The Milgis Trust

Category: Northern Frontier District | Date: May 29 2009 | By: milgistrust

In all those 100s and 1000s of acres of land, why does this spot get a signal!..

A busy moment in the office…

Sending an email from miles away from no where! Or trying as my last blog tells you!

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Category: Northern Frontier District | Date: May 28 2009 | By: milgistrust

Now you know why the blogging can be a touch sporadic!!… We left Elkanto at 5.30 am, for our jaunt up this hill, armed with mobile phones, and computers to climb 1600 feet higher than the surrounding area to get a signal… Its over1000 feet higher than Elkanto!! We went to see if we could send our emails, and our blogs from here as we are finding the satellite phone abit expensive!…Just recently Safari com, a mobile phone company, put a mast up at Baragoi, and this is the only place one can get a signal around here!!..

The View from the telephone booth!.. Up to the right is the radio hill, and down in the valley is Elkanto with the Matthews Range behind…. This is Lesoloyia trying to send a blog!!! Just in this 4 meter patch is where we should get a signal……

Nobody was lucky this day except the woman who was so happy to hear her son in Mombasa!!… She had come 20 kilometres to make this call… None of us got through!..Hey we walked along way as well..?. We were told by Lolokuria, the man standing on the left, who is one of the radio operators for the Milgis Trust that if its windy it works better… We didn’t wait for it to get windy, as we had a long walk home, and a long climb at the end in the heat of the day…

Stella is trying to send an email, Pete is holding the modem up, in one hand while he trys to make some phone calls himself… Stella is feeling a little crowded, shes got three dogs crowding her in the only bit of shade… The shade is just a few branches that have been cut and and balanced over these bushes! She reckons its better than the concrete jungle [Blog April 18th]she used to work in!!

This woman is speaking to her son in Mombasa.. She prefers to have the phone on ‘loud speaker’, as she can’t handle it next her ear… She is getting good news from Mombasa, that it is raining!… She wants her son to know that things are not so well, at home… The goats are sick, and theres nothing for them to eat… And water is difficult.. But other wise we are fine!… Samburu people are never miserable or negative about a situation like this… The harder the times the tougher they get!!

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Errosion, Livestock, Overgrazing | Date: May 26 2009 | By: milgistrust

As I watch a herd of cattle crossing the lugga below us, with over half of the participants hardly able to put one foot in front of the other, and they still have miles to go, as the owners have decided to cut and run to try to save their ‘ love of their life ‘ [ cows] lives, by looking for greener pastures, is a very difficult situation, even the hardest person can not be happy to see that… Again three weeks ago there was a bit of rain on the west side of the Ndotos, and ‘every one and his goat’ left for the area with their livestock, on a last resort run to save their bank account from collapse!!! or to put it into context, try to save their lives,…They could not stop to wait for the stragglers, they had to leave them behind to fend for themselves, in this harsh country side… knowing that there was not much hope…who’s going to give them water out of the deep wells? and then when it gets dark, the predators will have a field day… I am not sure when it is that us humans will realise that our environment just can not hold any more??

Up here this year, thousands of trees have been cut down to save the animals, and to make new bomas [Koral’s] ,unbelievable over grazing until there is not even a spike of dry grass left…and then comes the erosion…

which leads to the thick, thick mud in the luggas..

It is an indication, that its time for the MILGIS TRUST to start a very controversial project, NOW… We need to start talking, and immediately after this dreadful drought I feel is a good time..’ QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY ‘ of livestock is the way forward, although to persuade these Samburu people, is going to be interesting, BUT this year once again they have learnt their lesson, and plenty of people have lost stock… Out here a drought is like a bank robbery to us, the only difference is it slowly bites!!.. This problem, is a problem that we could ignore because it is controversial, it is untraditional, But it means in twenty years time we will call this area a desert… I have seen an unbelievable change in the last 25 years.. Imagine another 25 years with so many more people living off this parched land… Milgis trust is going to take the bull by the horns… so to say, slowly, gently, coaxingly…. Persuade… Funnily enough, already many people we have met lately under stand, its action that is needed, to move on!!

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Category: Grevy's Zebra, Samburu, Turkana, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 15 2009 | By: milgistrust

It started at 6 am with the scouts down at Kudup, [please see my last blog] having had an eventful night, but no sign of the youngsters mother, nor of any herds…sadly, but the lugga came down in a massive flood in the night, so luckily the baby was safe and not still in the well….They stayed the night near
the well in the hope the mother would be back but just one old bull came in to drink, he took a long thirst quenching drink at the well, and did not show much sympathy for the little boy, who was calling, and just wanted to go to him, but there were also lots of Hyenas around keen to have a nice tasty baby
elephant!!, and the scouts stayed awake all night… I strait away got on to the phone to tell DSWT, who were ready at any moment to help… I have just received news from Angela, that he arrived in good form, thirsty for milk, and ‘full of nonsense’! The scouts tell me that he was like that for the whole night!!

