El Nino rains trigger crocodile relocation and flood works in Lakes Baringo, Bogoria

Dominic Mijele watches the mass of Lake Baringo’s water for the slightest movement.

At the far end of the shore, a speaker plays a recorded soundtrack of a dog in distress.

To him, each slight ripple moving toward the sound is a good sign. It means another crocodile might be heading straight into a trap.

In just four days, Dr Mijele and his team have impounded 13 crocodiles destined for translocation.

The operation is part of an urgent effort to evade severe human-wildlife conflicts projected to spike during the El Niño period, when rising water levels will push aquatic predators into human settlements.

“The crocodiles in Lake Baringo have been heavily involved in human-wildlife conflicts. Because they are carnivores, they prey on domestic livestock, putting them in direct conflict with the local communities,” explains Dr Mijele, a veterinary officer with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

 “The water has risen, and their population has grown significantly. What we are doing now is reducing those numbers before the heavy rains push them right into the middle of the villages.”

Driven by years of climate shifts, Lake Baringo is projected to have expanded by 70 per cent of its original size, swallowing villages and drastically narrowing the shoreline.

“The rise in water levels has led directly to an increase in human-wildlife conflicts,” says Baringo County Warden Grace Wendot, noting that wildlife interactions around the lake have claimed seven lives and injured seventeen residents over the past decade, on top of massive livestock losses.

Because chemical tranquillisers cannot be used on crocodiles in the wild since darted reptiles risk drowning before sedatives take effect, Mijele’s team relies on physical traps and psychological trickery.

Positioned along the muddy shores, teams set up heavy nets and large steel box traps baited with fresh meat.

Lured by recorded distress calls of dogs, the reptiles tangle themselves in mesh.

The goal is to capture and relocate more than 30 reptiles to protected national parks before El Niño rains start.

“By moving them now, we protect the community and help balance the broader ecosystem by placing these predators in reserves that have larger populations of herbivores,” Dr Mijele says.

While KWS teams work the water's edge, military engineers are fighting another battle against the rising waters.

 They are racing to prevent an ecological nightmare as Lake Baringo and neighbouring soda lake Bogoria creep closer together.

As both lakes, Lake Baringo and Bogoria, continue to swell, the land separating them has shrunk significantly.

Physically, the two lakes appear separated by about 10 kilometres of dry land, but experts say underground seepage has reduced the effective distance beneath the surface to just five kilometres.

There are fears that an uncontrolled merger would devastate both ecosystems.

Lake Baringo is a freshwater ecosystem that local families rely on for drinking water and fishing, while Lake Bogoria is highly saline and alkaline, famous as a feeding ground for millions of flamingos.

A merger would poison Baringo's fresh water and fisheries while destroying the delicate balance Bogoria’s flamingos need to survive.

“We might be staring at an ecological crisis if this happens. The dramatic rise in water levels along the rift lakes makes a merger a real possibility,” warns James Kimaru, Senior Warden at Lake Bogoria.

As the October–December El Niño rains approach, state multi-agency teams face an unyielding deadline.

To block a potential spillover, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) engineers are constructing a 5-kilometre dyke between the two lakes as a physical barrier.

They are also excavating a massive channel to route excess freshwater away from Baringo's vulnerable shorelines toward Tiaty, with plans to use the diverted water for crop irrigation.

The rising waters have already exacted a heavy toll on public infrastructure.

Lake Bogoria National Reserve is already building a third gate and staff offices after the first two main entrance gates, curio shops, and administrative offices were submerged.

“It is puzzling. We had put up new curio shops, administrative offices, a conference hall, and a strong gate, but all of that was lost, and we had to build another gate further back,” Kimaru says. “Research might take years to give us full answers, but short-term emergency action and budget allocations are what we need most.”

Experts are also in talks to divert rivers currently draining into Lake Bogoria into Lake Baringo to ease management.

“There are two rivers that currently drain into Lake Bogoria, although they initially drained into Lake Baringo. These rivers were diverted by the aggressive invasive Mathenge that diverts waterways. We are in talks to have the rivers diverted back to drain into Lake Baringo to avoid diluting the alkalinity of Bogoria,” Kimaru said.