The Milgis Trust

Category: Turkana | Date: Oct 10 2008 | By: milgistrust

GREVEY’S ZEBRA MEETING HIGHLIGHTS By Moses Lesaloyia.. MT manager

Following many reports of poaching incidents in sikira area of Baragoi, a meeting between the Turkana leaders and the Grevey ZebraTrust,[GZT], Milgis Trust [MT] and Kenya Wildlife Service [KWS] to discuss this issue was held at Baragoi on the 8^th of October 2008. The following is the proceedings of that meeting.

The meeting was attended by 22 leaders from the Turkana community, 4 staff of GZT, 2 staff of MT and the KWS district warden. The district warden was the chairman of the meeting.

The chairman introduced the purpose of the meeting and made it clear that it was not blame or accusation meeting but one to find out a solution to a problem that has become chronic in the area. He pointed out that KWS has all the necessary force that it could use to counter the poachers but the age of using force is past and the approach is now dialogue. He gave a blame ladder as follows, the government blames KWS, it blames stake holders like MT, GZT, they blame the community, the community blames the youth and the youths blame an individual. He said the government gave KWS mandate to look after the wildlife and it is their responsibility to ensure that all people play their role to protect the wildlife. He opened the meeting and pointed out that only two questions will be addressed by the meeting, what the problem is and what the solutions are. He invited the participants to be free and open in their deliberations.

What is the problem? Why are Turkanas killing the Grevey’s?

· No awareness creation among the community

· Grevey’s soup is cure for yellow fever, TB, and joints problems

· Europeans/colonialist introduced the killing to the Turkana, they shot them for sport and the Turkana learnt eating the grevey’s meat then.

· Clashes-raiders feed on them while in the bush, families raided also look for food from the wildlife

· Sport-youths play around with guns and practise target shooting on wildlife-even those who don’t eat them

· Killing for food

· Poor cooperation between GZT and other stake holders

· Competition for resources

· Youth defiance

· Scouts not reporting their kins-hiding the truth on poachers

· Invisible benefits from wildlife

What are the possible solutions to these problems?

· Strengthen awareness creation on the importance of wildlife

· Recruitment of more scouts among the Turkana community

· Frequent meetings with the Turkana community by the GZT

· KWS team in Latakweny to be more mobile and visit all places

· Arresting reported poachers to deter others

· Employment of intelligence techniques

· Enhance communication

· Improve team work among the GZ ambassadors-Turkana scouts to visit the Samburu ones and vice versa.

· Creation of a conservancy in the area

· Putting a KWS radio in Baragoi

· Access water to the grevey’s areas

· All elders to be educators for the youth

· Form a GZ committee in the area.

KWS promised that it will try and get funds for more awareness creation among the community on the importance of wildlife and will improve communication by setting up a radio base in Baragoi and try to increase the Latakweny team and the future set up another camp in Baragoi.

MT manager cautioned the participants that no matter how much support comes from outside the only time that this problem will stop is when the community accepts the wildlife as theirs and start taking care of them like their livestock. Whether they start a conservancy or KWS brings a thousand rangers or GZT give all they ask for, as long as their attitude towards the wildlife is not positive nothing will happen and the killing will continue. He urged the leaders to go out and create awareness in the community and try to change their attitude and this problem will be solved. The ambassadors were basically employed for this purpose and not just to provide security. He asked them not to think of employment of more scouts but think of themselves as the care takers of the wildlife in the area. The scout programme is not sustainable…

One response so far

Category: Milgis lugga, Samburu, elephants | Date: Oct 08 2008 | By: milgistrust

Some of the comments we receive when ever we find an elephant in a well gives me a thought that people don’t quite understand what the situation is like…?? Its quite tough, and we are trying, on limited recourses…This area is vast… When it gets very dry the only water available is down below the sand or rocks in the dry river beds… We have come across wells as deep as 30 feet..This is pretty hard work for these nomadic people just to keep them selves and their stock alive… You can imagine how they feel when they find an Elephant has broken their well, or fallen into it after they have spent many hours digging… Our scouts are trying to keep as many of the wells already broken open so that the eleys can get in and out easily and drink.. But you can’t tell the Eleys these are the ones to use!!… At one time we tried to cut thorn branches to protect the good wells, but then you end up cutting all the trees down in the vicinity of the wells… Remember a flood can come down at any time and ruin all the wells and take the thorn branches away.. So then you have to cut more!.. With over grazing becoming more and more of a serious problem, the initial flood waters are very muddy, to a point that it becomes dangerous.. The mud becomes really thick, in fact thats how the little wart hog got stuck…When this muddy water comes down it fills these hundreds of wells, and every one has to start again…These wells are very dangerous at this stage because you can not see that there used to be a well and you can sink into them… What we really need is a huge amount of rain, that will bring good clean water down, wash every thing clean… Then every one will be happy! We had that initial rain but it seems to have disappeared.. What a shame..I hope this makes you realise the luxury of turning on the tap at home… But at least these Samburu don’t have to worry about traffic jams!!!

Below was a note from the David Sheldrick wildlife trust…on the story of the last elephant/well.. Which I felt was quite fitting! Daphne has been sent a beautiful walking stick by Lesanjus rescuer!..When he went to visit Lesanju, he was touched by the care and love that the DSWT give to the Elephants…

Great Story Helen. Well done to all concerned, and it is so heartwarming to
know that so many people care enough to make such an effort for one
elephant - this sort of thing would never have happened in the past so it
just shows how much these grass roots initiatives help for the future of
elephants in Kenya. Daphne will be so chuffed with her walking stick - and
when in Tsavo going on walks up the Galana with rocks and sand she does use
a stick so it will come into good use.

