The Milgis Trust

Milgis Trust

Vet Unit, northern Kenya

In a place as remote as the Ndoto Mountains and Matthews Range of northern Kenya where do the people turn when their animal is in trouble?

Our conservation veterinary unit will not only offer desperately needed veterinary services to the livestock of the incredibly remote Samburu, Rendille and Turkana nomadic tribes, but will campaign without fail to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock in the hope of reducing the degradation of the land, the struggle for water and therefore the presence of human/wildlife conflict.

On top of this, because it is such a inaccessible area, with approval from the veterinary department of the KWS we will give first aid care to the young or sick wild animals, that we find abandoned…Either to nurture them back to being fit enough to return to the wild with the least trauma, or to arrange for them to go to further care.. Just this year we have had several animals brought in that needed help.. [The Greater Kudu calf, mother killed by hunting dogs, baby warthog, found stuck in the mud were perfect examples, of animals that may have survived if they had had vet care ]

This project will be life changing for the people, and their valuable livestock and the entire ecosystem of over 4,000 sq kms that the Milgis Trust team works tirelessly to conserve.

Very young greater kudu… his stomach lining was bleeding having been picked up after his mother was killed, by wild dog, and fed from dirty bottles…

This Vet Unit will practise standard veterinary care and help to coordinate referrals and transportation for wildlife to other wildlife care/veterinary units in emergency situations. It will be a permanent presence at the MT headquarters with a full-time qualified vet charging a small fee for services for community livestock. There would not be any thing like the amount of lose of stock this year if the animals were healthy before the drought begun.. It will also be a conservation campaigning unit that will offer advice and guidance on how to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock, as well as livestock marketing and work to combat land degradation, human/wildlife conflict and drought crisis.

Common scene every day…

The Milgis Vet Unit’s 4 objective S’s & how we can accomplish those objectives:

SPEED of response to emergency calls

(Patrolling scouts, vet on call, communication devices, vehicle)

SKILL of a trained field vet in handling calls and campaigning

(Permanent trained field vet located at MT HQ)

SAFETY of the animal whilst in our care

(Trained staff helpers, quality equipment, medical supplies, feed and resources)

SUSTAINABILITY of the aftercare of the animal its accommodation and its safe release

(Permanent veterinary building and enclosure, continuous collaboration and support from conservancies in the area)

METHODOLOGY:

1) Construction of Vet Unit building and enclosure at Milgis Trust HQ

· Building 1. Vets accommodation on site.

· Building 2. Veterinary surgery, feed store, medical store & equipment store

· Enclosure. 2 x Fenced Pens and 2 x Covered pens

2) Purchase of Vet Vehicle

3) Purchase of supplies

· Medical equipment

· Medicines and supplies

· Animal feed

· Transport resources and petrol

4) Hiring permanent government qualified field vet

· Interviewed by KWS and Milgis Trust

5) Set-up an efficient communication rapid-response radio system

· Connect Milgis Trust scouts, Mini Vet Unit & KWS

6) Create an Emergency fund & backup support

· Air transport backup if needed to DSWT or other in Nairobi

7) Create Community awareness and fee list for veterinary services for community livestock

· Communities would pay a fee to have their livestock treated

· Regular and continual livestock campaigns to reduce quantity of stock and raise quality

· Health checks and rabies vaccinations of domestic dogs

We are all conservationists , us lot who write the blogs and our readers!, but I can see we are divided, about SNAKES!!..Thanks so much for every ones nice ‘ good recovery’ comments to Pete!… Actually he is back in hospital, as now the secondary infection which we have been warned about is coming out.. Abscesses, but we hope to have that under control soon, and get on to the ‘home strait soon’… Ay, Ay, Ay…The moral of the story is don’t get bitten by a snake! We all know that but as Anna hopes, and I hope!!, it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time… But Anna, I thought two wrongs made a right!?? To be positive the Right of this is we’ve all learnt abit more, and all your comments are adding to our experience…But Sheryl, when you come to Africa, if I’ve made 48 years with out even a threat from a snake, don’t worry!!.. I’ll send a Samburu into the shower with you with his ‘rungu’ because after two days here we won’t beable to live with you!!!

Our trip to the doc., turned out to be a ‘funny’ story, now at least, as Pete has got over it, and the doc apologised!! We had been told that if there are any signs of soft swellings etc to go and see a doctor…So we make an appointment, and head to Nanyuki Cottage hospital, Dr Butt is an expert on snake bite, but as we are getting out of the car we get a phone call that don’t bother to come unfortunately there has been two emergencies, and he can’t see you, but we persevered and waited, and we were told 2 hours and he will be with you… Good news.. !! But suddenly, 15 minutes before our ‘D’ time a vehicle comes racing in at high speed..There was guy who had been shot, so we were told sorry but you’ll have to come back tomorrow.. Luckily the head nurse had seen Pete, and she told the doctor… Sorry please give Pete 5 minutes… When he saw Pete’s ankle, he now realised he had two more emergencies, but the operating theatre was already occupied.. The doc made a quick decision, and Pete had to endure a ‘bush type op.!’as if he had left it any longer, it would turned into septicaemia… Pete nearly expired!.. But he survived to tell the tale, and today he is feeling so much better!!..

