Maboko Island

Maboko Island is a small island in Lake Victoria off the Kisumu coast in western Kenya and is a notable palaeontological site. Scientific excavations in the mid 20th century recovered Miocene primate remains and other vertebrate fossils from the island’s exposures.

The island itself is largely undeveloped and visited mainly by researchers; fossil-bearing sediments and outcrops are the principal interest. There are no major visitor facilities and access is by boat from Kisumu or nearby lakeshore points.

Systematic fossil collection campaigns on Maboko during the 1940s through later decades produced material that has informed studies of early primates and African Miocene faunas. The island remains referenced in palaeontological literature for these finds.

Geographically Maboko Island lies in Lake Victoria’s Winam Gulf area in Kisumu County, near the Kenyan city of Kisumu.

• Palaeontological importance: Extensively sampled for Miocene primate fossils in the mid 20th century; material from the island contributed to understanding primate evolution in East Africa.

What to See #

• Fossil localities: Fossil localities - a number of Miocene-era fossil sites on the island yielded primate and other mammal remains collected during 20th-century palaeontological expeditions.