River
Nzoia River
334 km from source to mouth · Kenya.
KenyaFlows into Lake Victoria3rd longest in Kenya
In numbers
Length
334km
Average flow
200m³/s
Basin
12,903km²
Drop
1,284m
from 2,418 m to 1,134 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
334 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,418 m
- 96 kmMoi‘s Bridge16,355 people
- 160 kmMartins Rapids
- 176 kmWebuye
- 240 kmMumias45,485 people
- 274 kmBondo8,683 people
- 276 kmOgunja7,060 people
- 321 kmSigiri Bridge
- 322 kmPort Victoria12,194 people
- 334 kmLake Victoriaat 1,134 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kenya
At the mouth it carries 197 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 13 seconds. It drops from 2,418 m to 1,134 m, 3.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 12,903 km², about the size of BS. 6.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from May to June; lowest: from January to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MumiasLargest city on its banks · 45,485 people
- Kisumu International Airport (KIS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 54 km from the cityCar hire in KampalaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Nzoia River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from January to February. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 76 m³/s in the lowest month to 340 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Nzoia River: the basin in numbers
15,901 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 6.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 396/km²people per km²
- 1,857maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,412mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 18.4°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 13% Forest
- 18% Cropland
- 3% Pasture
- 21% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Nzoia River: what you find on the way
- 25WaterfallsNabuyole waterfalls and 24 more
- 2Rapids
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Nzoia River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (2)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Martins Rapidskm 146
- Webuyekm 161
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Sogotio12 km away
- Kapcho15 km away
- Kapoiriwa5.2 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Nzoia River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
In the same basin
Egypt6,650 km2,800 m³/sWhite Nile
Sudan2,620 km880 m³/sBlue NileSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sKagera River
Uganda400 km350 m³/sSobat River
South Sudan306 km410 m³/sAtbarah RiverSudan1,120 km370 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sTekezé RiverSudan608 km140 m³/sMara River
Tanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Tanzania395 km18 m³/s175 km awayKagera RiverUganda400 km350 m³/s263 km awayKatonga RiverUganda177 km100 m³/s243 km awaySemliki RiverUganda230 km240 m³/s406 km awayRurubu RiverTanzania300 km100 m³/s443 km awayNyabarongo River
Rwanda300 km110 m³/s477 km awayAkanyaru RiverRwanda212 km110 m³/s487 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2915185) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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