It extends about 200 metres (700 ft) into the side of Mount Elgon near the Kenyan border with Uganda.

[1] Other animals including bushbuck, buffalo and hyenas come to Kitum Cave to consume salt left by the elephants.

[3] Based on these cases, an expedition was staged by the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) in an attempt to identify the vector species presumably residing in the cave.

Despite sampling a wide variety of species (including fruit bats), no Marburg disease-causing viruses were found and the animal vector remained a mystery.

In September 2007, similar expeditions to active mines in Gabon and Uganda found solid evidence of reservoirs of Marburg disease-causing virus in cave-dwelling Egyptian fruit bats.