The Early History Of
Kenya’s National Parks
By Dame Daphne Sheldrick
Over 60 years ago Kenya’s
first generation of pioneer wardens, Bill Woodley, Peter Jenkins and David
Sheldrick, travelled the main Nairobi-Mombasa road to Mtito Andei, then just a
dusty dirt road, to begin the daunting task of transforming untouched and largely
unexplored and inhospitable arid semi-desert wasteland into the famous National
Park that Tsavo is today.
It was in those times an unattractive tangle of
dense thicket, which was home to thousands of black rhinos, un-friendly
elephants, which had suffered years of hunting and poaching by humans, and
lions that had always had man-eating tendencies, whilst the buffalo were
extremely dangerous when encountered at close quarters. Added to
this Tsavo was home to a multitude of poisonous snakes, scorpions and other
stinging insects, bird-eating spiders that leapt up at one if disturbed, not to
mention the ever-present threat of deadly malaria.
A few early European explorers had ventured through
Tsavo and the Taru Desert on their quest to reach the hinterland – men such as
the German missionaries, Krapf and Rebmann, who were the first white men to see
the snows of Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya in the early l800’s, Lord Lugard who
walked up the Sabaki/Galana river (and had his finger bitten by a crocodile at
what is now Lugards Falls), Joseph Thompson who arrived some years later, and
so graphically described the wilderness to the world and who befriended the
Masai, Colonel Patterson who oversaw the laying of the railway line, and who
shot the two notorious man-eating lions which devoured almost l00 Indian
railway workers.
When Tsavo was first gazetted as a Park in l948,
the wildlife of the area remained all but invisible until one stumbled upon
them at close quarters, following narrow elephant trails that wound through
dense Commiphora-dominated thicket, sweltering in the intense heat that seemed
bent on sucking every morsel of moisture from tired torn human
bodies. There were no roads for Tsavo’s pioneer wardens to follow,
no aircraft from which to take a look at the challenges that faced them, no
hand-held radios to keep in touch with one another and base camp, no telephones
or other mod-cons at their disposal – just one vehicle, some old fashioned
ex-army tents that did not zip shut, and a haversack to carry their few
personal items. Their work-force consisted of a handful of raw
labourers armed with only pangas (machetes), jembes (spades) and shovels to
carve out the very first tracks leading to who knows where.
The first task they faced was to walk on foot for
two years in punishing temperatures; restricted in the dry season for they had
to carry what water they could. Just two permanent rivers served the
giant Park covering 8,000 square miles in extent. During wet seasons
they could venture further, drinking from the same waterholes that the animals
used, and using alum and natural roots to clear it of mud and animal
faeces. The early wardens were hardened naturalists, all proficient
riflemen, capable of stopping an elephant, rhino, buffalo or lion at close
quarters for they learnt how to shoot the moment they could
walk. Added to this the first senior wardens had seen active service
during the Second World War. Few of today’s wildlife personnel have
any perception of the sweat and toil of their predecessors who managed to
create a National Park of which Kenya could be proud in just 30 years.
Perhaps two who should be most celebrated for the
actual creation of Kenya’s National Parks, is the then serving Chief Game
Warden, Archie Ritchie, and Colonel Mervyn Cowie, who became the first Director
of the National Parks. Although the concept of National Parks
to preserve the country’s irreplaceable wildlife heritage was first muted in
the early l930’s, the war years put everything on hold until Archie Ritchie
along with Colonel Mervyn Cowie took up the mantle again in l939 once the war
was over. In fact, it was Archie Ritchie, himself a Civil Servant,
who contributed most to the success of the early National Parks, which were
once recognized as the finest in the world. It was he who had the
wisdom and foresight to insist that National Parks must be divorced entirely
from political manipulation, independent of Government and overseen instead by
a powerful Board of Trustees drawn from all walks of life.
Bill Woodley and Peter Jenkins were the first
Junior Assistant Wardens to be recruited for the National Parks Service, aged
l8 and 19 respectively recently having left the Prince of Wales school in
Nairobi. Their salary was meager by today’s standards, just K. Shs.
500/- per month flat with no allowances. (It was Peter Jenkins who had won
the international competition for the design of the first National Parks’
emblem – a rhino standing by a thorn tree with Mt. Kenya as a backdrop.) The
year was l948, and the two first Junior Assistant Wardens served initially in
the newly created Nairobi National Park under its Warden, Ken Beaton, who
became well known for “A Warden’s Diary” written weekly in the East African
Standard newspaper.
