Kenya, located in East Africa, is famed for its scenic landscapes and vast wildlife preserves.
The Geography of Kenya is diverse, varying amongst its 47 counties. Even if you've never been to Kenya, chances are you know what it looks like. Kenya's savanna is familiar from movies, TV shows, books, and commercials. It's the landscape many people imagine when they think of Africa.
Kenya borders South Sudan to the northwest, Uganda to the west, Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, and Ethiopia to the north. Its Indian Ocean coast provided historically important ports by which goods from Arabian and Asian traders have entered the continent for many centuries.
Kenya’s advantageous geographical location makes it the gateway to East Africa and a global travel hub. It is a crossroads for trade and communication, serving eastern and central Africa as well as the Horn of Africa. The capital city Nairobi is the regional commercial hub, while Mombasa is the largest port and serves the entire East African hinterland.
Kenya's terrain is composed of low plains that rise into central highlands that are, in turn, bisected by the Great Rift Valley. The lowest point on Kenya is at sea level on the Indian Ocean.
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Kenya's diverse topography results in a variety of climate zones, ranging from tropical along the coast to arid and semi-arid in the north and east. The climate of Kenya varies by location, from mostly cool every day, to always warm/hot by mid afternoon. The climate along the coast is tropical. This means rainfall and temperatures are higher than inland throughout the year.
Kenya’s drainage pattern originated when a large oval dome of rock arose in the west-central part of the country and created the Central Rift. This dome produced a primeval watershed from which rivers once drained eastward to the Indian Ocean and westward to the Congo River system and the Atlantic Ocean.
Kenya is a country with rich geographical features as well as diverse sociocultural and physical settings.
Geographic Regions of Kenya
The 38th meridian divides Kenya into two halves of striking contrast. While the eastern half slopes gently to the coral-backed seashore, the western portion rises more abruptly through a series of hills and plateaus to the Eastern Rift Valley, known in Kenya as the Central Rift. West of the Rift is a westward-sloping plateau, the lowest part of which is occupied by Lake Victoria.
Within this basic framework, Kenya is divided into the following geographic regions: the Lake Victoria basin, the Rift Valley and associated highlands, the eastern plateau forelands, the semiarid and arid areas of the north and south, and the coast.
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Lake Victoria Basin
The Lake Victoria basin is part of a plateau rising eastward from the lakeshore to the Rift highlands. The lower part, forming the lake basin proper, is itself a plateau area lying between 3,000 and 4,000 feet (900 and 1,200 meters) above sea level. The rolling grassland of this plateau is cut almost in half by the Kano Plain, into which an arm of the lake known as Winam Gulf (Kavirondo Gulf) extends eastward for 50 miles (80 km). The floor of the Kano Plain merges north and south into highlands characterized by a number of extinct volcanoes. These include Mount Elgon, rising to 14,178 feet (4,321 meters) at the Ugandan border on the extreme north of the basin.
The Great Rift Valley and Associated Highlands
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The Rift Valley splits the highland region into two sections: the Mau Escarpment to the west and the Aberdare Range to the east. The valley itself is 30 to 80 miles (50 to 130 km) wide, and its floor rises from about 1,500 feet (450 meters) in the north around Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolf) to over 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) at Lake Naivasha but then drops to 2,000 feet (600 meters) at the Tanzanian border in the south. The floor of the Rift is occupied by a chain of shallow lakes separated by extinct volcanoes. Lake Naivasha is the largest of these; the others include Lakes Magadi, Nakuru, Bogoria, and Baringo.
West of the valley the diverse highland area runs from the thick lava block of the Mau Escarpment-Mount Tinderet complex northward to the Uasin Gishu Plateau. East of the Rift the Aberdare Range rises to nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). The eastern highlands extend from the Ngong Hills and the uplands bordering Tanzania northward to the Laikipia Escarpment. Farther east they are linked by the Nyeri saddle to Mount Kenya, the country’s highest peak, at 17,058 feet (5,199 meters). The relief of both highlands is complex and includes plains, deep valleys, and mountains. Important in the historic and economic development of Kenya, the region was the focus of European settlement.
Eastern Plateau Forelands
The eastern plateau forelands, located just east of the Rift highlands, constitute a vast plateau of ancient rocks gently sloping to the coastal plain. They are a region of scattered hills and striking elevated formations, the most prominent being the hills of Taita, Kasigau, Machakos, and Kitui. These hills, containing the area of more favorable climate, are surrounded by regions historically prone to famine.
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Semi-Arid and Arid Areas
The semiarid and arid areas in the north and northeast are part of a vast region extending from the Ugandan border through Lake Turkana to the plateau area between the Ethiopian and Kenyan highlands. The area from Lake Magadi southward, though not as arid, has the same characteristics. Although tree and grass cover is scanty there, the areas of true desert are limited to the Chalbi Desert east of Lake Turkana. The movement of people and livestock is strictly limited by the availability of water.
Coastal Plain
Kenya has a coastline on the Indian Ocean, which contains swamps of East African mangroves. The coastal plain proper, which runs for about 250 miles (400 km) along the Indian Ocean, is a narrow strip only about 10 miles (16 km) wide in the south, but in the Tana River lowlands to the north it broadens to about 100 miles (160 km). Farther northeast it merges into the lowlands of Somalia. The excellent natural harbors include that of Mombasa, which is one of the best in East Africa.
Lakes and Rivers
In addition to Lake Victoria, Kenya is well endowed with small and large lakes, which dot the floor of the Rift Valley from Lake Amboseli in the south to Lake Turkana in the north. Lake Turkana, the “jade sea”, crosses into Ethiopia at its northern end and is the world’s largest desert lake. Lake Victoria, on the other hand, is the world’s second-largest freshwater lake, and is shared by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Still following this ancient pattern are the Tana and Galana rivers, which rise in the eastern highlands and flow roughly southeast to the Indian Ocean. West of the Central Rift, however, the major streams now drain into Lake Victoria. These include the Nzoia, Yala, Mara, and Nyando rivers. Between the eastern and western systems, the rifting of the dome’s crust has created a complex pattern of internal streams that feed the major lakes.
There are no major groundwater basins, and, apart from the Tana River, most of the rivers in Kenya are short and often disappear during the dry season.
Lake Victoria, with a surface area of 26,828 square miles (69,484 square km), is the largest lake in Africa, the second largest freshwater body in the world, and a major reservoir of the Nile River. Lake Turkana, some 150 miles (240 km) long and 20 miles (30 km) wide, is the largest of the country’s Rift Valley lakes. Other lakes are rather small, and their surface areas fluctuate considerably.
Soils
In the Lake Victoria basin, lava deposits have produced fertile and sandy loam soils in the plateaus north and south of Winam Bay, while the volcanic pile of Mount Elgon produces highly fertile volcanic soils well known for coffee and tea production.
The Rift Valley and associated highlands are composed of fertile dark brown loams developed on younger volcanic deposits. The most widespread soils in Kenya, however, are the sandy soils of the semiarid regions between the coast and the Rift highlands. To the north of the Rift are vast areas covered by red desert soils, mainly sandy loams.
Kenya’s soils are subject to widespread erosion largely because of the lack of forest cover; overgrazing and cultivation, especially in the arid and semiarid regions, also contribute to soil loss.
Land Use
9.8% of the land is arable; permanent crops occupy 0.9% of the land, permanent pasture occupies 37.4% of the land; forest occupies 6.1% of the land. Other uses make up the rest of Kenya's land.
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