Central Island National Park

The Gem of Lake Turkana

Emerging starkly from the blue-green waters of the largest permanent desert lake in the world, Lake Turkana, the Central Island is made up of three active volcanoes that belch sulphurous smoke and steam. Three crater lakes, Crocodile Lake, Flamingo Lake and Tilapia Lake, provide breeding grounds for the world’s largest concentration of Nile crocodiles. Central Island has a campsite where visitors can enjoy the beautifully haunting sight of the lake’s luminous waters wash up onto a black lava beach while the moon rises over the menacingly smoking craters.

Central Island National Park is almost in the middle of Lake Turkana, The Jade Sea. It’s a designated world heritage site and covers an area of about 5sqkms. Emerging starkly from the blue-green waters of the largest permanent desert lake in the world, Lake Turkana, the Central Island is made up of three active volcanoes that belch sulphurous smoke and steam. Out of this, Several craters have merged to form three crater lakes namely; Crocodile, Flamingo and Tilapia Lakes. The lakes provide conducive breeding grounds for the world’s largest concentration of Nile crocodiles and home to thousands of endemic fish.

Attractions & Activities

The park is a bird’s paradise that acts as a stopover for migratory birds from Europe who feed and rest here as they return home spectacularly viewed between the months of March and May. Resident birds like the Egyptian goose also breed here. The Park is a spectacular home for over 23 migrant birds and it is an important bird area (IBA).

Central Island National Park is one of the largest breeding grounds for the Nile crocodiles and thus the Crocodile Island commonly known as Chooro by the local community. The park harbors several unique species of fish, while some of them are endemic to the island. It forms the best breeding site for fish. Sport fishing is allowed and can be done at a fee.

Lake Turkana is home to some of the world’s venomous reptiles that include the saw-scaled viper, puff adder and cobras. Species of fish include the huge Nile Perch, large Tilapia and puffer fish a group normally found in sea waters which shows Turkana Prehistoric connection to the Red Sea. There are also some important plant species in the island. Some of these include commiphora spp and salvadora spp which cannot be found on the western shores of the lake and are regarded as having some medicinal properties.

Visitors can enjoy game viewing, camping, boating, nature trail hiking, sport fishing and sightseeing. Boats for hire are available and negotiable with the local community, on the eastern and the western shores of Lake Turkana.