The single mother diving 70 metres into the Kerio River to feed her family
Sheila Serem, 25, from Kiboino, Baringo Central, a trader-cum-diver, at the crocodile-infested Cheploch Gorge in Kerio Valley, takes a leap on January 24, 2026.
What you need to know:
- At Cheploch Gorge, 25-year-old Sheila Serem defies odds as the only female diver, balancing motherhood, fruit vending, and perilous plunges into the Kerio River.
- From selling fruits to diving 70 metres into crocodile-infested waters, Sheila Serem challenges gender norms while supporting her children and sick mother in Kerio Valley.
- Despite community criticism, lack of insurance, and past fatalities, Sheila Serem joins Cheploch’s male divers, hoping tourism and rescue work will secure her family’s future.
Sheila Serem stands at the edge of Cheploch Gorge in Kerio Valley, takes a breath, and jumps, plunging about 70 metres into the crocodile-infested waters of the Kerio River as dozens of tourists watch in disbelief.
The 25-year-old single mother of three is now the only woman diving alongside 16 men at one of the region's most dramatic tourist attractions, located on the border of Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet counties along the busy Iten-Kabarnet road.
For travellers passing through, the gorge is hard to miss. The sight of young men leaping from towering cliffs into the rushing water below has long drawn motorists to pull over and watch. But the day Sheila joined them, it was the woman among the men that stopped people in their tracks.
Sheila's story at the gorge did not begin with diving. It began with fruits.
In 2021, struggling to make ends meet through casual work, she started selling fruits at the gorge to supplement her income. Her third child was barely three months old at the time, and with younger siblings and a sickly mother depending on her, she had no choice but to bring the baby along each day, laying her in the shade as she tended her stall. It was this daily sight that earned her the name she is now widely known by: Mama Toto.
Sheila Serem, 25, from Kiboino, Baringo Central, a trader-cum-diver, in Kerio Valley, on January 24, 2026.
“I am the third born in a family of nine. My father died when we were very young, leaving my mother to solely provide for us, albeit with no source of income save for the menial work she was doing,” says Sheila.
When she passed her KCPE exam in 2016, her mother could not afford secondary school fees, forcing her to drop out and join her mother in casual work. She later bore three children, adding to her responsibilities. Washing clothes at people's homes helped, but it was never enough to cover rent, food, and school fees. She tried farming, but the semi-arid area's erratic rains made it unproductive.
Selling fruits at the gorge was her next attempt at survival, and it was there, watching the male divers day after day, that the idea began to take shape.
“I watched their every move, how they leaped into the crocodile-infested Kerio River and the positions they were diving from, and I developed interest. I vowed that I could give it a try if this could earn me an extra shilling to provide for my children and my younger siblings, as my sickly mother, who is also depending on me for her medication, cannot manage to provide for them anymore,” she says, fighting back tears.
For much of last year, the male divers took her under their wing, training her from the lowest jumping point and working upwards gradually. The training was not as daunting as it might have been, Sheila already knew how to swim, skills she had picked up while herding and washing clothes along the Kerio River.
“The divers were very supportive. Any time I wanted to be trained, I could leave my baby under the care of my fellow traders, and the divers would coach me step by step, little by little, until I could fearlessly dive from the more than 50-metre-high cliff into the gorge,” she says.
In January this year, she made it official; joining the men in their daily dives and catching the attention of motorists and tourists who began stopping specifically to watch the only woman among the divers. Her family initially opposed the decision, and so did parts of the community.
Sheila Serem, 25, from Kiboino, Baringo Central, a trader-cum-diver, at the crocodile-infested Cheploch Gorge in Kerio Valley, takes a leap on January 24, 2026.
“The community was wondering why I had resorted to taking the risks, especially being a woman, and many did not welcome my idea, but they slowly got used to it. There will be criticisms, both positive and negative, but I have made an ultimate decision to take this path—diving,” Sheila explains.
She is candid about the difficulty of the work. “It is not easy plunging into the deep gorge because you get tired and sometimes the water is very deep. I have not started earning anything because I only started this year, but the male divers have promised that they will recruit me into their team so that I can earn something from the venture,” she says.
Sheila sees the diving as a supplement to her fruits business, another hustle to fall back on when the stall has a bad day.
“The venture is not easy either, especially being a woman, but I have decided to take the risk to get a token, at least to supplement my fruits business because I am a breadwinner—providing for my children, siblings, and my sick mother. Sometimes I might go home without selling any fruit, and this other hustle could help me put bread on the table,” she says.
The team's leader, Ambrose Yator, who has been diving at the gorge for more than 15 years, says they are proud to welcome her. “She developed the passion for diving after seeing what we do while selling her fruits at the gorge. Having trained her for more than a year, we welcome her to our team. We are currently 16 men and it will be interesting to have a woman among us. We will support her despite the challenges,” Yator says.
Beyond tourism, the Cheploch divers have built a reputation for rescue and body retrieval across the North and South Rift region. Among their most recalled missions was the recovery of a bridegroom who drowned at Kirandich Dam on the outskirts of Kabarnet town in July 2015, the eve of his wedding.
Their skills have not gone unnoticed; the Kenya Defence Forces has enlisted three of the divers into the military.
Yet, despite the risks they take daily, the divers have no insurance and no proper diving kit. In 2016, one of their own, Benard Kipkorir, 26, died after hitting a tree trunk mid-dive. He lost consciousness and could not be resuscitated. His death came barely a month after another diver had also lost his life.
“Most of us here come from humble backgrounds and some are also breadwinners to their young families. Whatever little we get from diving caters for daily necessities. Some here also pay for their own schooling and we cannot manage to buy necessary kits or get insurance. The two county governments of Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet had promised to help us in the past and we will appreciate it if they could fulfil that promise,” Yator explains.
The divers are also appealing to be formally recruited into the county governments' disaster response departments, where their skills could be put to structured use and they could earn a stable income rather than, as Yator puts it, being exploited by individuals.
For now, Sheila Serem continues to show up at the gorge each day, selling fruits, diving when she can, and doing whatever it takes to keep her family afloat. The gorge that once terrified her is now, in a quiet way, her source of hope.
