[1] At an altitude of 1,815 metres (5,957 feet) Kabarnet is located on the eastern edge of the Kerio Valley, it is approximately 138 km north of Nakuru town on the Nakuru-Marigat-Kabarnet road and 89 km east of Eldoret on the Eldoret-Iten-Kabarnet road.

The location is named after a missionary from Australia, Albert Edmund Barnett, who was member of the Africa Inland Mission and came first to central Kenya in 1908.

Kabarnet is the hometown of Daniel arap Moi, former President of the Republic of Kenya.

Sammy Mwaita was elected in the 2007 general election on an Orange Democratic Movement party ticket, and re-elected in March 2013 through the United Republican Party, a member of the Jubilee coalition that won the concurrent presidential poll.

The Kabarnet Museum was created in the former residence of the District Commissioner and has in its displays elements from local culture and traditions, as well as information on Lake Baringo and its environment.

The gardens surrounding the Kabarnet Museum are so lush that it has become a small botanical park.