What began as an ordinary hike turned into a night-long ordeal for a man who fell into the Mt Longonot crater and spent hours stranded on a rock ledge before being rescued on Sunday afternoon.
The victim, identified as Bildad Simiyu, slipped while hiking on Saturday and fell into the steep crater, landing on a narrow section of rock that left rescuers unable to reach him for hours as darkness continued to gather.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers who first responded were forced to halt extraction efforts as darkness made the descent too dangerous.
Instead, the team was forced to remain at the crater rim, maintaining constant communication with Simiyu while reassuring him and monitoring his condition through the cold and isolated night.
In a bid to bring him back to the top of the rim and ensure that he was still okay, at sunrise, the officers regrouped and called in reinforcements from the Kenya Red Cross, the Nakuru Emergency Brigade, the Kenya Police and ITARC Hospital.
The joint team then began the delicate operation shortly after daybreak, navigating the rocky interior of the crater with ropes and specialised rescue equipment.
For several hours, rescuers inched their way down the rugged terrain, battling loose rocks and the sheer drop as they worked to reach the injured hiker.
At around 3pm, the rescuers eventually reached Simiyu and stabilised him before carefully lifting him up the crater wall, ending the nearly 24-hour ordeal.
According to preliminary medical reports, Simiyu suffered a fracture to his left leg and was immediately transferred to the Naivasha County Referral Hospital for treatment.
''He sustained a fracture to his left leg and is now stable and receiving treatment at Naivasha County Referral Hospital. We thank all the officers and partner agencies involved for their teamwork, professionalism and dedication,'' KWS said in a statement.
Mt Longonot, which rises to an elevation of approximately 2,776 metres, is a dormant volcanic mountain located in Nakuru County within the Great Rift Valley and is one of the most visited and popular hiking destinations in Kenya, frequented by both local and international tourists.
Once at the top of the mountain, there is a crater that is approximately 8 kilometres in circumference and about 1.8 kilometres (1,800 metres) in diameter. The crater is steep-walled, with slopes dropping roughly 500–600 metres from the rim to the floor, which makes it particularly challenging and dangerous for rescues.
Additionally, the mountain’s crater is deep, steep-walled and heavily vegetated, making descents risky and difficult. Usually, wardens and guides patrol the area and prohibit movement around the crater after certain hours.
