The Mara River

The Mara River gets it’s name from the masai mara game reserve. This river is famous due to the fact that it lies directly on the path of the annual wildebeest migration.

The Mara river which covers an area of about 13.504 km2 has most of its surface area in Kenya’s masai mara and the remaining 30% in Tanzania. This river apart from supporting the mara wildlife is also inhabited by Crocodiles and many species of birds can be seen nearby.

The main sources of the Mara River, the Amala and Nyangores Rivers, drain from the mau escarpment. This part of the basin supports forests and smallscale agriculture (less than 10 acres) and medium-size farms (often tea farms up to 40 acres).

The Amala and Nyangores rivers on flowing out of the Mau Escarpment converge to form the Mara River. This River then meanders further through open savannah grasslands that is mostly governed by the maasai community  and used as pasture for livestock as well as for agriculture. The basins of four important tributaries to the Mara (the Talek, Engare, Sand and Engito rivers) are also located in this area, together with some upland areas like the Loita Hills.

Eventually the river flows into the world-famous Maasai Mara National Reserve, where it merges with three of the four mentioned tributaries. On the Kenyan-Tanzanian border, the river flows into the Serengeti National Park and is joined by the fourth major tributary: the Sand (or Longaianiet) River, where human activity is restricted to wildlife viewing. The  Mara River then flows out of Ikorongo Game reserve (which borders Serengeti National Park)  meandering sharply northwards.

At the location where the river meanders into the southwestern direction again the main channel is lost in different streams, which feed the downstream Mara wetlands. These streams and wetlands continue for about 70 kilometers downstream. In this part of the basin human and livestock densities are high and small-scale subsistence agriculture is the main land use. The Mara River and wetlands flow out in Lake Victoria.