Bob, actually probably the snake expert of all of us!… glad you saw my blog, actually was going to contact you on this experience, when you update your book, you must ask Wamba hospital, about all the various, esp.red spitter bites they deal with.. While we were there was a woman who was bitten on her finger, and they actually brought the snake in for identification!… On our part, at 3 am with Pete there was no sign of panic, or surprise they went about getting the Fav-Afrique anti-venom, into Pete as soon as possible!!… Two weeks before two children sleeping in the same bed, one was bitten on the cheek, pretty big reaction, the other one was bitten on the forehead,.. no reaction at all .. obviously all the venom had gone into the first, one!.. Both cases were lucky to be close to Wamba!.. That Rendille kid was pretty lucky to find you!.. The good news!!, as most of us conservationists believe… is really, snakes are usually heading in the opposite direction, and don’t want to know… What is strange about this incident is… The snake came from the out side.. he was not cornered, Pete actually was, although he did not know it, until it was too late.. !! Wrong place at wrong time!!.. or what??

You may be wondering ‘why the silence’, on my part… No blogs, but this ordeal ‘got’ to me thats for sure!!… Imagine this situation!!… Friday 5th June 9.30 pm, we are at Elkanto.. miles from nowhere.. We were meant be leaving on a dream safari to climb over the Ndoto Mountains… But it wasn’t to be.. Pete Ilsley, my partner and a trustee of the Milgis Trust, had just finished his open air shower, standing there drying his back, when he feels a tap on his leg, and then a second tap… Its full moon, but his leg is in the shadows, and he can’t see what it is, so he finds his torch, thinking it may be a big cricket or something else like that, thats landed on his leg!! Not a man to panic, as sometimes brushing things off your self can be more dangerous…. BUT Ha Ha… It was a five foot copper coloured collared spitting cobra, literally chewing on his leg…

This is a juvenile copper coloured spitting cobra… Not the one that got Pete!

A sight he will never forget!!.. Unbelievably frightening, he hit it hard with his towel twice before he let go… He shouted ‘Helen, Helen I’ve been bitten by a snake… ‘ By this time, I was fast a sleep, I was really tired… but the moment I saw the bite marks I knew there was no more sleep to be had, and that we had to move fast !!.. OUR NIGHT MARE HAD BEGUN!.. The most important thing is not to panic! … I was given some BLACK STONES 25 years ago, by a Belgian guy who came on safari… I have carried them on every single trip since then and never used them!….. So the first thing I did was cut through the bite marks to make them bleed, and stuck the black stone on both bites… Do they work?? We believe they do!! many people are divided, from absolutely NOT, don’t know, and they DO work… We are definitely in the ‘believe in them’ category, after what we went through!!.. All the Samburu ran to help, and we made a decision that we had to get to a hospital, AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE!.. So ten guys picked him up in a blanket, and headed down the mountain side to the vehicle… We wrapped the whole leg in crepe bandages to try to stem the flow of poison to the rest of the body… and we set off… The excruciating pain that followed, was like somebody peeling off his skin, and rubbing salt in… It is only 91.5 kms to Wamba Hospital, but it took us five and a half hours of hell, to get there…there is hardly a road to start with, and the part of the road that exists was badly washed away, in the last rains… Not this year!! Pete was complaining of unbelievable pain in his stomach, which we later found out was the poison [enzymes] literally digesting Pete’s insides… 3 am we eventually arrive and Pete tells me he can taste blood in his mouth… Wamba hospital can take full credit for saving Pete’s life, but it was a battle, also to get the pain under control, and eventually they ‘knocked him out’… Luckily he knew nothing until Sunday morning… But we had a very worrying Saturday…

I am so sad this has happened…I LOVE those snakes.. I have lived side by side with them all these years, why did this one get so angry. It was not cornered, was it chasing a mouse, or looking for water, or just crazy with humans, and all that we are doing to destroy our world?? I was born and brought up living in the bush, I enjoy it so much because it is not possible to get lonely, as there is always something around , be it a lizard, mouse, snake, bird, dikdik, cricket, scorpion, hyena, Genet cat what ever… all the beautiful things that live in the bush, and now I feel let down… Now every one tells me you can not live with snakes??… Two weeks later Pete is doing well.. sounds like hes a snake hater now!!.. and I don’t blame him.. He still has a very swollen foot, and who knows which way it will go, but amazingly no necrosis, which we were warned of… I think that was because of the BLACK STONE!

‘Little’ Latakwen centre/town, in the middle of nowhere in dry Samburuland, pulled out all stops to take over ‘their’ water, and their nursery school!!… What a party! The Latakwen drinking water project, and the New Nursery school handing over ceremony WAS FANTASTIC!! In fact unbelievable… The enthusiasm was just great… I think the leaders of Latakwen proclaimed a Holiday in aid of having water piped to the little centre, and to the Clinic, and school, and to finally have a nice nursery School!! The community donated 6 goats, rice, sugar for the party! The women were all dressed up to the nines, all the school children all looked amazing, the singing and dancing was just unbelievable… They are so so so grateful, from the bottom of their hearts!! Thank you VOSS and Thank you TOTO TRUST!

