This story gets to the very heart of human wildlife conflict in northern Kenya. Here in the north people live in wild areas, and many of us would like the wildlife to stay living in these areas too, but what happens when wildlife destroy a man's livelihood? In most cases the man simply kills the offending wildlife, and in these remote places nobody is any the wiser. But this man did something amazing, he brought the cheetah in alive. Yet the government, who owns and prohibits harm to all wild ... Continue Reading
Moyale
October 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment
It’s been two months since the fighting that left many dead in Moyale, there has been little news from the town since and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the problems had been solved and that people had moved on with their lives. Sadly that is not how things are. In my last visit there, a few weeks ago, the town was trouble free but the tension was all too obvious even to an outsider like me. Moyale has a lot in common with Isiolo. A small pastoralist town (though Isiolo is not so small ... Continue Reading
Samburu, Security and a Solar Eclipse
October 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The Kenyan Tourist Board, along with many local and international travel companies, have done a great job of promoting the total eclipse of the sun due to occur on the shores of Lake Turkana this coming Sunday. Unfortunately the main overland route to what appears to be the most popular viewing location, Sibiloi National Park, goes through an area currently suffering from insecurity. The overland route that most individuals and companies seem to be taking goes via Maralal and on up through ... Continue Reading
Turkana Oil Protests
October 28, 2013 By 4 Comments
Poverty and inequity make oil protests inevitable in Turkana, unless both government and oil companies take great care to support local communities in the early stages of exploration and extraction. Putting aside for a moment all other issues, legitimate or otherwise, that surround oil exploration in Turkana there is a fundamental problem that has not been sufficiently addressed. That problem is a perception of inequality arising from extreme poverty and marginalisation and, in the broadest ... Continue Reading
Cancer in the Chalbi Desert
October 23, 2013 By 2 Comments
There has been some long overdue publicity recently about the abnormally high levels of cancer in the Chalbi Desert area of northern Kenya (see this Standard article and this KTN video). There is some evidence to suggest that the high rates of cancer may be linked to toxins in the water. Many people believe that there is a connection between the oil exploration that occurred in the area in the 1980s and the contaminated water sources. It seems important that this should be investigated more ... Continue Reading