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The 12th edition of the Marsabit Lake Turkana Cultural Festival 2019 begins today and will close on Saturday.

The three-day event will be held at the seaside town of Loiyangalani and will be used to celebrate the cultural and linguistic diversity that Marsabit county offers, Marsabit Governor Mohamud Mohammed said while launching the event at a Nairobi hotel. 

Held under the theme Promoting Peaceful Co-existence and Cultural Tourism Prosperity, the festival seeks to recognise and appreciate the county’s cultural diversity and to deepen the understanding of the values in the diversity of the human race.

“We are committed to building a county in which not only cultural and linguistic diversity is conserved, but also where peaceful co-existence is promoted and inter-cultural harmony sustained,”  said  Governor Mohammed. 

 “There are many people out there who hesitate to embrace or even acknowledge the very idea of cultural and linguistic diversity and are prepared to abandon their identity.

However, for us  in Marsabit, we believe no one should ever abandon their culture,” he added.  

During the event expected to be graced by key State representatives, the defining characteristics of all 14 Marsabit communities will be showcased. These include languages, religion and social norms, cuisine and the unique regalia, traditional dances, music and artistic expressions that transcend borders.

Apart from attending the festivals, visitors can also tour Sibiloi National park and Kobi Fora where the largest-ever collections of well-preserved fossils dating between 1.3 and 2.1 million years have been discovered.

Guests have also been invited to visit the only desert museum in East Africa and sample the centuries-old artefact of all the indigenous communities from all over Northern Kenya.

There will also be a 21km marathon race through the desert while watching descendants of Ahmed, one of the largest elephants ever found on African soil roaming the land of Marsabit.