Lake Baringo, Freshwater lake in Baringo County, Kenya

Lake Baringo is a freshwater lake in Kenya's Rift Valley, about 285 km north-northwest of Nairobi. It lies at 970 m between the Tugen Hills to the west and the Laikipia Escarpment to the east, with no surface outlet. Its largest island, Ol Kokwe, is an extinct volcanic centre with hot springs and fumaroles.

Lake Baringo was first reported in Europe around 1850 by German missionaries Ludwig Krapf and J. Rebmann, stationed at Mombasa. Joseph Thomson reached the lake in 1883 and corrected earlier exaggerated notions of its size. In 1893 geologist John Walter Gregory studied the Baringo area and recognised the faulting of the East African Rift.

The lake's name comes from Mparingo, the Ilchamus word for lake. The Ilchamus, Rendille, Turkana and Kalenjin are pastoralist groups living around the lake. At Kampi ya Samaki, guides feed fish to African fish eagles, drawing the birds to the boats.

Boat tours with local guides offer the best way to observe wildlife and birds while exploring different areas of the lake. The site is accessible year-round, though the dry season provides clearer views of animals.

The lake's only endemic fish is Oreochromis niloticus baringoensis, a subspecies of Nile tilapia. Its numbers have fallen while the marbled lungfish, introduced in 1974, now yields most of the catch. A 2011 study also found high parasite prevalence in the tilapia, prompting advice against eating undercooked infected fish.