Lokitaung

Lokitaung is located in northern Kenya near the Ethiopian border, and bounded by Lake Turkana to the east, and the larger part of the Lapur range to the west. Lokitaung sits within a portion of range, is immediately inland and west of Lowarengak, south of Todonyang and north of Kangamajoj village.{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Francis Harold|title=Geochronology of the Turkana Depression of Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia|journal=Evolutionary Anthropology|date=2011|volume=20|issue=6|pages=217–227|doi=10.1002/evan.20318|pmid=22170691|s2cid=25774141 }} The Kachoda area lies to the northwest. Lokitaung is surrounded by extensive plains called Ngikalapatan in Turkana.{{cite journal|last1=Morgan|first1=WTW|title=orgThe South Turkana Expedition: Scientific Papers IV: Land Units of the Lokori Area|journal=The Geographical Journal|date=1971|volume=137|issue=1|pages=14–28|doi=10.2307/1795356|jstor=1795356}}

Nearby geological features include the Lokitaung Gorge and the Lubur Sandstone sedimentary sequence, more than {{convert|500|m|ft|sp=us}} thick.{{cite journal|last1=McDougall|first1=Ian|last2=Brown|first2=Francis H|title=Timing of volcanism and evolution of the northern Kenya Rift|journal=Geological Magnetism|date=2009|volume=146|issue=1|page=34|doi=10.1017/s0016756808005347|bibcode=2009GeoM..146...34M|s2cid=130934413 }}{{cite journal|last1=Feibel|first1=Craig|title=A Geological History of the Turkana Basin|journal=Evolutionary Anthropology|date=2011|volume=20|issue=6|pages=206–216|doi=10.1002/evan.20331|pmid=22170690|s2cid=16478971 }} The Lubur Sandstone likely dates to the Cretaceous age of the Mesozoic, and includes dinosaur, turtle and crocodilian fossil bones.

File:Karsa basalt columns.jpg

In the Lokitaung gorge, these sediments are overlain by over {{convert|1000|m|ft|sp=us}} of basalt lava flows extending to the west of Lokitaung, called the Lokitaung basalts. Each flow is up to {{convert|50|m|ft|sp=us}} thick, and many display characteristic columnar jointing. The basalts have been dated to 36 million years ago, though it is apparent from other, nearby flows that volcanism continued after the Lokitaung basalts formed.

While the Lokitaung basalts are thought to extend over {{convert|100|km|mi|sp=us}} latitudinally, their full range is not known. Similarities in age and composition between Lokitaung basalts on the west of Lake Turkana, and basalts from the Nabwal hills and formation on the east of the lake, suggest these two basalts were once much closer geographically. In the 36 million years since their formation, rifting may have subsequently separated them by as much as {{convert|25|to|90|km|0|sp=us}}, depending on their original locations during eruption.

Lokitaung has a borderline hot arid climate (Köppen BWh) bordering on a hot semi-arid climate (BSh). The weather is consistently hot all year round and dry except during the main rainy season from March to May, although a secondary maximum occurs in November.

{{Weather box

|single line = yes

|open = yes

|metric first = yes

| location = Lokitaung (1933-1970)

