Travel Guide Isiolo

Isiolo is the last place where you can easily find gasoline, food and banks. When you arrive from Nanyuki, the contrast is striking. In a few kilometers, the road goes down several hundred meters, the temperature seems suddenly scorching, the vegetation is stunted and dusty, the population itself is different. The Samburus, the Turkanas, the Rendilles or the Borans have replaced the Kikuyus, and the city is mostly populated by Somalis. This explains the presence of imposing mosques. Isiolo is a real ethnic crossroads, a crossing point for all the tribes of the North. It is also an obligatory stop for all tourists who go to the parks of Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. But the town itself is of little interest. Beyond Isiolo, the paved road continues to Marsabit and then the Ethiopian border. This is too rare not to be mentioned, but it is good to know that it is very close to Isiolo, on the road to Samburu, that the first all-female community was established. It does not accept any male presence. In this small village called Umoja, created in 1990, live about forty women (and their children), revolted by the living conditions of women in traditional villages and by the male diktat that is sometimes too violently exercised. In the wake of this refuge village, three other women's communities have been created in the region.