Why Nobody Lives In This HUGE Part Of Kenya
Explains-it
2,940 views
Why does almost nobody live in northern Kenya? Kenya's seven northern counties cover more than half of the country, yet they're home to about as many people as Nairobi alone. In this video we explain why northern Kenya is so empty, on a real satellite map.
We follow the clues: a desert sitting right on the equator, the Turkana Jet (an invisible river of wind that carries the rain straight over the north), Lake Turkana, the salty "Jade Sea" fed by Ethiopia's Omo River, the time the lake was 100 meters higher and drained into the Nile, Turkana Boy and the oldest stone tools ever found, the Northern Frontier District, the camel herders who make it work, and Lake Turkana Wind Power, where the same wind now lights up Nairobi.
Every number was checked against primary sources: the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census (KNBS), peer-reviewed climate studies of the Turkana Jet, UNESCO, Smithsonian and the Lake Turkana Wind Power reports.
If you're from Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo or Samburu: what did this video miss? Tell us in the comments.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Half of Kenya, the people of one city
0:56 The Empty Half
2:16 The Equator Paradox
3:14 The River Of Wind
5:36 The Jade Sea
6:55 When The Desert Was Green
8:42 Closed For Business
9:51 How People Make It Work
10:53 The Wind That Might Fill It
12:30 So why is it empty?
Maps: NASA Blue Marble, Natural Earth, geoBoundaries, WorldClim. Census: KNBS 2019. Photos & clips: Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC BY / CC BY-SA) and NASA.
#kenya #geography #maps
13 Comments
Except Nairobi that is. Nairobi was an unhealthy swamp until the railway landed there.
Why Nobody Lives In This HUGE Part Of Kenya
Explains-it
2,940 views
Why does almost nobody live in northern Kenya? Kenya's seven northern counties cover more than half of the country, yet they're home to about as many people as Nairobi alone. In this video we explain why northern Kenya is so empty, on a real satellite map.
We follow the clues: a desert sitting right on the equator, the Turkana Jet (an invisible river of wind that carries the rain straight over the north), Lake Turkana, the salty "Jade Sea" fed by Ethiopia's Omo River, the time the lake was 100 meters higher and drained into the Nile, Turkana Boy and the oldest stone tools ever found, the Northern Frontier District, the camel herders who make it work, and Lake Turkana Wind Power, where the same wind now lights up Nairobi.
Every number was checked against primary sources: the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census (KNBS), peer-reviewed climate studies of the Turkana Jet, UNESCO, Smithsonian and the Lake Turkana Wind Power reports.
If you're from Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo or Samburu: what did this video miss? Tell us in the comments.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Half of Kenya, the people of one city
0:56 The Empty Half
2:16 The Equator Paradox
3:14 The River Of Wind
5:36 The Jade Sea
6:55 When The Desert Was Green
8:42 Closed For Business
9:51 How People Make It Work
10:53 The Wind That Might Fill It
12:30 So why is it empty?
Maps: NASA Blue Marble, Natural Earth, geoBoundaries, WorldClim. Census: KNBS 2019. Photos & clips: Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC BY / CC BY-SA) and NASA.
#kenya #geography #maps