerged, churches are in ruins, and police stations are underwater, surrounded by floating vegetation.