Taveta Mystic: Creator of Lake Chala (Taveta community)

A long time ago, in the ancient land of Taveta, at the border of Kenya and Tanzania, where Lake Chala is located, there lived two clans. One day a mysterious woman appeared and requested for a place to sleep. But the first clan to whom she made her request were in the midst of an annual sorghum beer drinking and merrymaking to welcome a bumper harvest. The clan refused to welcome her and told her to go away, saying, “go away, you dirty miserable woman”.

Sad and disappointed by the treatment, the woman went to the next village of the Mnene clan. She made the same request. Mnene clan welcomed her with delicious food, and gave her a warm place to sleep, set with warm beddings.

The following day, the mysterious woman woke up a happy lady but warned the Mnene clan about the curse and calamity she was going to bring upon the clan who chased her away the previous day. She told them about a similar incident that happened at a place called Simbi Nyaima. A lady called Anyango cursed the villagers for mistreating her. Simbi village sank after a deluge of rain, and formed Lake Simbi Nyaima in Kendu Bay.

That night, something happened in the land of Taveta that shocked the people. The grounds started shaking, fear gripped the villagers as they did not understand what was going on. The tremors started to get stronger and stronger, houses collapsed, animals began to run helter-skelter, dogs howling out of fear. Suddenly there was a loud bang! Huge black smoke shot from the ground and covered the sky! The ground began to sink. The villagers cried their hearts out for help but to no avail. The ground sunk with the villagers and was covered with water. The curse of the mysterious woman to the clan that mistreated her was fulfilled. A crater was formed and this became Lake Chala.

Legend has it that the villagers who sunk into the lake are heard at night beating drums and crying for help, to be rescued! Also, during the day, big whirlpools normally form because of the unsettled water spirit of the dead villagers. Descendants from the clan/village who chased the mysterious woman were cursed and warned not to swim in the lake. Whenever they swim in it, they drown and die!

Bonus Information
Lake Chala, found in Taveta is a deep four-square kilometer crater lake straddling the border of Kenya and Tanzania. This beautiful Crater Lake is in North Taveta. It is a caldera lake, therefore it is very deep, accounting for its beautiful turquoise blue-green appearance.
A passerby may not know it exists because it’s completely hidden. This makes it all the more mysterious and exciting to visit. The lake is fed by ground-water from Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The lake has a unique ecosystem with some endemic species like Lake Chala tilapia, a critically endangered species, found only in this lake. Nile Crocodile Crocodyllus niloticus, were introduced in the lake in the early 1900’s.