| Kinangop Plateau | |
|---|---|
  Kinangop Plateau Location in Kenya | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,500 m (8,200 ft) |
| Coordinates | 0°33′00″S36°33′18″E / 0.549995°S 36.554947°E Coordinates: 0°33′00″S36°33′18″E / 0.549995°S 36.554947°E |
| Geography | |
| Location | Kenya |
The Kinangop Plateau is a region in Kenya that lies between the Kenyan Rift Valley to the west and the Aberdare Range to the east. It takes its name from Kinangop Mountain, which rises in the Aberdares to the east.
The edge of the plateau is about 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) in elevation. The plateau is relatively flat, sloping gradually upwards towards the foothills of the Aberdares. Rainfall is around 1,000 millimetres (39 in) annually, with more rainfall in the north than the south. [1]
Streams that feed the Malewa and Karati rivers have cut into the plateau. These rivers in turn flow into Lake Naivasha. [1]
Soils include ando‐luvic and verto‐luvic phaeozems. [2] At one time the plateau was almost completely covered in tussocky grassland with very few trees. The stream valleys had many tussocky bogs. [1]
After a railway was built, in the 1920s to 1940s the Wanjohi Valley became a British settler community that gained notoriety as the "Happy Valley set". The immigrants bought land at low cost to raise sheep and cattle, built comfortable houses and engaged in a lifestyle characterized by partying and loose sexual morals. [3] Idina Sackville, a member of this set, bought a plot on the side of the Kipipiri Mountain, which rises above the plateau, building a house called "Clouds" that became notorious for parties involving drug use and promiscuous sex. [4] Josslyn Hay, a member of this set, was shot dead in 1941. [3]
During the Mau Mau emergency between 1952 and 1960, huge areas of the "White Highlands" were designated prohibited or restricted to non-Europeans. The Aberdares, Kinangop plateau and Mount Kipipiri were among these. Any African found in the area could legally be shot on sight. Their presence justified "reasonable suspicion" that they were terrorists. [5]
The plateau has been settled by Kikuyu farmers since the 1960s. They have ploughed much of the land to grow maize, wheat, cabbage and potatoes. They have replaced the tussocks by grasses that are easier for livestock to eat, and have planted woodlots across the plateau. The wetlands have mostly been drained. [1] Where drainage has not been deliberate, the trees planted for poles and firewood have absorbed the water. Farm lots are being broken up to be divided between family members. The trend is away from animal husbandry and towards more intensive cultivation of food crops and cash crops. [2]
Mount Kipipiri is a cone-shaped extinct volcano that rises from the plateau in the north. It is part of the Aberdare National Park. The mountain is completely ringed by an electric fence. In June 2009 lengthy negotiations were concluded over the alignment of a wildlife corridor between Kipipiri and the main Aberdare park, with plans to fence the corridor. [6] Grids of rolling bars with gaps between them replace the fence at the points where roads cross the corridor, forming an obstacle that cars can cross but that wildlife will not attempt. This keeps the wildlife, particularly elephants, away from farmers' fields. [7]
Nyeri is a town situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya. It is the county headquarters of Nyeri County. It is one of the oldest towns in Kenya having been established in the British colonial era. The town was the central administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province. Following the dissolution of the former provinces by Kenya's new constitution on 26 August 2010, the city is situated about 150 km north of Kenya's capital Nairobi, in the country's densely populated and fertile Central Highlands, lying between the eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the western slopes of Mount Kenya.
Nairobi National Park is a national park in Kenya. Established in 1946, the national park was Kenya's first. It is located approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) south of the centre of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, with an electric fence separating the park's wildlife from the metropolis. Nairobi's skyscrapers can be seen from the park. The proximity of urban and natural environments has caused conflicts between the animals and local people and threatens animals' migration routes.
Treetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m (6,450 ft) above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya. First opened in 1932 by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, it was built into the tops of the trees of Aberdare National Park as a treehouse, offering the guests a close view of the local wildlife. The idea was to provide a machan experience in relative safety and comfort. From the original modest two-room tree house, it has grown into a 35 room hotel. The original structure was burned down by African guerrillas during the 1954 Mau Mau Uprising, but the hotel was rebuilt near the same waterhole and has become fashionable for many of the rich and famous. It includes observation lounges and ground-level photographic hides from which guests can observe the local wildlife which comes to the nearby waterholes.
Sharpe's longclaw is a passerine bird in the longclaw family Motacillidae, which also includes the pipits and wagtails. It is endemic to Kenya.
Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley soda lakes at an elevation of 1,754 m (5,755 ft) above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park.
