{"id":25788,"date":"2016-06-03T00:12:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T00:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-meet-the-daredevil-divers-who-swim-with\/"},"modified":"2016-06-03T00:12:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T00:12:04","slug":"kenya-meet-the-daredevil-divers-who-swim-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-meet-the-daredevil-divers-who-swim-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:Meet the daredevil divers who swim with crocodiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

{On a good day, every member of the group goes home with at least Sh2,000.}<\/p>\n

Travelling along the Kabarnet-Iten road, one cannot resist the urge to make a stopover at Cheploch Gorge on the Baringo and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties\u2019 border.<\/p>\n

What grabs one\u2019s attention are the daring youth who make a living by jumping into the 70-metre deep crocodile-infested gorge. Guests pay to watch them.<\/p>\n

The daredevils told the Nation last week that the reptiles were usually too scared to attack because of the frequent storms.<\/p>\n

On a good day, every member of the group goes home with at least Sh2,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been diving for years and have discovered over time that crocodiles don\u2019t attack when there is a lot of movement in the water,\u201d Mr Joseph Kibet, one of the eight divers, said.<\/p>\n

The walls of the gorge are made up of smooth rocks that compress the huge volumes of water from the Elgeyo-Marakwet escarpments, letting them out in whirling pressure at the point where the youths dive.<\/p>\n

The young men also offer their services free of charge whenever a person falls into the river.<\/p>\n

The youth were recently instrumental in recovering the body of a bridegroom who drowned at Kirandich Dam, 30 kilometres away.<\/p>\n

The Kenya Defence Forces has recognised the rare talent of the divers with one of them being enlisted into the military last year.<\/p>\n

Mr Meshack Kiprotich Kenei, 24, turned up for recruitment at Kabarnet Stadium in Baringo Central to try his luck with two of his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of registering our group and getting insurance cover for every member,\u201d Mr Kenei said.<\/p>\n

He was informed of the recruitment by KDF officers, who stopped at the gorge on their way to the stadium.<\/p>\n

Baringo Woman Rep Grace Kiptui recently bought special diving kits for the divers.<\/p>\n

The breath-taking scenery of the vast Kerio Valley, which is positioned at the heart of the Great Rift Valley, adds flavour to the visitor\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n

Opportunities for tourism in the region, include resorts, hotels, lodges and tented camps.<\/p>\n

The major hotels, include Lake Bogoria Spa Resort, Soi Safari Lodge and Kabarnet Hotel in Baringo County, while Kerio View and Keelu Resort are be found in Elgeyo-Marakwet.<\/p>\n

Baringo Tourism executive Kipchumba Keitany says the county is in talks with Fly 540 for the airline to fly from Mombasa and Nairobi to Kabarnet.<\/p>\n

Kenya Airports Authority has already marked the runway at Kabarnet Airstrip.<\/p>\n

\"Youth<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{On a good day, every member of the group goes home with at least Sh2,000.} Travelling along the Kabarnet-Iten road, one cannot resist the urge to make a stopover at Cheploch Gorge on the Baringo and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties\u2019 border. What grabs one\u2019s attention are the daring youth who make a living by jumping into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25788"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25788"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}