KERIO VIEW
Lake Tabar
KERIO VIEW
Chebloch Gorge

    There can be no better testament to the power of water than
    Chebloch. Slowly, over millennia, the floor of the valley has been
    uplifted by powerful geological forces ----the same that uplifted the
    whole huge massive block of the Tugen Hills. As the floor came up,
    so the Kerio had to cut down and make a channel for itself. It
    succeeded, aided in its task by the tremendous load of abrasive silt it
    carries ----and the result is the gorge as we see it today.

    In the past, the Keiyo (Elgeyo) from the west side of the river and the
    Tugen (Kamasia) from the east side would send their elders to
    Chebloch to meet and solve disputes. These could be about dowry /
    inheritance problems (because the two tribes did inter-marry) or
    compensation for thefts of animals and the occasional killing of a
    human being. However, they were often about land boundaries,
    because the Kerio river was forever changing its meandering course.
    The elders would meet under a huge tree on the Keiyo bank of the
    river. In the colonial years, the British  installed their DCs and DOs in
    Tambach and Kabarnet and they continued to use Chebloch as a place
    for meetings to address the tribes on issues such as taxation and cattle
    theft.
    It is not recorded when the big tree disappeared.

    There are crocodiles in the river; not as big as they used to be ----
    they used to take goats for dinner, now they seem to be satisfied with
    the river catfish.  In the dry season the river can be very low as more
    water is diverted in the highlands for human use and there is less slow
    release from the decimated highland forests that used to act like a huge
    biological sponge. Another adverse effect might be the level of fluoride
    in the water, as, for many years, a fluorite mine has operated upstream
    towards the head of the valley.

    Chebloch has seen its share of gory incidents. Even the strong modern
    bridge has not prevented heavily-laden lorries tipping over the edge and
    cascading their contents into water below. There were probably many
    such incidents with the old wooden and steel bridge (girders still seen
    in place) which became quite rickety before its replacement. In recent
    memory there has been at least one incidence of suicide here and one
    case of murderers trying to dispose of the gruesome evidence by
    engaging the assistance of the crocodiles.

    Chebloch Gorge Bridge

    40 km from Iten and 12 km from Kabarnet, the tarmac road crosses
    the Kerio River by means of a bridge which is normally way above the
    water level. Usually, the slow moving, brown water, heading languidly
    north to Lake Turkana, is about 20m below, trapped in a narrow
    gorge of solid basalt rock. But occasionally, when the river is in spate,
    it can almost lick the bottom of the bridge.
    If you follow the river bank to the north for 150m you will see the
    twisted wreck of a saloon car lying on a sand bank ---evidence of
    what a flash flood can do.