On the l9th April l948 Bill Woodley and Peter
Jenkins were sent to Tsavo National Park to work under its first Warden who was
a man named Stevens, who had established a rustic base camp at a place known as
“Steve’s Hill” in what is now Tsavo West National
Park. He had no previous experience of wildlife or
camping in very primitive conditions in an old ex-Army tent into which any lion
could walk, didn’t suit him at all. Needless to say, it was not long
before he threw in the towel, leaving Peter Jenkins and Billy Woodley in limbo
wondering what to do next with their handful of raw labourers.
Ken Beaton was then sent down to pull the chestnuts
from the fire, his arrival coinciding with the employment of another pioneer
warden, Major David Sheldrick who had been head-hunted specifically for the
Tsavo task by Archie Ritchie himself. Following discussions with various
District Commissioners and the Board of Trustees, Ken Beaton recommended that
the giant 8,000 sq. mile Tsavo National Park be divided into East and West for
ease of administration, and that David Sheldrick was to shoulder responsibility
for the development of the more problematical section east of the railway line,
now known as Tsavo East, with Bill Woodley assigned to him as his Junior
Assistant Warden. Major Tabs Taberer was employed to take over Tsavo
West, i.e. everything that lay west of the railway line with Peter Jenkins as
his Junior Assistant.
Gazettement of the boundaries of Tsavo had been a
lengthy process since claims from all its neighbouring tribes had to be taken
into account. These were (1) the Masai (2) the Wakamba (3) the Orma
(4) the Taita (5) the Giriama and (6) the Duruma and what was eventually set
aside for wildlife in l949 was the only sizeable chunk of “un-wanted” land that
the colonial Government could set aside to accommodate a sizeable population of
elephants and rhino, as well as most of Kenya’s indigenous species with the exception
of wildebeest which were well represented in the Nairobi National Park.
Tsavo West, encompassing 3,000 square miles, was
scenically stunning. Overlooking recent lava flows and volcanic
cones, as well as the crystal clear waters of Mzima Springs bubbling from the
lava in the midst of an arid land, the Chyulu range of hills were of recent
volcanic origin clothed in emergent forest. Therefore,
notwithstanding the wildlife it harboured, about which little was known other
than it was known as the home range of mainly bull elephants, the magnificent
scenery alone warranted its National Park status. The first
Headquarters was established on the slopes of a low hill at Kamboyo within easy
reach of the railhead at Mtito Andei, commanding breath-taking views of a
spectacularly stunning landscape.
Tsavo East was 5,000 square miles of flat, dense
scrubland thicket, penetrated by just one old hunting track that ended abruptly
about 20 miles from Voi township at a place aptly called Heartbreak
Camp. David Sheldrick was 30 years old in 1939, having commanded the 5th
Battalion Kings African Rifles during the war and served with distinction in
Abyssinia and Burma. At the time that the post of Warden of Tsavo
came up, David was actually engaged in taking the Aga Khan and his Begum to Dar
es Salaam. Archie Ritchie persuaded Colonel Cowie to wait for his
return before advertising the Warden slot for Tsavo, knowing that he would be
perfect for the job.
David Sheldrick had at his disposal just one
vehicle, some tents and a handful of labourers when he established the eastern
sector of Tsavo’s first base at Ndololo (now a public campsite) by the seasonal
Voi River. His first task was to build a kiln in which to fire some
clay bricks to construct a secure armoury for his guns and any recovered ivory
and rhino horn. Enviously, he eyed the nearest small hill within reach of
Voi town and railhead which would be ideal for an elevated Headquarters that
would bring some respite from the punishing heat, but the hill was beyond the
Park’s boundary, owned by the Voi Sisal Estate. Sweltering at Ndololo,
David Sheldrick initiated negotiations with the Sisal Estate to exchange Msinga
Hill for a patch of the Park on the south bank of the Voi River more suitable
for sisal growing. This was a lengthy process which took two full years
and during those two years, from the Park’s first base camp at Ndololo on the
Voi River, he and Bill Woodley set about exploring their domain on foot, each
with a trusty .416 rifle slung over a shoulder, accompanied by a captured
Mliangulu poacher as their guide and some porters to carry basic rations.
They soon discovered that Tsavo East was the
traditional hunting ground of the Waliangulu tribe who resided just beyond its
Eastern boundary in Giriama country, for they came across the carcasses of
numerous poached elephants, all with tusks missing. Elephants had
long been entwined in Waliangulu culture. Tribesmen hunted them
using giant bows to fire poisoned arrows, there being no known antidote for the
Acokanthera poison purchased from traditional Giriama poison makers. They
boiled up the bark and roots from specific Acokanthera trees that were more
toxic than normal, detected by the dead birds that were usually underneath
them.
