The Milgis Trust

Arthur Henry Newmann, the hunter, spent abit of time hunting in the Seiya, Parsaloi and Migis Luggas at the end of the 19th century… In fact he camped below Elkanto hill..There was an huge amount of wildlife in this area… Newmann shot an incredible amount, especially Elephant and Rhino..In fact many hunters had good times here, it was a hunters paradise, dramatically exciting country, and plenty of game, and many a good trophy was found, thoughout the 20th century up to 1979, when the hunting ban was enforced in Kenya.. At one time there was a suggestion that the area should be made into a huge national park, but because of ‘other interrests’ presumably hunting, it never happend and Tsavo national park was formed..

At the same time there was a terrible slaughter of wildlife taking place by poachers.. mainly elephants, rhinos and leopards… Every one that was able joined the ‘band wagon’, killing with what ever they had, spears, arrows and guns,the later mainly from somalia, and selling the ivory, rhino horn and skins to tradesmen, that built special roads to creep out with their bounty….. Whats worse when the hunting ban was enfoced the poaching took ‘off like wild fire’, seemingly unchecked??… Basically the elephant and rhino population were totally wiped out of Mts Nyiru and Kulal, and very badly fragmented in the Ndotos and what was left escaped to the relatively safe haven of the Matthews, [and south] although on my first camel safari in 1989, on the east side of the Matthews, I came across the slaughter of a whole familly of 20 elephants.. TERRIBLE TO WITNESS… At this time there was about 20 Rhinos left in the Matthews Range forest, but sadly they went one by one.. and as I said before the last wild rhino in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, was shot in the year 2000, in the Keno valley.. During the ’90s there was alot of guns flooding into this area, and almost every thing that was left was ’splatted’… sometimes just for target practise…The big cats were poisoned mercilessly..

If only I had been mature enough, wise enough, whatever to have started the Milgis Trust when I saw those first dead elephants… But I didn’t, so the demise of the game has gone further ‘down the road’..The forest fires have burn’t wildly, it just seemed that the people were ‘hellbent’ on destroying their homeland??….What on earth got into their minds??.. And yet the response to conserve it all now has been so positive?!!

The rest of the story has been told in my previous blogs…. and now maybe you can understand why we are so excited at the progress in 4 years..yesterday there was a report of an Eland in the Suiyan….I heard somebody else, one of the other scouts, today say, hes going to see for himself!!! Elephants were seen for the first time for many years above Lesirikan, North west Ndotos!.. May their return to the northern mountains be safe!…