The Aberdare Range is a 160 km long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi with an average elevation of 3,500 metres (11,480 ft). It is located in Nyandarua County, west central Kenya, northeast of Naivasha and Gilgil and just south of the Equator. The mountain range is called Nyandarua among the Agikuyu people in whose territory this forest and mountain range is located. The name Nyandarua means a drying hide due to the distinctive fold of its silhouette.
Environmental issues in Kenya include deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, water shortage and degraded water quality, flooding, poaching, and domestic and industrial pollution.
The Rhino Charge is an annual off-road motorsport competition held in Kenya in which entrants are required to visit a number of points while travelling the shortest possible distance across difficult, trackless terrain, where speed is not a necessity. The event is organised in order to raise funds to support the activities of the Charitable Trust Rhino Ark.
Rhino Ark is a charitable trust registered as a Charity in Kenya, UK and United States. Founded in 1988 the trust responded to the grave crisis facing Kenya’s Black Rhino population in the Aberdare ecosystem. The Rhino were under severe threat from rampant poaching for their highly valued horn. Rhino Ark’s initial aim was to build a fence along sections of the Aberdare National Park on its Eastern Salient where rhino were being mercilessly poached. The Salient borders directly onto farming land. Wildlife was able to maraud at night into the farms bordering the park, destroying crops, creating fear and loss of both revenue and on occasions, lives. This situation fuelled an already volatile community which saw no value in protecting either the wildlife or the forest habitat. Poachers had easy access.
Phrynobatrachus kinangopensis is a species of frog in the family Phrynobatrachidae. It is endemic to the Kenyan Highlands east of the Great Rift Valley. Both the scientific name and its common names, Kinangop river frog and Kinangop puddle frog, refer to its type locality, Mount Kinangop.
Lari Constituency is an electoral constituency in Kenya, located forty kilometers from Nairobi along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. Lari is located in the Western part of Kiambu County. The constituency was established in 1966. Lari borders Kinangop to the North, Limuru to the South, Githunguri and Gatundu North constituencies to the east and Naivasha Constituency to the west. Lari is one of the 12 sub-counties in Kiambu County, and is further divided to five wards each electing a representative to the Kiambu County Assembly.
Solio Ranch or Solio Game Reserve is a privately owned wildlife conservancy located in Kenya's Central Province.
Sigur Plateau is a plateau in the north and east of Nilgiri District in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, South India. It covers the 778.8 square kilometres (300.7 sq mi) portion of the Moyar River drainage basin on the northern slopes of the Nilgiri Hills, south of the Moyar River.
The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. It was formed on the "Kenyan Dome" a geographical upwelling created by the interactions of three major tectonics: the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that ran from Madagascar to Syria. Most of the valley falls within the former Rift Valley Province.
Mount Kipipiri is an isolated volcano in the Wanjohi Valley, on the Kinangop Plateau near to the Aberdare Range. It is about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Lake Naivasha, which is visible from the summit. Wildlife includes Colobus and Sykes monkeys, elephants and buffalo and abundant birdlife. The name of the mountain means "butterfly" in the Gikuyu language, a reference to its profile from a distance.
Mount Kinangop is a mountain in the southern Aberdare Range about 100 miles (160 km) north of Nairobi, Kenya. It is within the Aberdare National Park.
The Malewa River rises in the western slopes of the Aberdare Range in Kenya and flows south and west into Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley. Lake Naivasha is an important source of water in a semi-arid environment, and supports export-oriented horticulture and floriculture businesses as well as tourism. Malewa River water quality has deteriorated because of more human activities in the upper catchment. Long-term effects of this on the percentage of rainfall getting into Lake Naivasha are not clear. Possibly in low-rainfall years the percentage will drop because of water abstraction, while in high-rainfall years the percentage will go up because of cultivated soils having a lower water-holding capacity and the introduction of more 100% runoff surfaces like tarmac roads and iron sheets, etc.
Daneway Banks is a 17-hectare (42-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954 and renotified in 1983. It lies half a mile west of Sapperton and is part of a group of wildlife sites in the Frome Valley that includes Siccaridge Wood and Sapperton Canal reserves. The site is in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 360 km2 (140 sq mi) not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in Central Kenya's Laikipia County. Situated on the equator west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide a sanctuary for great apes and to generate income through wildlife tourism and complementary enterprises for re-investment in conservation and community development.
The Ukaguru Mountains are a mountain range in central Tanzania. The mountains are in Morogoro region, east of Tanzania's capital Dodoma. The mountains are named for the Kaguru people. The Ukaguru Mountains are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, and are home to a biodiverse community of flora and fauna with large numbers of endemic species.