Aside from the elephant poaching, David Sheldrick
faced another major challenge, and that was how to cross the Galana river and
gain easier access to the 3,000 square miles of his Park which lay on the North
bank. The only access to the North was a long roundabout route via Kitui,
so Bill Woodley was assigned the task of undertaking foot patrols from that
end, on one occasion almost dying of thirst when his vehicle got bogged in sand
whilst attempting to cross a lugga (sand river). By then David
Sheldrick had managed to persuade the authorities to provide him with
additional equipment, a lorry, a small tractor, and also another Assistant
Warden in the person of John Lawrence, who would supervise the construction of
a causeway across the Galana at Lugards Falls. Work began on this in
the early 50’s and the causeway took a full year to complete, for it was a
mammoth task. Today, 60 years on, it continues to serve its purpose
making the Northern Area more accessible during Tsavo’s long dry seasons when
the river is at low ebb.
David recruited for his first anti-poaching force a
nucleus of trusted soldiers with whom he had served during the war, using
captured poachers as trackers and guides. Meanwhile, the land exchange he
had sought finally materialized, so Mazinga Hill became available as the site
for Tsavo East’s first permanent Headquarters. While building was
taking place, he set about recruiting raw tribesmen from the pastoral people of
the North – men who were skilled at tracking, fearless and brave, and hardened
to harsh conditions, it having been found that rangers recruited locally
colluded with the poachers. He sought new rangers from the ranks
of Samburu, Turkana, Rendille, Somali, Gabbra and Rendille tribesmen who
were then trained in Tsavo by him along military lines and finally moulded into
a force the likes of which has never been seen again and which provided the
blue-print for all other Parks in Africa.
For a full year, all work came to a standstill
while the anti-poaching campaign tackled the poaching menace under his
command. It took the input of two Game Department units, two crack
National Park Field Forces under the leadership of Bill Woodley and Peter
Jenkins, secondment of a Pilot and Plane from the Police Airwing, a Police
Prosecutor to deal with all Court Cases and high-ranking CID Officers assigned
to try and deal with the Coastal middlemen whilst the Army supplied radios and
other vital equipment. The anti-poaching campaign of the fifties
stamped poaching out completely within Tsavo National Park.
Building aruba dam
Then came the great drought of the l960s, which
took a heavy toll on rhinos along certain stretches of the Athi river, with some 300
dying before the rains eventually broke on the 20th September l96l, triggering
monumental floods, that changed the beach at Malindi forever, and left the
river wider by 300 yards on each side. During the height of the
floods, David Sheldrick and his workforce were stranded on the North bank of
the river for some 3 months, all supplies having to be ferried across in a
small rubber dingy attached to a stout cable anchored to trees on either side.
However, during the 60’s, peace was restored and
not one elephant was poached within the Park’s boundaries. Moreover, the
rhinos seemed just as plentiful despite the loss of some
300. This was a decade for understanding and research, for the
further development of the infrastructure and road systems, the completion of
the five main entrance gates to the Park, the construction of the Aruba Self
Help Lodge abutting the Aruba Dam and the provision of additional permanent
water sources utilizing ground resources. This was necessary to
relieve pressure on the Galana and Tsavo rivers during Tsavo’s long dry
seasons, and spread the wildlife load more equitably for tourism.
Peter Jenkins was transferred to also work under
David Sheldrick in Tsavo East, charged with the task of developing the Northern
Area Headquarters at Ithumba, where he would be based, and installing tourist
tracks and signboards to bring the Northern Area into production, all of which
was done extremely efficiently and to perfection. David Sheldrick
designed and constructed an up-market game blind on the slopes of the Yatta
Plateau, overlooking the Tiva and the vastness of the Northern wilderness which
would be available for the more discerning tourists. He always
envisaged that the Northern Area be kept pristine and exclusive, a wilderness
which would come into its own for elite tourism conducted by professionals
conversant with the bush and its hazards. Safaris into the North
demanded two vehicles for safety reasons, and accompanied by a National Park
Ranger Guide equipped with a radio to be able to communicate with the Voi
Headquarters should an emergency arise.
Bill Woodley was promoted to Warden of the Mountain
and Aberdare National Parks, based at Nyeri, Major Tabs Taberer handed over
Tsavo West to Tuffy Marshall and was transferred to the Amboseli National
Reserve with David Lovat Smith as his Assistant Warden. Independence
came in l963 and soon Colonel Cowie’s position as Director was taken over by
Perez Olindo. Peter Jenkins was also promoted, tasked with
rebuilding a broken down Meru National Reserve, which had recently been awarded
National Park status. New faces appeared on the Board of Trustees, many of
them political appointees with vested interests other than overseeing the
welfare of the country’s wildlife. A period of rapid change and transition
was taking place; white-collar corruption was becoming a way of life, then
involving ivory and rhino horn, so poaching re-surfaced again, this time
involving high ranking politically protected middlemen ivory
dealers. Meanwhile, elephants from outlying areas sought refuge in
the safety of Tsavo, eventually overtaking its carrying capacity in terms of
their species. Grasslands replaced the dense Commiphora thickets
throughout large swathes of the Southern Section of the Park, although the
Northern Area remained as it had always been – dense Commiphora
thicket. Grazing species multiplied south of the Galana, buffalo
emerging as a dominant grazer of the new grasslands, and new species such as
oribi, sable and coastal Topi appeared.
