Rising lakes in Kenya force communities to flee as wildlife encounters increase

Rising waters in Kenya’s Rift Valley are reshaping lives around Lake Baringo, pushing wildlife closer to homes and forcing thousands of residents to abandon their land.

For years, the lake has continued to expand, swallowing farms, schools, and tourist facilities. Kenya Wildlife Service officials say the changes became impossible to ignore more than a decade ago.

Jackson Komen, Senior Warden, Kenya Wildlife Service: "We started seeing expansion of, I mean, water coming up and also going down. And by around 2014, now we realize that something was, I mean, the lake water was changing completely. So from 2009, 2010, up to date, the water level has never gone down."

The rising waters have displaced families like fisherman Alfred Lekombe’s, whose relatives have already left in search of safer ground.

Alfred Lekombe, Fisherman: "My sisters have moved away, my older brother has moved, so now there are only three of us left here... we’re coming together so we can help each other move out one by one, because we don’t have any other plot; this was the only plot we had."

The expanding lakes have also increased encounters between people and wildlife. Crocodiles and hippos are now appearing closer to homes and communities as their natural habitats disappear.

Scientists warn the nearby Lake Bogoria and Lake Baringo are moving closer together, raising fears of an environmental crisis if their waters eventually merge.

Jackson Komen, Senior Warden, Kenya Wildlife Service: "So if the two lakes will meet, then maybe we'll have an ecological disaster that we may not know what to do with it."

With climate-linked extreme rainfall driving the changes, communities around the lakes face an uncertain future as they race to adapt to a landscape being transformed by water.