Many of the lakes, especially those in the Eastern Rift, are brackish, but Baringo and Naivasha are exceptions in that they are freshwater lakes and are believed to have subterranean outlets.

The rains chemically interact with rift terrains, which are dominated with natrocarbonatitic volcanic materials, thus transporting dissolved salts to the lakes. In addition, hot springs around the shores of these lakes carry significant salinity loads into the lakes.

The lakes are; Lake Elementaita (6,300 ha), Lake Nakuru (18,800ha) and Lake Bogoria (10,700ha) all of which lie in basins on the floor of the Great Rift Valley which transects Kenya North-South. All the three lakes are shallow, alkaline and are hydro-geologically connected through sub surface seepage of water.

The northern most of Kenya’s ‘soda Lakes’ Lake Bogoria is less well-known than Lake Nakuru to its south. The lake is extremely salty and has a saline content about twice the density of sea water, making it devoid of most aquatic life.

When water evaporates, the dissolved salts are left behind. So a few lakes are salty because rivers carried salts to the lakes, the water in the lakes evaporated and the salts were left behind. After years and years of river inflow and evaporation, the salt content of the lake water built up to the present levels.

Lake Albert lies at an elevation of 2,021 feet (616 m) in the lowest and hottest part of Uganda. The mean annual temperature is 78° F (26° C), and rainfall averages 34–40 inches (864–1,016 mm). Because of the high rate of evaporation, the waters are somewhat saline, and free phosphate is also present.

Lake Nakuru, lake in west-central Kenya. It is one of the saline lakes of the lake system lying in the Great Rift Valley of eastern Africa. Primarily known for its many species of birds, including vast numbers of pink flamingos, Lake Nakuru also has waterbucks, impalas, and hippopotamuses.

Lakes

Lake Nakuru
Lake Nakuru, lake in west-central Kenya. It is one of the saline lakes of the lake system lying in the Great Rift Valley of eastern Africa. Primarily known for its many species of birds, including vast numbers of pink flamingos, Lake Nakuru also has waterbucks, impalas, and hippopotamuses.

Kenya has five alkali or “soda” lakes – Bogoria, Elementaita, Magadi, Nakuru and Turkana.

A salt lake, or saline lake, is a lake with a lot of sodium chloride and other dissolved minerals in the water. In some cases, salt lakes have more salt than sea water: they are called hypersaline lakes.

The Rift Valley Lakes of Kenya 1 Lake Turkana 2 Lake Nakuru Lake Nakuru is located in the Lake Nakuru National Park at an elevation of 1,754 m above sea level. 3 Lake Naivasha Lake Naivasha is one of the two freshwater Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, the other being Lake Baringo as mentioned earlier.

Salty-water lakes are important sources of salt and soda ash. Examples of salt water lakes in Africa include Lake Magadi, Elementaita, Nakuru, Bogoria, Amboseli, Bangweulu, Chad, Eyasi and Natron. Some lakes are found outside the Rift Valley while others are found within the Rift Valley.

Kenya is home to 64 (9.50%) of the total lakes found within the continent of Africa. Eight of these make up the main lakes in the Kenyan Rift Valley. From north to south, the names of these lakes are Lake Turkana, Lake Logipi, Lake Baringo, Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru, Lake Elmenteita, Lake Naivasha, and Lake Magadi.

The saline, alkaline Lake Logipi is located in the Suguta Valley’s northern end in the northern part of the Kenya Rift. This lake has a maximum length and width of 6 km and 3 km respectively. It is 3 to 5 m deep. Saline, hot springs supply waters to the lake.