The Elders started the day by gathering at the well, and blessed it and the solar panels… Then we all walked along the pipe line, to the Large 10,000 litre tank above Latakwen centre…

All the paintings by Nderitu…

As our contingency of Elders and visitors wondered down to wards the centres main street, we could see the incredible colours, all popping out of their little shops and homes, rushing off to wards the Kiosk [ the water outlet] to greet us as we walked down from the tank!! The atmosphere was electric, we just could not believe our eyes!! Moses Lesoloyia, Milgis Trust manager, gave a little speech, explaining why VOSS [A stylish bottled water company from Norway] had decided to help the people of Latakwen with drinking water… During the singing and dancing, around the Kiosk , our guests from the US, a photographer and a rep. from VOSS, were given traditional Samburu presents, a beaded head band and a beautiful wrap, embroidered with beads with a clear message… ‘If we look after our wildlife, we will reap the benefit’s!!..

Another message…… Conserve your environment get more water!

The Kiosk where the people in the centre collect water…

All the Women dressed up beautifully.. And ’sounds of happiness and gratitude poured out’

Women of Latakwen… Singing songs of Thanks, to VOSS.. Its now become a word and it means ‘drinking water’! Ever since this little centre started in the seventies, they have been drinking brackish water, which makes your tea curdle!..

In the next blog I will continue with the rest of the day… As we proceeded on to the schools, and to the children’s shows of gratitude!!

As I’ve said before… Nomadic communities, to put up with living with wildlife has it trials and tribulations… There are numerous reports from the scouts of predators of all kinds killing the peoples goats, cows, and camels… Elephants break their wells, that have taken them hours to dig, they tear down trees, when we are telling every one not to cut them!!…etc… All those ” bad ” things that wild animals do!!!… So people need to see benefits, or they will not see the point in looking after them… We do camel safaris through out this area, and we pay camping and conservation fees to the communities, and lots of people get employment, but we are not big enough for every one to benefit…Other wise there is very little tourism in the area… Its maybe too remote…[suits me!] Anyway the Milgis Trust has many other projects… Schools, employing teachers, water development, we help with many health problems… It all seems to be happening at the moment…

The SOLAR PANELS ARE IN FINALLY!!…Justus O, Karen B, Nora L, Robert S, and Charlotte B…Thank you all of you from all the Elders, Women and Milgis Pre-School Students from Ilgwe Eldome for giving them water again… Nobody in this wild area ever in their wildest dreams thought that somebody could cut the frame and get away with 4 big solar panels… Although there was somebody looking after them he wasn’t too serious, they had no idea they were so valuable… To them they look like a piece of magic glass, that takes water out of a well and pumps it 4 kms up a hill… !! We are sure it must have been some visiting tradesmen who took them…This issue became a huge problem in the community… When Diane Terry from Private Journeys, came on safari in July they could not stand it either and pledged the money!! Thanks so much…But what a palaver getting them up there in their metal cast so that nobody can steal them again….. So we do apologise that it has taken so long…. The elders waited all day, while they were being installed so that they could put a spell on the panels, in there own way…We now have two serious watchmen!!…

The elders came to say a special prayer to stop the solar panels from ever being stolen again…

We are building TWO new class rooms, one in Latakwen, and one at the Milgis School… Plus a store for the MS and we have fenced the school, with live comifera trees…65 Women did it in one day… All thanks to TOTO TRUST UK….

This week the water will be in Latakwen…Thanks to the VOSS foundation… The community are digging the one and a half km trench from the well to the town, schools and dispensary… All residents of the area have been given there quota of digging… great team spirit… I don’t dare try to put more photos on this page…

Three children were picked up by aircraft yesterday!!… thanks to East African Air Charters, and MEAK [ Medical and Educational Aid] and taken to Nairobi… Two with heart problems, and the other was the girl who was shot through her mouth… Dee Belliere of MEAK has decided that she needed further care and took her to the amazing Bethany children’s hospital in Kijabe for further treatment… Today she is undergoing a big operation.. Thanks to all…

Lastly… But very important for Milgis every day operations..VHF BASE RADIO moves to a higher hill for better communications…We are moving the radio room to a hill that is almost 1000 feet higher than Elkanto, just across the Parsaloi Lugga…. We need better communications to our VHF Radios to the North, and the radio will be on all day and all night…All the materials are being carried up with manpower!, or camels if they can, fit them on… Water and food will be delivered once a week by camel… Thank you Shikar Safari Club Foundation..for helping.. especially in our endeavour to see the Elephants safely home to the Northern mountains…

Tyeing the makuti [ palm thatch] on the New radio house on Orok Onyuki hill…The North end of the Ndoto mountains in the distance…The view from this hill is fabulous… I want to be the radio operator!!….