The Nzaui hill a spectacular land mark in the Makueni county of Kenya.
At the rather towering at a height of over 6000 feet, from base, the hill can be viewed from as far as Makindu and Salama.
Reports claim that during the colonial era residents took part in planting trees as a part of community work, this led to a growth of a beautiful forest.
The dense forest cover made Nzaui hill to become a water tower, reservoir and also acted as the rain magnet site.
Later a special rest house was built put up for tourist complete with forest rangers who were housed at the hill.
Then a road was constructed to enable vehicles to go up to the top.
However, years of destruction and orchestrated forest fires eventually wiped out the trees in the forest.
Before the coming of the white man, Nzaui hill had many shrines where the Akamba people sed to go and offer communal sacrifices.
In fact, the legend has it that even the first person in the Akamba community landed at Mulata on the slopes of Zaui hill, where there are stones shaped like feet and stool.
Environmentally, forest needs to be re-introduced around Nzaui in order to restore the hill’s rain catchment significance.
Tree logging which depleted forest cover has very much contributed to the reduction of rainfall in surrounding areas.
When a forest falls from grace it usually drags all the bad things into its heart.
Nzaui is no exceptional, the forest later became a criminal den where some gang of outlaws would hide out on one of the caves.
The criminals were causing panic in the area but on the other hand people kept the scary stories alive to dissuade treasure hunters.
Apparently is believed that the hill contains precious minerals which are in one of the caves, but the treasures are beyond reach because some large and dangerous serpents are coiling around the pots.