Malasso beyond Maralal

At the edge of the flat grassland, the land drops and we’re at the brow of one of the most dramatic views of the Great Rift Valley. It’s at Malasso, an hour’s bumpy drive from Maralal. The valley drops 6,600 feet.

A steel barrier stops people from falling over the edge of the escarpment, which is also known as the ‘World’s End’ boasting the longest vertical drop in the Great Rift Valley. Etched with gorges, peaks and plains, a barren sun-bleached patch in the horizon is the valley of Suguta and beyond that is the very faint blue of the lake that’s famous as the world’s largest permanent water body in a desert – Lake Turkana.

Views beyond the valley

Joseph Lekesike, the local Samburu guide at Malasso viewpoint on Losiolo Escarpment, translates the views to the left of Suguta Valley (we’re looking at distances between 50 and 100 kilometres). “The faint range is the Cheranganis.

In a straight line, Nakuru is only an hour’s drive away.” It seems bizarre.

“That’s Nataruk Hill in the valley,” continues Lekesike, pointing to prominent features.

“We call it the ‘twin towers’ because of its twin peaks. Vultures come to roost here.” Being a vulture fan, I have to get some vulture buddies for another trip down the valley. “Can you see the cattle?” he asks.

He continues his spiel about Suguta Valley, little known, little visited, save for the very intrepid and more infamously by cattle rustlers. “It’s a valley inside a valley,” continues Lekesike.

Once a lake in prehistoric times, the water overflowed into Lake Turkana leaving behind a dry lake bed that’s known as the Suguta mud flats.

Suguta Valley

Today, Suguta Valley is one of the hottest and driest parts of Kenya with less than 12 inches of rain a year – a veritable hell for anyone stuck there.

Only 300 feet above sea-level, it’s bordered by extinct volcanoes with Lake Logipi – a seasonal lake – on its north end close to Lake Turkana.

Amongst its most infamous incidents is the killing of 40 Kenya Police officers and reservists on a mission to recover stolen cattle in November 2012.

On a happier note, Lekesike points to the peak from where Safaricom shot its advertisement but there’s no network around. Driving out from the escarpment edge, the land is a complete contrast to what we’ve just seen. Its pretty meadows of sun-kissed golden wheat, fat cattle being herded home and a dam with water-birds frolicking in it.

Back in Maralal and with time to spare, we take a tour of Kenyatta House, the half-way house between imprisonment and liberation for Kenya’s founding president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

There’s no one about. The house itself is locked. Peering through a window, I see nothing has changed when I last visited a decade ago.

Mzee’s huge picture still hangs above the fireplace and three small ones high on the wall. Save for some utilitarian furniture, it’s bare.

In my mind’s eye, I would turn this into an exciting place to visit, filled with Mzee’s memoirs and historical facts – something that the youth can learn from, that locals like us can be reminded of and that tourists can become aware of. l’d have a gift shop stocked with anything from t-shirts to pencils designed along the lines of Jomo Kenyatta’s epic book Suffering Without Bitterness: The Founding of the Kenya Nation. And the garden that overlooks Maralal would turn into a park.

Reading through it again, I pick up excerpts.

On April 4, 1961, the founding president of Kenya and his family were flown to Maralal from Lodwar and moved to this house where he was still under restriction order.

He could only walk around Maralal but not use any transport with wheels.

He spent 130 days in Maralal – the half-way house between Lodwar and Nairobi. It’s 289 kilometres (180 miles) southeast of Lodwar and the same in a straight line to Nairobi. Here he gave his first international press conference dubbed the Maralal Press Conference on April 11, 1961 – eight years after he had spoken at his Kapenguria trial.

The Kenya Broadcasting Service covering the conference reported his views, one being – ‘under a future Kenyan government, all people – Europeans, Asians or Africans – accepting Kenyan citizenship would have equal rights and equal protection in all spheres.’

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