Kenya Travel Documentary Photographers :: Marafa Hell’s Kitchen

Kenya Travel Documentary Photographers :: Marafa Hell’s Kitchen

The residents know it as Nyari, which is Kigiriama for “natural sacred depression”.
Although Hell’s Kitchen is gazetted, no proper measurements have been made of its depth and expanse. Hell’s Kitchen belongs to the local Giriama community.

A 30-minute drive from Malindi town is a small unassuming village with conspicuous baobab trees. The village is called Marafa, but its proximity to the biodiversity-rich Dakatcha woodlands is not its most outstanding feature. That title goes to the Marafa depression, more famously known as Hell’s Kitchen. Hell’s Kitchen is an odd sandstone canyon that might be Kenya’s best-kept secret. It looks surreal and most people tend to confuse it for a different gorge, Hell’s Gate, located in Naivasha.

The mini-canyon is officially known as Hell’s Kitchen. The name comes from the high temperatures for which it is famous. No tours are done during the day as the temperatures reach highs of 50 degrees at some point in the canyon.

PLANTS OF MEDICINAL VALUE

The residents know it as Nyari, which is Kigiriama for “natural sacred depression”.

It was the site for many rituals in the days of yore. Medicine men frequented its ever-expanding base to source natural herbs and other plants of medicinal value. Some sources claim that Nyari means “the place broken by itself.”

Marafa, the town in which Hell’s Kitchen is located, was named by the marginalised Wata community, who preceded the Giriama in the area. Its etymology is unclear, although some local sources suggest that it alludes to the Wata lifestyle of hunting and gathering.

Hell’s Kitchen is a lifeline for the Marafa community. “I went to school through this project,” Tom Jefwa, the current secretary of the Marafa Hell’s Kitchen Tour Operators says. “I used to frequent Hell’s Kitchen as a child and when I didn’t have funds for my education, the community project provided me with a bursary.”

Although Hell’s Kitchen is gazetted, no proper measurements have been made of its depth and expanse.

The place is ever expanding by erosion. The most accessible high viewpoint, direct from the main gate, is protected by a wooden fence. The fence has been moved three times in the past 10 years because the previous one succumbed to erosion. Local legends tell a very different story from the one of natural erosion. Legend has it that the expanse of Hell’s Kitchen was once occupied by a rich family of the Wakiza clan.