MENE'NKAI-The Place Of The Gods.

Tourist attraction

At the Menengai Crater in Nakuru, curious tourists are drawn to a controversial cave by stories of strange happenings that have convinced many that it is a haunted place.

A number of strange things are said to happen in the crater, such as people disappearing without trace.Others have lost directions for hours, or even days, only to be found by their relatives wandering around in a trance. Those who live nearby call a hill near the crater "kirima kia ngoma (Satan’s hill)". People claim to have seen the ‘devil’ riding a motorcycle there.

Last year, James Gichumuni (now deceased) allegedly spent two days in the crater. The old man, who had gone to the crater to graze his animals, failed to find his way out despite being well versed with the area. In another incident, a boy was found staring at a bird after going missing for seven days.

When asked where he was and what he was doing, he remarked, "I have been watching a beautiful vision for a few minutes."

Back in 1987, a schoolgirl disappeared without trace in the crater. Efforts by police to search for her using helicopters bore no results. The latest mystery about the crater is a ‘flying umbrella’ that appears whenever it rains. But no one has ever bothered to find out where the umbrella goes after the rains.

Although a good number of Christians go to the crater to fast and pray, it also attracts a fair number of suicides. Two Catholic priests are among dozens of people who have leapt to their deaths into the 845-metre crater. The latest incident was in November, last year, when a priest plunged his vehicle into the crater.

The local people believe that the crater is haunted by evil spirits that capture human beings and animals and hide them in the netherworld. It is believed that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, demons or ghosts used to farm on a fertile piece of land on the floor of the crater.

An elderly resident, Esther Wanjiru, says the ‘demons’ used to plough the land with tractors, plant wheat and harvest all within an hour. "You sat there watching and before you knew it, all these activities had taken place and the land would go back to its former state, a grassland with no activities or life," she claims.

Despite the eerie stories about the crater, pilgrims from as far as Kisumu, Kakamega and even Mombasa come to pray and fast at the site for days. Some even stay in the cave at the south of the crater for months. They say that they feel very close to God when praying in the crater.

The cave, large enough to house hundreds of people, commands a superb view of the crater.

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