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Attractions in Turkana County

1. Ilemi Triangle

Going through many particulars of Turkana County it would be unavoidable to mention the undesignated and precarious Ilemi Triangle at the northernmost corner, which resembles a scalene triangle drawn with an unsteady hand. Ilemi Triangle bobs-up in some maps of Kenya and is left out in others. When Ilemi appears, Turkana County in the largest in Kenya, and, without it, is the second largest County of Kenya after Marsabit County. The 14,000 km2 Ilemi Triangle is quite literally a triangular piece of land between Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan, dubbed the wedge. Disputes over its ‘unwanted ownership’ began in 1907 in the colonial treaties and arbitrary boundaries. In short order, different caravans of Eurocentric surveyors swayed its complexity. Today, it is almost impossible to outline its definitive limits. On the Kenyan side, Ilemi is roughly demarcated by Nadapal or Mogila Range (west) and Lapurr Range at Todenyang (east). The triangle is home to the legendary Lokwama Moru and the Lorionetom Ranges. Claimed by all three states, it has been at the center of mind-blowing treaties, dishevels and wars unlike anywhere else in Kenya. Likewise, the dead-quiet no-mans land is a much-talked about porous triangle and crisis area for small arms proliferation that have distended and fueled unending affrays for its water and plentiful pasture.  Remarkably, over the last two decades, the Turkana, Didinga, Toposa, Inyangatom and Dassanech tribes (from all the three countries) have by some extraordinary means found ways to co-exist affably in the troublesome Ilemi Triangle. “Long before the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement of December 6th, 1907 was drawn on, the Inyangatom, Didinga, Turkana, Toposa and Dassanech traded and grazed in the ‘Ilemi’ through mutual arrangements” – Nene Mburu.  

2. Mogila Range

The distinctive rock face of the 1,693 ms Mogila Range – just a short hop north of Lokichoggio Airport and south of the Ilemi Triangle – has been a talismanic hiking location now for many decades although rarely travelled. Its proximity to Lokichoggio Airport, which is in air contact with Nairobi and serviced by daily flights, gives it an advantage as a prospect for the avid climber as well as great potential for development as an adventure outfit. What’s more, this has superb scenery over the Lokitipi Plains. Also located nearby Mogila Range is the rustic Kate Camp in Lokichoggio Town. This small, ever-busy township is a cultural passage border-point between Kenya and Sudan. A word of caution is required here: that cross cultural conflicts have become a norm rather than the exception in this neck of the woods, making Lokichoggio unpopular with many travellers.

3. Kate’s Camp

The peaceful safari-inspired Kate’s Camp in the ever-busy Lokichoggio Border Town, a day out bustling logistics and supply town between Kenya and Sudan, is as a relaxed and useful base from where travellers to this far flung corner of Turkana County may enjoy its offerings.  Among the highlights at Kate’s Camp are its spacious bandas, its neat camp grounds, its swimming pool, its views of the Mogila Range, Lokichoggio Airport and Lokitipi Plains.  From Kate’s Camp, trippers can walk to Mogila Range, with the help of local guides who allude to captivating insights of the cultural conflicts in the area and intricate history of the humanitarian agencies based here, and guided tours to some of the villages. 

4. Lokitipi Plains

Turkana County’s immense open-lying plains are epitomized by Kalapata and Lokitipi Plains, duly forming part of the seemingly unending wasteland typified by stunted shrubs and grassland. The latter is roomier and drier, only providing forage for livestock during the rainy season.  At first glance, the gently-pitching windswept aridscape of Lokitipi Plains has has squat to commend it apart from Lokwana Range lying in the north but, of a more recent development, in a rare kairotic moment, teams of local and international experts have discovered vast aquifers beneath the eerily unpeopled tract of the saucer shaped Lokitipi Plains.

5. Kakuma Refugee Camp

Visibly associated with a series of high-profile emergencies, the UNHCR found its roots in the Persian Gulf Crisis of 1991, and the following year, 1992, it would encounter a far-reaching test of resolve in Northern Kenya at Kakuma Refugee Camp. Now hosting 65,000 refugees, this came to being in 1992, concomitantly with the arrival of the Lost Boys of Sudan, part of many Sudanese displaced by the civil war that lasted from 1983 to 2005. “God Grew Tired of Us”, the 2006 American documentary film, tells the story of three of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” on their heartbreaking journey, after their villages were demolished, recounting their unaccompanied journey of over 1,000 kms to Ethiopia, where they resided until their refugee camp was brought to naught, and their journey crossing back into Sudan to get to Kakuma Refugee Camp. Following the civil war, the outflow of refugees from South Sudan and Sudan ensued, many fleeing the persecution based on tribal grounds. Kakuma Refugee Camp was, at the start, established to accommodate 23,000 Sudanese refugees. Nowadays, it accommodates refugees from all countries across sub-Saharan Africa including Somalia, Ethiopia and the DRC. Inside Kenya, however, the 65,000 Kakuma refugees (and the further 126,000 in Dadaab) enjoy neither basic freedoms available to nationals nor the somewhat restricted but still generous rights enshrined in the 1951 Convention. Experts warn, the financial means with which UNHCR is expected to do so are relative. The hapless refugee population remains in exile and without resolution to their plight, the resource issue becoming especially acute. “Both Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps, a forlorn agglomeration at the best of times, have been subjected to drastic measures taken by UNHCR to comply with financial curbs.”