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Rift Valley Province at a glance


Capital
Nakuru

Population
8,756,000

Bordering Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia to the north and Tanzania to the South, Rift Valley is the largest and most economically active of Kenya’s eight provinces. It is home to the country’s world renowned athletes while the Maasai community serve as Kenya's international cultural symbol.

Agriculture is its economic backbone and the main cash crops are tea, coffee, maize, wheat, barley, pyrethrum, flowers and horticultural crops. These provide primary raw material for flour milling, malt processing and grain ginning industries.

Livestock farming sustains the province’s numerous dairy and beef industries. Nakuru and Eldoret, manufacturing and processing towns, host retail businesses that provide goods and services to the province's agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) runs three geothermal sites in the Rift Valley with a capacity of 1,300MW. The geothermal potential is huge but has hardly been tapped. The Turkwel Hydro Power Station contributes 10% to the national power grid. The province is also among the four sedimentary basins where Kenya's petroleum potential lies.

75% of Kenya's domestic energy comes from fuel wood and charcoal, making this a thriving sub-sector due to the province's expansive forest cover. Rift Valley provides a large quota of timber and other wood products for export.

The province's mining resources include soda ash, limestone, fluorspar, ruby, and diatomite.

Famous parks, lodges and game reserves such as the Maasai Mara, famous for the 'great wildebeest migration' are found in the Rift Valley. Maasai Mara continues to be the backdrop of the BBC's Big Cat Diary programme.