The Suguta Valley is located in Turkana County in northern Kenya, covering an area of 4,013 km².
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The Suguta Valley is located in Turkana County in northern Kenya, covering an area of 4,013 km².
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A landscape with the hallmarks of resilient and inclusive communities living in peace and benefitting from its lasting unique and intact natural heritage, and the sustainable community-led management of its natural resources.
Rift Valley Conservation Limited (RVCL)
The Suguta Valley is communal (formerly trust) land under the jurisdiction of the County Government. With the Community Land Act, land authority will be transferred to communities under registered Community Land Management Committees that are representative of their constituent communities. This registration process is yet to happen in the Suguta Valley, but is planned.
The Suguta Valley is at the nexus of the Turkana, Samburu and Pokot peoples. The Valley itself is home to approximately 9,000 people, predominantly Turkana, but inclusive of wider involvement of communities neighbouring the Suguta Valley this increases to 50,000 people.
The Suguta Valley is a truly remarkable landscape with rich habitats, biodiversity and geological formations. With the Suguta River snaking its way down this spectacular part of the Rift Valley, it is an incredible and varied semi-arid landscape of craters, plains, salt lakes, dunes and lava flows running to the southern shores of Lake Turkana. The Suguta Valley is still an amazingly intact landscape with very limited infrastructure and human settlement, concentrated in only five communities. The landscape is extremely fragile and poorly planned infrastructure development (roads, water supply, etc.) could alter this situation very quickly.
Wildlife populations have been severely depleted by years of poaching. However, remnant populations of greater kudu, Beisa oryx, Bright’s gazelle and warthog along with an array of predators, including striped hyaena exist. Beyond mammals, there is a significant crocodile population along the Suguta River as well diverse avifauna, including at Lake Logipi probably one of the most significant lesser flamingo populations in East Africa.
The Suguta Valley is sadly more known for its insecurity and ethnic conflict between the Turkana, Samburu and Pokot than for its diverse natural resources, wilderness and beauty. Its potential to benefit and sustain the livelihoods and welfare of its local pastoralist communities remains untapped. Local people are locked in poverty and find their area often excluded from national development priorities and investment.
Achau Suguta kotere akwap yok:
it is now shining in Suguta, our ancestral land.
SILVESTER ABOTO | UNIT COORDINATOR PARKATI
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