France, July 19 -- Samuel Loruman points past the bow of his rowboat, toward a shifting green mat of water hyacinth.

His father's cattle boma - a livestock enclosure - once stood there. Now there is only water. Beneath it, he says, the fence posts are still standing.

"I did not move house," he says, as he rows over what used to be his family's grazing land near Kampi Samaki. "The lake moved into my house."

Since 2011, Lake Baringo and its smaller neighbour, Lake Bogoria, have risen dramatically, tied to above-average rainfall.

In May this year the situation reached tipping point, with the water swallowing up farms, schools, a health centre and long stretches of shoreline road.

Loruman, 43, grew up herding goats and growing sorghum on...