I think I may have made a mistake as I named your little elephant Barseloi
not Parsaloi! Anyway too late now, but the good news is he is doing really
well - loves the others, very vocal and active and is really happy.

Thanks for all the support Helen.

2 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: milgistrust

The story below is just one reason for the absolute relief of the rains coming…On the 30th of September, herders came to the Milgis lugga in preparation to water their cows, but were distressed to find that a 10 year old elephant had fallen into one of their water holes. The water hole was quite narrow and pretty deep.. aprox 10/12 feet. They immediately alerted other herders and they confined on what to do. They all agreed that the best thing is to look for our Milgis scouts in the area to call for help as this was a big elephant which they could not remove from the hole on their own. 2 youths were sent to look for the scouts. One went to kurkum to look for Lesanchu and the other went to Ilakweny to look for Lesampouwa. Lesanchu had gone to the milgis base, having rescued a baby desert warthog that he had found stuck in the mud, ..sadly the little pig died of pneumonia that night… Lesampouwa had gone to the kigwar area on patrol., unfortunately quite a long way… When they finally found him, he immediately alerted the base on his radio.. When he got to the scene he was very distressed, the Elephant was very close to drowning in the mud.. He asked several times for the car to come quick…Every one was nervous..Night fall was catching up…

Seven scouts and the manager immediately gathered spades, ropes and any implements that may help, and left in a big hurry in the Wild Frontiers pickup, down a long slow track and by about 7.30 pm they were there. They found 9 community members and our scout Lesampouwa still waiting for us, their hopes were lifted beyond expectation!! Night had fallen and they had given up hope..Amazingly a bull elephant had visited the site and had tried to kick the sides of the well in…… . The situation on the ground was pitiful… The Elephant was so scared, and was making alot of noise, which of course scared every one… The rescue team called us on the radio at base to say it was impossible… I told them that ‘nothing is impossible for the Milgis scouts when something is in trouble’!! Which fairly gave them the push they needed!! They assessed the situation …The first thing they decided to do was try and get sand in the sides so that the Elephant had more to stand on which seemed to work abit as he was able to bring his mouth up. Then they started digging a trench that the elephant could hopefully use to climb up and out of he hole. The elephant was so wild that at one point it was throwing mud at the guys opening the hole. Having dug the trench right to the hole, they thought that the eley will be able to come out on his own. They all stood back and after 10 minutes of silence he tried to come out but his hind limbs seemed to be trapped, at one point they thought one of the hind limbs was broken. They continued digging until 11pm… they were tired and hungry, of course in the rush had not thought of taking any food with them! They moved away abit out of the lugga and slept, hoping he would make the effort to get out on his own…

Scout digging the sides of the well out, to get Elephant out..

Desperate situation… This Elephant was stuck in the well 36 hours

6.00 am next morning they are there sadly to find the poor elephant still there.. still alive… He was more distressed and wild than the previous night.They felt awful… Once again they were on the radio… ‘Hes still there and he is so distressed… We don’t know what to do??’… My answer was… ‘The only time the Milgis scout will leave an elephant in a well is if it is dead… Do what ever you can to get him out!!.’. Silence again on the radio as they get back to work.. They had opened all that was possible to open the night before so now it was time to try plan B!! To get a rope around his neck and pull him out with the vehicle.. They made a loop and tried to get it round the ears and below the mouth, but the elephant did not make it easy!, he kept on grabbing the rope with his trunk and throwing it away, or chewing it, but finally it was in place and they tied it to the Landcruiser. 2 people with knives were ready at the back of the vehicle so that the moment he was out of the hole they would cut the rope. Three times the rope broke and the elephant slumped back into the mud, but it looked as if the plan could work! They rolled two ropes together and and made the same loop and this time somehow the eley cooperated and it was easy putting the rope round his ears. This time… out he came, and they dragged him a few feet from the hole, the rope cutters were told to cut the rope and the vehicle moved away. The Elephant lay still for 2 minutes which was very worrying, they thought they had strangled him..There was a deathly silence but suddenly he started moving, stretching his legs a few times before getting up on his feet. Every one scattered in different directions thinking it would go wild but instead it just looked around .. may be saying “thank you guys” and sped off to the bush. Everybody was too relieved, and started cheering and clapping..Which was not quite the way they should have behaved with this distressed Elephant, but no one could control their joy!! .Happy days to the Elephant!!

They finally managed to drag him out with the vehicle, but had they strangled it!!… NO.. after two minutes he got up!! And it played into the rescuers hands as they had time to cut the rope!

9 responses so far

Category: Milgis lugga | Date: Oct 05 2008 | By: milgistrust

This morning we have woken up to the sweet site of the luggas in flood… This is indeed good news… Its very hot and humid this morning.. so hopefully we are going to have much more rain today… News on the radio this morning is that the rain to the east was good, too good, many young animals have died in the night… Just too much after the drought to hit them when they are hungry and tired…But at least the strong animals will have a chance to survive.. We have had incredible winds throughout the safari and its got hotter and hotter!!! The signs of the rains coming soon were looking good..All the commifera trees growing leaves, whirl winds all around, and beautiful clear Sky’s… After the new moon showed its self there was so much hope… And today….BINGO!… Every one has a smile on his face today…lots more news to tell you tomorrow…

One response so far