The lake is located in Lamu County, approximately 2.5 kilometres (2 mi),[1] southwest of the town of Mpeketoni.

[2] This is approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi), by road, southwest of the port city of Lamu.

[4] The lake supports herds of hippopotami, zebra, monkeys, waterbuck, buffalo and warthog.

Also, a large number of wild birds are found here.

[5] Due to encroachment from the rapidly increasing population in Mpeketoni, the lake is shrinking as a result of (a) silting (b) humans invading its wetlands (c) drilling of many boreholes in the catchment area and (d) invasion by large herds of domestic cattle.