Elephants from Laikipia are now in Nakuru County – 31st July am -update 17

Just received from Kerry Outram –

The weekend saw little change in the elephants positions. On Sunday a small group from the large herd in Sinende crossed the river and began working their way along the bottom of the escarpment. In the process they came across a large banana plantation and ate that. The owner will be compensated but was very understanding.

Today the rest of the big herd have crossed the Waseges river and have gone up over the escarpment. They have found a way to avoid the village which has been harassing them. We can only hope that they will manage to avoid the armed gangs roving Laikipia.

11 are  still roaming around Sinende village, the community still willing to let them be.

 The Leakey’s group still staying put in the farm.

Hats off to the extraordinary rangers both KWS and community who have helped keep tabs on these animals and ensure the communities know where they are. Happy Rangers Day

Ole Naishu Ranch – 30th July

Just received from Ole Naishu –

What little grass remains on Ole Naishu is rapidly being depleted by the remaining cattle and in particular large flocks of sheep illegally grazing. We still have numbers of cattle from Isiolo County, identifiable by the yellow tags (starting 009, 010 and 012) as in the images below. Approximately 500 head of cattle and 300 sheep were detained on the ranch today. A few opportunistic neighbours from the Grattan area have used the opportunity to cut cedar and poach with spears and torches at night knowing that we are absorbed tackling livestock. A patrol last night recovered a spear, axes and wedges used for splitting cedar but unfortunately the perpetrators got away.

Day 200 / 201 of chaos, violence, mayhem, shooting etc or day 323 / 324 -Friday 28th, Saturday 29th July

Another two days with no breaks in boundary stonewall but still a large build up of livestock, mostly cattle on Lombara and reports of more cattle heading back towards Rumuruti from Mweiga / Naromoru. Hopefully they will continue north……..Patrols on going constantly as well as routine farm maintenance jobs and checking up on the recent major stonewalling in the valley which has held up well with all the runoff with the recent rain and trapped a huge amount of debris .

Friday was taken up with meetings in Nanyuki and then at the Cottage Hospital where John Meja had the plaster removed from his foot. He is one of our Patrol crew and was shot in an ambush on our boundary with Lombara. Luckily his ankle joint wasn’t affected and the wounds have healed and bones fused and now slowly rebuild strength as he slowly gets used to not being in plaster and start weight bearing.  Thankfully the outlook is good and we look forward to him being back at work in a month or so. 



Loss of fertile land fuels ‘looming crisis’ across Africa – Jeffrey Gettleman / NY Times – 29th July

Ole Naishu Ranch – 29th July

Just received from Ole Naishu – 

Ole Naishu has seen a marked reduction in the numbers of livestock illegally grazing on the ranch over the last two days. This may be attributed to action by the authorities, depleted grazing and tension between Samburu and Turkana herders who were illegally grazing on the ranch. The main mass of Samburu cattle that were boma’d within the ranch moved off on the night of 28th July. There has been extensive damage to ranch infrastructure. Herders from areas as far afield as Habaswein, Isiolo, Kipsing and Lodongokwe have been detained recently. Large herds of cattle and in particular sheep remain destroying what little grass is left. We are grateful for the continued support received from the Kenya Police, who have enabled us to continue operating during difficult times.

ThisIsLaikipia – 14

Welcome to #ThisIsLaikipia. 

Watch this space for truthful and relevant information about Laikipia.This page on Facebook and Instagram puts out accurate stories of what happens in Laikipia, before the Land invasion – the people, the livestock, the crops.
I have added photos of the pages in here for those of you not on Facebook so that you too can be part of ThisIsLaikipia



Mugie Ranch -29th July

Just received from Mugie –

Our evening patrol just found three different herds of Pokot cattle coming through our north west corner, 2 people with each herd and each man with a gun. More pressure from the Pokot areas due to being pushed from LNC side.

Samburu continue to come through on mass from the north along Lengees, NYS and P&D, all feeding through the night.

Lempurkel charged with racial contempt, incitement to violence -The Star 28th July 

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/07/28/lempurkel-charged-with-racial-contempt-incitement-to-violence_c1606114

*

The case will heard on 5th September. The MP faces two other separate, long adjourned criminal cases: 1) for allegedly threatening to burn down a police station in July 2016 (case coming up on 7th September); 2) and for allegedly assaulting rival MP Sarah Lekorere (case to be heard on 18th September, 308 days after the offence was reported).

Elephants from Laikipia are now in Nakuru County – 28th July am -update 16

Just received from Kerry Outram –

Another cold and wet morning down here, wonderful rain again last night.All is quiet on the elephant front, the group who have taken up resident in the Leakey’s farm are still very shy and at first sight or sound of people they melt back into the thick sisal and bush corner which they have claimed as their own.

Of the herd sighted at Menengai there has been no sign since Monday, it is possible it was the same group which is at the Leakey farm but without clear sightings ID is difficult.

The large group at Sinande are still there and all reports from the community there indicate they are still positive about them being welcome and they feel the message they bring is that lives must change, space must be made. 

No word from the Rangers who were going up the hill to talk to the communities there yet.

Day 197 / 198 / 199 of chaos, violence, mayhem, shooting etc or day 320 / 321 / 322 – Tuesday 25th, Wednesday 26th, Thursday 27th July

Another 3 days with no breaks by illegal grazers and only a couple of breaks by elephant who have decided it’s safer to hang out inside the farm and have helped the stonewall rebuild crew by not venturing out. 

Lombara is once more inundated with small stock and cattle, now more cattle than small stock and probably about 2000 head seen in the section of Lombara between us and Karuwao. On the main section of Lombara the number is probably much higher. 

Patrols are continually happening and vulnerable areas constantly monitored. One of the Patrol teams mentioned seeing a zebra that they recognized as different – they said it was bigger, looked more like a horse and had big ears like plates, today we managed to confirm this sighting of a Grevy zebra on Kifuku….a new record for us. Just the one running with the Common or Burchell’s zebra. Would be so interesting to know where she came from ?!

With the rain around and a huge storm on Tuesday night we decided it was time to try patch up the tear in the mabati roof from a bullet in January. The dripping was no longer a drip but a small stream through the hole we made in the ceiling ! A very ‘jua kali’ repair job done by twisting plastic bags and stuffing then in the tears and then covering with duct tape. Not likely to last forever and probably not 100% sorted but a definite improvement.

The other bullet hole through the glass in our bedroom can wait or maybe left as a reminder of these crazy times !