Rusinga Island

Rusinga is joined to the mainland by a causeway at Mbita, so it is reached by road rather than boat, and it is known for two quite different things. The first is palaeontology: the island's volcanic ash beds, laid down some eighteen million years ago, preserved an extraordinary Miocene fauna, and it was here in 1948 that Mary Leakey found the skull of Proconsul, an early ape that became central to arguments about the ancestry of apes and humans. Fossil sites are still worked and can be visited with local guides. The second is the island's life: fishing villages, tilapia and Nile perch landings, hills with long lake views, and the mausoleum of Tom Mboya, a national figure buried here. The Rusinga Festival each December celebrates Suba language and culture, which the island is working to keep alive.

Highlights

• Miocene fossil beds - the sites that produced Proconsul and much else.
• Fishing villages - boats, landings and the daily catch on the shore.
• Tom Mboya mausoleum - the memorial on the island.
• Lake views - hills looking over Victoria towards Mfangano.

When to go

Dry seasons for the roads and tracks. The Rusinga Festival in December is the cultural high point. Mornings on the lake are calm and best for photographs and boat trips onward to Mfangano.

Good to know

Fossil sites are unmarked working localities, not museums: without a guide there is nothing to see. Accommodation ranges from a few good lodges to very basic. Roads on the island are rough. The lake here has water hyacinth problems that affect landings at times.

Nearby

Mfangano Island lies west by boat; Ruma National Park is inland.

Key facts