The Athi-Galana-Sabaki River is the second longest river in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

(after the Tana River). It has a total length of , and drains an area of . The river rises in the Gatamaiyo Forest as the Athi River and enters the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

as the Galana River (also known as the Sabaki River).

Flow

The Athi River flows across the Kapote and Athi plains, through

Athi River Athi River is a town outside Nairobi, Kenya in Machakos County. The town is named after the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River, Athi River, which passes through. It is also known as Mavoko. Athi River hosts the Mavoko Municipal Council and is the headq ...

town, and then takes a northeast direction where it is met by the

Nairobi River The Nairobi River is a river that flows across Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. It is the main river of the Nairobi River Basin, with several parallel streams flowing eastward. All of the Nairobi basin rivers join east of Nairobi and meet the ...

. Near

Thika Thika () is an industrial town and commerce hub in Kiambu County, Kenya, lying on the A2 road , northeast of Nairobi, near the confluence of the Thika and Chania Rivers. Although Thika town is administratively in Kiambu County, the greater ...

, the river forms the Fourteen Falls and turns south-south-east under the wooded slopes of the Yatta ridge, which shuts in its basin on the east. Apart from the numerous small feeders of the upper river, the only other

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

is the Tsavo River, from the east side of the

Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, at above sea level and above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano i ...

, which enters at about 3° S. It then turns east, and in its lower course is known as the Sabaki (or Galana) River, which traverses the

sterile Sterile or sterility may refer to: *Asepsis, a state of being free from biological contaminants * Sterile (archaeology), a sediment deposit which contains no evidence of human activity *Sterilization (microbiology), any process that eliminates or ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

-land of the outer

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

. The valley is low and flat, covered with forest and scrub, containing small lakes and backwaters connected to the river during the rainy season. During the rainy season, the river rises as much as in places, now strongly flowing with a turbid yellow colour; navigation is interrupted by the Lugard Falls, actually a series of rapids. Flowing east, it enters the Indian Ocean north of

Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centr ...

. File:GalanaRiverKenya.jpg, View of the Galana River in

File:Fourteen falls Thika,Kenya.JPG, The Fourteen Falls near

File:Flickr - don macauley - A drongo at Sabaki River.jpg, A

drongo A drongo is a member of the family Dicruridae of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 28 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stan ...

at Sabaka River

Wildlife

The river flows through the

Tsavo East National Park Tsavo East National Park is a national park in Kenya with an area of . It was established in April 1948 and covers a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Together with the Tsavo West National Park, it forms an area of about 22,0 ...

and attracts diverse wildlife, including

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

and

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

s. Famously, in the 2009 case of Ben Nyaumbe, the region is also home to pythons. Millions of Kenyans rely on the river for drinking water and irrigation.

Development

Thwake Dam

References

Google Maps, Galana River
{{Rivers of Kenya Rivers of Kenya