There were calls for the legal culling of elephants
South African style, something that David Sheldrick vehemently opposed, for he
could see the sort of Pandora’s box this would create due to circumstances
prevailing at the time. Also, he had undertaken his own research
during the decade of the sixties, delving into all the old explorer’s early
records of the habitat as it was l00 years ago to better understand the changes
taking place, marking and monitoring specific elephants to map the extent of
their ranges, un-covering the root systems of grasses and trees to understand
the impact they had on a changing water table, and studying all aspects of the
area under his control. He also learned a great deal by rearing and
ultimately rehabilitating orphans of misfortune - elephants, rhinos,
buffaloes many of the antelope species; the first person to understand the very
human aspect of elephants. David Sheldrick was ahead of his
time. He knew more about Tsavo and its complex rhythms of life than
any visiting scientist, and he knew more about the very human nature of
elephants than all others, having hand-reared their orphaned
young. Hence, when the scientist who called for the artificial
culling of the elephants challenged the Trustees by saying that “either
Sheldrick goes, or I go”, the Trustees said apologetically, “Well, we fear it
will have to be you, for we can replace a scientist, but we could never replace
David Sheldrick!”
The end result was that the elephants were spared
and instead Nature stepped in to do the culling, and did so much more
efficiently, quietly, and without turning the entire Park upside
down. 10,000 mainly female and sub adult elephants died of
malnutrition within just one drought year in the early 70’s – the number that
the scientist had recommended should be artificially culled. Nature
distilled the population through natural selection, putting it into decline by
targeting the females, the elderly, the sick, weak and the maimed, creating
generation gaps and thus relieve browsing pressure on the habitat.
In l976, the Government suddenly abolished the
National Parks’ Board of Trustees overnight, and seized control, amalgamating
the National Parks Service with the Government Game Department, two
organizations that had very different roles. Whereas the Game
Department had been responsible mainly for the control of wildlife in human
settlement, the National Parks personnel had always been tasked with conserving
and protecting wildlife within the Protected Areas. The result of
the merger proved disastrous, the new Government Wildlife Conservation and
Management Dept., (as it was called) very soon earning the title of “The
Wildlife Poaching and Mis-Management Dept”. There followed 3 decades
of wholesale in-house slaughter of elephants and rhino for ivory and horn,
perpetrated by Somali shifta armed with automatic rifles, and also by the
Wardens and Rangers themselves, David Sheldrick having been moved from Tsavo,
supposedly to head the Planning Unit of the new organization. He
would be based in Nairobi, charged with overseeing the development of all the
country’s National Reserves, but he never lived to fulfil this task, for he
died suddenly of a massive heart attack 6 months later on the 13th June,
l977. It was then that his widow, Daphne, was given permission to
reside within the Nairobi National Park, and continue her work with the
orphans, mainly elephant and rhino calves, who were coming in thick and fast
due to the poaching.
David Sheldrick left Tsavo East National Park fully
developed, with l,087 kms of tourist roads, 853 kms of administrative roads and
287 kms of anti-poaching tracks, every vehicle, all heavy machinery, every
borehole etc., in perfect working order, stores filled with spare parts, and
staff uniforms to last the Park for the next 5 years and a loyal Field Force of
which he had been inordinately proud. However, he also complained
vociferously that Tsavo East had been allocated just K. Shs. ll0,000 by
the new powers-that-be for the half year July – December l976, pointing out
that it was impossible to maintain standards on such a paltry
sum. 20,000 elephants remained in Tsavo East when he left in
l976, but the next three decades reduced the elephant population to just 6,000
within the entire ecosystem, an area twice the size of the Park itself, where
once there had been 45,000.
1990 saw the installation of Dr Richard Leakey as
Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, which replaced the corrupt and infamous
WCMD organization. It was he who managed to bring the poaching under
control within the Protected Areas and restore some credibility to Kenya’s
conservation image. However, World Bank funding provided a huge
Headquarters, and an unwieldy bureaucracy which has been the organisation’s
Achilles Heel. The rest is known recent history – an impressive
veneer to the organization at the Headquarter level, but little emphasis given
to the field. Although the Government has allocated impressive sums of
money to the Wildlife Service, this has been spent on “window dressing”,
leaving the field, and “the product” on which Kenya’s lucrative Tourism
Industry is based, still wanting.
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