As we were settling down to a cup of coffee, We had not slept too much either, hoping that the guys would come on the radio with good news!, The dream outcome.. ‘ The mother is here, and the baby is safely back!’ BUT so such luck…one of the scouts in the western slopes of the Ndotos, piped up on the radio, ‘PLEASE I need help, I am being hunted down by a mad man who wants to kill me because I caught him shooting a greater kudu, I have been hiding all night, he went to my manyatta, and luckily I was not there, but he is looking for me… Please send the home guards to help me, call the chief, come quick in the car’… I quickly answered that the car was miles away in a nother direction, carrying an Elephant!, and that he must find some elders, to help, hope fully there will a home guard,or he must run away to safety, and as soon as we can we will send a team of home guards to help, and have a meeting with the elders on what to do next… Later on he came on the radio to tell me he was safe, the elders had come out ‘en mass’ to help!! Yesterday, the 15th, the team went up to the area, had a long meeting and resolved the problem… last news I had was they will be late because the elders had given them a goat to eat!! [ Who are the Home Guards… they are police reserve, its a wonderful way of keeping the peace in these remote areas, certain responsible people are given a training, and a gun, they live amounst the communities an ordinary life, do not have a uniform and they are called up when there are problems like this or attacks like the next report!]

Next to come up was there had been an attack in the early hours of the night, on a Samburu boma with alot of cattle, near the Suiyan Lugga west of the base!.. One person was shot dead, and one wounded, but the owners of the cattle with the home guards managed to fight off the attackers, and save the cattle from being stolen… Unfortunately unrest between the tribes has reared its ugly head again and there has been quite a few skirmishes north of us, between the Samburu and Turkana… Mostly about cattle rustling, but also old quarrels that have not been resolved.. We had an important meeting that was supposed to take place on the 19th may in Baragoi, on the plight of the Grevy Zebra, which of course is always caught up in these skirmishes.. The meeting has been cancelled..

Last but not least their was alot of relieved talk about rain.. alot of excitement, but its the 16th today, and the rain has gone again… At least we had one good flood down the luggas..And the desert is bursting into life.. little bits of greenery popping out of the ground all around us!! Soon lots of flowers! Today we will be an emergency meeting with the scouts responsible for the wells.. We need to think again of what to do about wells… Its a complicated problem..

The Genet is old enough to be released.. which we did a week ago at Elkanto.. He is very happy in his new home, learning the tricks of the wild again… Hes found all the good places to hide, and we see him every night… He looks forward to his food, but slowly he will disappear off into the wild..

No pictures as we are using a satellite phone, but will put some up asap…There are some great ones of the two baby Elephant rescues!..

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Category: Milgis lugga, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 13 2009 | By: milgistrust

13 may 2009….Sadly another bad day for elephants, although last night I am extremely pleased to tell you that it poured with rain……EVERY WHERE!!!… .. As the day dawned, beautiful colours, spirits were high, and every one was excited, as the rain was good rain, it had rained all night… but on the radio this morning a report came from the Noongek area, North East Matthews,that there was another dead baby elephant, about one year old.. this is the third one of this age in the last month, I think its just too dry for them and they are struggling to keep up with the big elephants, who are managing to reach the water in most of the wells, but these little ones can’t… We have dug wells for them, up and down the sand luggas, but the big elephants insist on drinking from the deeper ones on the edge, some times angrily dragging the thorns that the scouts have put to try to keep them away… Then at 4 O’Clock an urgent report that another baby elephant is down a well, in the lower Milgis, at a place called Kudup…Why did we get the message so late?… Because after the rain, nobody needed to go to the lugga to give their stock water, as there was water every where, but luckily a passer by happened to hear a strange noise in the direction of the deep well, and went to check it out… Luckily the water in the well was not too deep, but he was concerned as if a flood came it would cover this well… He rushed off to find Lesanju, the nearest scout, who on hearing the news called the base to let us know that he was on his way to check things out.. Base on hearing the news, was very alarmed as he had just heard that there had been torrential rain upstream, and to expect a huge flood…