| temperature colour = pastel

| Jan high C = 33.4

| Feb high C = 33.9

| Mar high C = 33.6

| Apr high C = 31.0

| May high C = 31.1

| Jun high C = 31.4

| Jul high C = 30.8

| Aug high C = 30.6

| Sep high C = 31.8

| Oct high C = 32.0

| Nov high C = 32.0

| Dec high C = 32.1

| year high C = 32.0

| Jan mean C = 27.9

| Feb mean C = 28.4

| Mar mean C = 28.3

| Apr mean C = 26.2

| May mean C = 26.6

| Jun mean C = 26.7

| Jul mean C = 26.1

| Aug mean C = 25.9

| Sep mean C = 26.9

| Oct mean C = 27.0

| Nov mean C = 27.0

| Dec mean C = 27.1

| year mean C = 27.0

| Jan low C = 22.4

| Feb low C = 22.9

| Mar low C = 23.0

| Apr low C = 21.3

| May low C = 22.1

| Jun low C = 21.9

| Jul low C = 21.3

| Aug low C = 21.2

| Sep low C = 22.0

| Oct low C = 21.9

| Nov low C = 21.9

| Dec low C = 22.1

| year low C = 22.0

| rain colour = green

| Jan rain mm = 12

| Feb rain mm = 23

| Mar rain mm = 54

| Apr rain mm = 122

| May rain mm = 50

| Jun rain mm = 19

| Jul rain mm = 31

| Aug rain mm = 13

| Sep rain mm = 6

| Oct rain mm = 14

| Nov rain mm = 41

| Dec rain mm = 26

| year rain mm = 409

| source = {{cite book|last=Butzer|first=Karl W.|title=Recent history of an Ethiopian delta: the Omo River and the level of Lake Rudolf|year=1971|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=24, 29}}

}}

Between 1913 and 1931, Sudanese troops operating in Northern Kenya and southern Sudan suffered from four outbreaks of Visceral leishmaniasis, or Kala-azar, including one in Lokitaung.{{cite journal|last1=Kirk|first1=R|title=Studies in Leishmaniasis in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan|journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene|date=1956|volume=50|issue=2|pages=257–270|doi=10.1016/s0035-9203(42)90044-0}} The exact site of the outbreak was thought to be at the Moru-Yakippi watering hole, later called Loelli. In 1941, an outbreak of Kala-azar struck soldiers from the King's African Rifles while they were stationed in Nyeri, and after they had passed through Lokitaung.{{cite journal|last1=Cole|first1=ACE|title=A Preliminary Report of an Outbreak of Kala-azar in a Battalion of King's African Rifles|journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene|date=1942|volume=36|pages=25–34|doi=10.1016/s0035-9203(42)90053-1}}

In 1958-9, the British government placed a prison in Lokitaung, where Mau Mau prisoners reportedly received very harsh treatment. Accounts of cruel behavior and conditions reached the British press, who considered sending an investigative team. British colonial officials including Charles Ryland and Lennox-Boyde refused to allow any investigation or visit from the press. One British captain, E. Law, told British Labour MP John Stonehouse that British jailers were more sadistic than the Japanese who'd interned him "on the Burma-Siam Railway." Political efforts to investigate the jail never succeeded.{{cite book|author1=Joanna Lewis|author2=Philip Murphy|editor1-last=Kaul|editor1-first=Chandrika|title=Media and the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/mediabritishempi00chan|url-access=registration|date=2006|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mediabritishempi00chan/page/56 56–60]|chapter=The Colonial Office and the British Press}}

Today, Lokitaung prison grounds are used to host football matches by schoolchildren at Lokitaung and in surrounding communities.{{cite news|title=Commandos up the stakes by flying to Nzoia school games|url=https://citizentv.co.ke/sports/commandos-up-the-stakes-by-flying-to-nzoia-school-games-133271/|accessdate=18 October 2016|publisher=Citizen Digital|date=12 July 2016}}

In 2011, Lokitaung was one of a number of villages throughout Turkana that suffered from starvation, caused by a drought and associated famine.{{cite news|last1=Golden|first1=Don|title=Turkana: Looking Into the Face of Starvation|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-golden/turkana-famine-starvation_b_951005.html|accessdate=18 October 2016|date=6 September 2011}}

Lokitaung includes a weather station operated by the Kenya Meteorological Department.{{cite journal|last1=Nicholson|first1=Sharon|title=The nature of rainfall variability over Africa on time scales of decades to millennia|journal=Global and Planetary Change|date=2000|volume=26|issue=1–3|pages=137–158|doi=10.1016/s0921-8181(00)00040-0|bibcode=2000GPC....26..137N}}

• Lowarengak

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Category:Populated places in Turkana County