Lake Baringo rise pushes crocodiles toward Kenyan homes

Rising waters in Kenya's Rift Valley have pushed Lake Baringo closer to homes, schools and tourist sites, increasing encounters with crocodiles and hippos and displacing tens of thousands of people, according to officials and residents.

Lake Baringo and nearby Lake Bogoria have risen to levels not seen in at least half a century. Scientists cited in the report attribute the surge to extreme rainfall linked to climate change.

An AFP analysis of Copernicus Sentinel and NASA Landsat satellite imagery found Lake Baringo's surface area has expanded by 70 percent since 2010, from about 138 square kilometres to 234 square kilometres. Lake Bogoria has grown by 21 percent over the same period, from 34 to 41 square kilometres.

Kenya Wildlife Service senior warden Jackson Komen said attacks have risen not because there are more crocodiles, but because Lake Baringo is now closer to homesteads. He also said hippo attacks have increased because pasture in the riparian ecosystem has been lost.

The rising lakes have damaged tourism and public services. Komen said 80 percent of community wildlife conservancies had been lost, and AFP saw at least four holiday resorts engulfed by Lake Baringo's waters. Michael Baimet, the director at the local disaster department, said tourism earnings had fallen from roughly $1 million a year to $200,000.

Official records show about 12 institutions around Lakes Baringo and Bogoria have been affected, some of them completely submerged. At Kokwa Island Primary and Junior School in Marigat, about 240 students and staff must cross crocodile-infested Lake Baringo by ferry.

The growing lakes are also raising ecological concerns. Baringo is freshwater and Bogoria is alkaline, and the distance between them is now estimated at about 10 kilometres. Mathew Herrnegger, of Austria's University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, said satellite altimetry shows Lake Bogoria is high enough to overflow toward Baringo, but the amount of water that will reach Baringo and its impact remain unclear.