With the news reaching Elkanto, there was action, every one rushing around grabbing what they may need to spend the night, once again with the hope that the mother would come back… She apparently had tried , in vain, by digging around the sides of the well, to get her young one out…She had done a formidable job, unfortunately the sides were hard, and the well very deep…But Lesanju when he got to the recked scene,was frightened that she may come back while he was waiting for help!!… The 5 man rescue team rushed off, as much as one can rush on these rocky tracks, and were there in an hour an a half… They hauled the baby out, who is fine, rather feisty…. As we speak so to say, they are there…silently waiting for a miracle, and the huge flood has just passed us here at Elkanto, heading East… Hey its GOOD TO SEE WATER, TO HEAR WATER!! Also its good to know that before the days of the Milgis trust, that baby would have been trapped and drowned…

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Category: Conservation Awareness | Date: May 07 2009 | By: milgistrust

After the week of fires, around the 25th March, The Milgis Trust, some of the chiefs and the councillor from Latakwen called a meeting of elders to try to understand what was in the mind of these burners and why… One month later, and BY THE WAY NOT A SINGLE FIRE SINCE!… we called the same elders to the scouts meeting to discuss further what can be done to prevent destruction, and understand what is going on… Every one understood the way forward is to work together to conserve the land…… Below is a report from Moses Lesoloyia… The manager

Conservation committee… On the 30^th April 09 we held a meeting with the committee mainly to discuss their role and the importance of conserving the environment. We had 5 men from different parts of Nkare Narok location, 4 from Nairimirimo and 5 from Latakweny location. Each of the men was asked to say how his area was when he was a child and now and give what he thinks has brought about changes. The following are the responses;

When I was a child there was;

· Plenty of rain

· plenty of water

· plenty of pasture

· Plenty of milk

· Plenty of wild animals

· Plenty of wild fruits and food

· Not many diseases

Nowadays;

• Rain does not come the right time
• All the rivers have dried and dams died
• Pasture does not stay for long
• No more milk
• Wild animals have reduced and finished in some areas
• Very many diseases
• Wild fruits and food very scarce

This change is because of;

• Too many people and livestock
• Burning of forests
• Change of leadership structure from traditional system to government system
• Introduction of guns to the Samburu
• Deterioration of culture due to influence from Christianity and formal education
• Too much use of chemicals, almost in everything there are chemicals including food,(one elder felt chemicals are contributing to this change, he called them Ldewai).

They all agreed that the only way out was to support conservation efforts and try and rejuvenate the traditional systems which were holistic, took care of everything. They expressed their willingness to join hands with us and the community and stop the habitat destruction.

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Category: Grevy's Zebra, Matthews range, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 05 2009 | By: milgistrust

Yes I have not been blogging lately, as if I use too much energy writing I will chase off those clouds…[ not a good excuse but feasible?? also I have been away!] and one just keeps on thinking it will rain and then we can talk about good news rather than bad… But no…. not yet… Yes there has been the odd sporadic storm, and of course this is helping the very worrying situation because luckily the people are still nomadic…People with their livestock and wildlife are moving from here to there, to keep themselves, alive… Thank goodness they still are nomadic, and the land has not been divided up, and fenced… But the situation is quite grave, as far as water for the wildlife is concerned… In 20 years, since I have been in this region, we have never got to May, and not had a huge flood or 20 down the big luggas, Laana Nikan, Parsaloi… Milgis.. We keep hoping, that because they, [the rains], are late, that it will come with vengeance!! … The other evening, while the scouts were opening up the well below Elkanto for the Elephants to use during the night, they suddenly saw a group of eight elephants, who were thirsty, and were not going to wait for the night… Every one scattered, and they moved in to drink…The site of a hot thirsty herd of Elephants taking a long cool drink is extremely satisfying, especially when you’ve spent the after noon digging!! This was the managers comment!!… It has been hard work keeping the wells for the Elephants as they do tend to destroy them every night… Not their fault they are so big!!…

Little snippets of news… The mini matriarch Lesanju, our first elephant that was rescued out of a well, and taken by helicopter to DSWT back in October 2006, has been taken to Voi, on her path back to freedom…We are delighted with this news!!.. The little Elephant mentioned in my last blog is also doing well, which is such great news considering the well water was very deep, but we keep our fingers crossed for her… Last week we had another young elephant about two years old, that was deserted by its herd down at the same place as the last one was rescued.. It was still alive, desperately thin, when the scout arrived, sadly it died before our team could get there…… We do not know if its mother was poached or he was sick..

The Grevy Zebra are in trouble again, to the west of the base, with another disease outbreak in the donkeys, the main symptom being constipation, they have found one Grevy dead so far.. One more bit of bad news, and almost can’t bear to bring this up, as so far we have not been part of this, but the bush meat trade has reared its ugly head in the area, with the scouts reporting, dikdiks, and guinea fowl being killed and sold in the towns, and missionaries buying warthog meat… This is not the first time we have heard of the missionaries involved in killing and eating wildlife…!! ?? YES, Im afraid so..

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