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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: January/February 2008

Kenyan animal advocates keep working despite post-election violence

 

NAIROBI --More than 150 of the estimated 530 mob and 82 police killings wracking Kenya during the four weeks after the disputed outcome of the December 27, 2007 national election came in Kibera, a shantytown just a stray bullet's distance from the headquarters of the Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS animal orphanage, Nairobi National Park, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant and rhino orphanage, the Kenya SPCA, and the offices of Youth for Conservation and the African Network for Animal Welfare.

They had all escaped the violence, as of press time for the January/February 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE. Wildlife refuges elsewhere in Kenya were also imperiled.

"A few dozen miles from the Masai Mara game reserve in Narok," reported Associated Press on January 19, "Masai fighters and men from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe battled for hours with machetes, clubs, swords and bows and arrows. Five people were killed and 25 wounded, police chief Patrick Wambani said. Homes and shops were set ablaze."

ANAW founder Josphat Ngonyo, whose salary is paid by ANIMAL PEOPLE, mobilized to help the Kenya SPCA assist the animals of internally displaced Kenyans.

"Our big concern is a shortage of food for the dogs and cats," Kenya SPCA executive director Jean Gilchrist told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The Kenya SPCA already housed more than 100 dogs and 35 cats when the trouble started.

"I traveled upcountry on December 22 to celebrate Christmas with my family," Youth for Conservation president Steve Itela e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 5, 2008 from Busia, 300 miles west of Nairobi at the boarder of Kenya and Uganda. "This region voted overwhelmingly for Raila Odinga, butKibaki managed to get 25%."

When the violence started, Itela was isolated for five days with "no internet connection, no newspapers, no air time to call people in Nairobi, and very limited information from the radio except rumors that youth were blocking the roads and demanding cash and food," he said.

Safari Club ally defeated

On January 8, Itela updated, "We managed to get back to Nairobi under military escort. I saw thousands of people seeking safety at police stations, without food and shelter. Most had no homes to return to after they were burnt.

"I am happy about the parliamentary results of the just concluded election," Itela added. "Kenyans voted out many individuals who served the government for personal gain. We hope the new leaders will protect Kenya's wildlife. J. J. Kariuki," a legislator who sought to re-introduce sport hunting to Kenya, with Safari Club International support, "lost his seat," as did minister for tourism and wildlife Morris Dzoro.

"In Dzora's tenure," recalled Itela, "we faced the attempted export of 175 animals to a zoo in Thailand," which YfC pressure thwarted, and "illegal degazettment of Amboseli National Park," in September 2005, two months before a national constitutional referendum.

"We are currently dealing with a secret memorandum of understanding for the Kenya Wildlife Servce to hand over management of Amboseli to the Olkejuado County Council," Itela said. "This agreement, contradicting a contempt of court order issued in 2005, was signed to lure the Massai community living next to Amboseli to vote for Kibaki in the just concluded elections."

By January 18, Itela e-mailed, "All staff and volunteers of YfC are safe and have reported back to work. Some of our members from Eldoret, Kisumu, and parts of western Kenya are now living in camps where security is provided by the government. This morning, YfC staff and the Nairobi Pentecostal Church of Karen distributed food and clothing to about 2,300 internally displaced persons from the Kibera slums. YfC's office is next to Kibera," Itela said, "but we are safe except that we hear a lot of gunshots daily, as rioters engage police in running battles."

World Society for the Protection of Animals representative Nick De Souza and family were away when the rioting started in Nairobi, as was David Sheldrick Trust founder Daphne Sheldrick and her daughter Angela.

"They and the rest of the family are all well as is everyone at the Trust," e-mailed Sheldrick Trust staff member Lina Sideras.

 

[Donations to the ANAW relief effort may be made via www.anaw.org, or c/o ANIMAL PEOPLE, P.O. Box 960, Clinton,WA 98 236.]