The most important city in this region is Kisumu, at the banks of Winam Bay, in Lake Victoria. The town is the third largest in the country, capital of the Luo people and of the Nyanza province. The lake, the third largest in the world with an approximate surface of 68,000 km², is actually an inland sea shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

From the Turkana or Rudolf, in the northern frontier, to the Natron, in Tanzania, the Kenyan Rift comprises a string of small lakes: Baringo, Bogoria, Nakuru, Elmentaita, Naivasha and Magadi.

The large central plateau, the Highlands, is divided by the fault in two parts. At the western edge, the Mau Escarpment rises from the tanzanian border up to the Cherangani Hills, which fence the plateau that extends itself to the slopes of Mount Elgon. At the east side of the Rift, the Aberdare Range is backed by the Ngong Hills, southwest of Nairobi, and northward to Laikipia Escarpment.

The Eastern Highlands are dominated by the massive Monte Kenya, the highest in the country and the second in the whole continent. At its snowy heights there are three outstanding peaks, Lenana (4,985 m) and the twin Nelion (5,188 m) and Batian (5,199 m).

This region comprises the provinces Rift Valley, Central and Nairobi. Two major cities are included: Nairobi, the capital, and Nakuru, the country's fourth city, next to the lake of the same name. The Highlands' moderate climate and fertile valleys attracted the settling of the first pioneers.

It is through these lands that flows the most part of the two main streams, Tana and Galana. Both rise in the Eastern Highlands and end at the Indian Ocean. The Galana originates by the confluence of Athi and Tsavo.

The scarce rainfall registered in this region, together with the high temperatures, determine an uninhabited and semidesert landscape, that becomes a true desert in the most northern areas, continuing to the shores of Lake Turkana. The dryness of the landscape, sometimes covered with impenetrable thornbush, only finds relief down the fertile river banks and up the green slopes of Taïta Hills.

The presence of a great number of volcanos, today extinct, has left its testimony in lava currents like the Yatta Plateau, the longest lava stream in the world.

The Ngwana Bay, formerly called Formosa, bears the mouths of the rivers Tana and Galana, the first in its northern end and the second in the south, near the city of Malindi. Several islands rise along the coast, like Lamu and the island of Mombasa, the second city in the country.

The Kenyan coast, warm and hospitable, was colonized from ancient days by numerous peoples that left their tracks throughout history. The Swahili culture, a blend of Bantu roots with Arab influence, prospered in this coast until reaching a great development before the arrival of the first European explorers.