Lake Elementaita basin has one of the oldest archeological sites belonging to the Oldowan period with stone tools dating to 700,000 years ago found at Kariandusi. The Obsidian mines at the Eburru Mountains are evidence of Obsidian trade dating over 3000 years ago. Subsequently the region was occupied by pastoral Neolithic, later the Maasai pastoral community who called it “Elementaita”. During the colonial occupation, the whole area between Elementaita and Naivasha was taken over and used for livestock and wildlife ranching by Lord Delamere.

The area around Lake Elementaita was designated an Important Bird Area (IBA), a site of global significance for bird and biodiversity conservation, in 1999. The lake was designated a Ramsar site (wetland of international importance) in 2005. It was gazetted as a National Wildlife Sanctuary in 2010 and listed together with Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria as the Kenya Lakes System in the Great Rift Valley World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2011.