Crater lakes are water bodies formed in the crater of a volcano. There are approximately four of them in Kenya, with one being the binational crater lake that straddles between southern Kenya and northern Tanzania – better known as Lake Chala.
Lake Chala is fed by underground springs from Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, and is assumed to be the deepest lake on the continent. But how did this majestic Lake Chala come to be? It happened over 250,000 years ago…
Taveta legend has it that all those years ago in the territory where the lake sits, there lived two clans, one of which was called the Mnene clan. Both clans lived side by side, with minimal dispute and worked as farmers and traders.
As was the case every year, there was a season of bountiful harvest, and this always called for celebration usually in form of a sorghum beer-drinking festival. Food too was in plenty and the villagers danced to the beats of drums, sang, and cheered till the dead of night.
In that darkness appeared a mysterious elderly woman in need of a place to lay her head for the night. She’d come while the festivities were still ongoing and the unnamed clan’s mellow and festivities may have given her hope that the clan members would extend their kindness to her, but when she arrived and made her request known, she was shunned away. They said, “Go away, get out of our village, you dirty, old woman!”
Distraught, the woman made her way to the Mnene clan and asked the same favour. The Mnene people gladly welcomed her, gave her food and a warm place to rest for the night.
When morning came, the woman was well rested. She thanked her hosts and almost immediately heeded warning to them. She told them that she was capable of great punishment, and she intended to teach them a lesson for their unkindness toward her. She told her Mnene listeners of a similar occurrence in the region called Simbi Nyaima where a village was cursed and sank – a calamity that was inevitable because the people were unhospitable.
After her words of caution and tale of maladies north west of Taveta, the woman disappeared.
The day went on normally for both clans in Taveta, but later that night, the chirps of the crickets suddenly stopped. An earthquake erupted causing distress among the livestock. Fear gripped the villagers as the tremors increased. Their houses then collapsed; screams filled the air. Then, a loud bang! Dust and smoke were all around them as the ground beneath them dropped. More cries, but who could save them? And then came water, out of nowhere; it drowned the villagers and their livestock. This became a moment in legend history: the creation of Lake Chala.
Today, a visit to Lake Chala can be termed as scenic by the lovers of outdoor adventures, and if you stay still and look keenly into the waters, you’ll see the whirlpools which are said to be the unsettled spirits of the villagers who sank.
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