IN THE SHADOWS OF KILIMANJARO.
I took charge of Alfa Coy operating out Tsavo East National Park in 1994 from the man codenamed Alfa Oscar , but his true name was Paul Ogutu Onyango. He was a big man with a very dark charcoal like complexion and he had a heart made of stone . He was feared in the Kws security setup and was only transferred out of Tsavo when another senior officer was felled by a poachers’ bullet in Meru National Park. He was given only two days to hand over the armory and the office to me before a plane flew him to Meru , but I settled in pretty quickly and comfortably among the team since I have had previous engagements with the field units in Tsavo on daily basis while on assignments in both Tana River and Lamu Districts.
Some times in the early months of 1995, I was instructed by our central command ( OCH ) to pick two sections and head west to Amboseli National Park and that my coordinating instructions would be given later that day from Nairobi. I was given a hint that a senior officer was to join me from the HQ due to the nature of the operation , but I was not prepared when I met Mr. Julius Kimani at the airstrip. I have met the man in several occasions and in the mandatory quarterly security meetings organized by the division, but he has always been at an arms length. He was in the intelligence department headed by the late Capt. Dulloh but we from the sister department of WPU ( wildlife protection unit ) feared him because he was a serious person who smiled little, and he was in intelligence and we didn’t like that group much. We have always blamed them of giving false reports on bandit and poachers movement but the then DDS ( Deputy Director Security ) had a soft spot for them and we in the WPU have never won an argument when it came to departmental in-fighting.
Mr. Kimani proved to be a very good hearted person and together we formed a formidable team during the duration of the operation which lasted for 26 days. There were security lapses in Amboseli which led to the theft of a vehicle operated by the Amboseli elephant research group and elephant deaths had increased in and out of the protected area. We were sent in to help the management of the park to restore visitors and stockholders safety and to stop elephant poaching. Patroling amboseli was nothing unusual to me and my men, but the international boundary on the higher slopes of Kilimanjaro was a serious challenge to us due to protocols. Yes, protocol was a new word to us and we felt let down when we were not allowed to follow poachers who killled our elephants in Kenya and disappear into the neighboring Tanzania.
Our first intention was to secure the park, so Kimani advised that we stop vehicle night movement within the park mostly of the local community and the tour drivers who found it good to drink and dine in Oltukai , then take a short hop to Serena for the night, or the daily matatus who spend the whole busy day in the markets and bars of loitokitok and namanga doing their things then drive through the park in the dark hours of the night. We took control of kitirua, meshenani and kilunyet gates and I also blocked the junction between oltukai and Serena lodges to control drunk tour drivers. In two days, order was restored in the park though the local Masai could not read the logic behind the move, but the tour drivers got the cue, and mutual understanding between them and us prevailed.
Elephant poaching was our next move and Kimani had done his homework while we were restoring confidence among the stakeholders, and he promptly gave me names of the culprits though arresting them proved hard to us due to boarder protocols. We were losing elephants in the kitendent area all the way to murtot on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, so we sat down together and agreed that I had to go into the neighborhood in disguise to arrest the situation. Four of my Masai speaking rangers walked into Longido village in TZ clad in their traditional attire and lured the main poacher , a man named Tirana Lalangoi out of his village and he was also coaxed into producing a 458 sport hunting riffle but he had already sold the tusks . He was convicted in the loitokitok law courts and sent to jail for some years.
I am a muzzle man, and I walk in and out of situations with guns blazing, but Kimani gave me another tactical print on intelligence which I had earlier ignored totally, not because it was not available to me , but I simply shut it off due to departmental malice . Shakespeare called it malice domestic . It was a game of cards between us, but now , in old age, I regret and sympathize with me and my kin in WPU in the mistrust and suspicion that we manifested within the Division. Jonny Kim might not be in uniform again, but his wisdom and his kind heart will be available to some of us for ever.
