318 300
The Great North Rift Elephant campaign walk took place for 31 days. The walk started on 16th of November and it concluded on the 17th of December 2021. The walk was led by Mr. C.d.e’ Jim Nyamu O.G.W, The Executive Director, Elephant Neighbour Center.
Mr Jim Nyamu was flagged off at the St. George’s Girls Secondary school by Tourism and Wildlife Principal secretary Prof. Fred Segor. “I applaud the work done by the civil society and individuals such as Jim who remind us we have a responsibilty in wildlife and environment conservation”says the P.S
The walk started in St. George’s Girls secondary school Nairobi towards Ewaso Kedong, Narok, Bomet, Kericho, Chemelil, Nandi hills, Kapsabet, Eldoret, Kitale and finally to the Mt. Elgon National Park.
Jim Nyamu a scientist, turned elephant advocate has walked 17,776kms since the campaign started in 2013. He has walked extensively in Kenya and across Africa to Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. He has also walked in the United Kingdom and United States.
“He stated that elephants are wiped out day after day and our parks have become battlegrounds for illegal poachers and security agencies.Kenya in 1979 there were 167,000 elephants but the number has dropped to 35,000 following high demand for ivory in some asian contries. Some
countries lost their elephants completely, countries like Eritrea, Somalia and Senegal and it is a true sad state of those nations.
While holding community meetings in Narok, Jim had a hard time talking to them who felt like they have been left to suffer wildlife lose. Of course he challenged them to visit other areas such as Shombole and learn more about community leadership in wildlife conservation. In his opinion, they have lacked sincere leadership in wildlife conservation, Its time to agree that we have to come together and chat the new conservation path.
This was his 14th edition of the walk, he did not tire nor surrender. He states that we are facing the biggest problem in the world now the climate change. The world needs to know we need to preserve the natural resources and environmental
issues are anarea of major focus. The county governments must implement policies that are in place. The policies of the environment should be taken seriously. We are here to support the county government to create sensitisation of but am not afraid to say that the county governments are full of corruption and that is why we are still struggling with issues of environmental policies and laws to be adhered.
Another problem he noted is people washing cars and motorcycles in rivers, they do not care about the aquatic life, they are destroying the ecosystem such a sad state of this country where the citizens are oblivous of their surrounding, wild animals depend on water from rivers and something has to be done to stop the problem.
The King’wal swamp in Nandi county, home to the sitatungas is being salvaged by the area residents because they are encroaching the area mercilessly. He believes the way to conserve the King’wal swamp is by securing its boundaries, conserving this swamp is so urgent before we lose it. The Sitatunga have been and will continue to be protected by the Kenya Wildlife service.
None the less in the 31 days he visited 36 schools and institutions where he planted and donated a total of 18,000 seedlings and he’s happy to announce it was more than he expected to plant which was 10,000. Urging the students he often used the phrase “Sisi ndio tuko” making them understand that they are the generation to save and secure the environment, letting them know that their parents have destroyed and killed the wildlife it is upto
them to be the generation to save the wildlife and protect the environment and how do they do that? by planting seedlings every so often and being engaged in wildlife and environmental clubs in their schools. In this campaign walk we were able to register 4 schools in the wildlife club.
We have become very selfish that is why we like attacking our animals, but with proper information we’ll understand that this animals are supposed to live among us. We must let the global community know that african elephants are in danger. Extinction is forever and we cannot imagine africa without elephants.
The Elephant Neighbors Center is a non profit organisation whose mission is to protect the african elephants and secure landscapes for elephants outside protected areas. Kindly visit www.elephantcenter.org
for more information on elephant conservation and my campaign dubbed “Ivory belongs to elephants.”