COMMUNITY SOCIAL RESPONSOIBILITY

The Kenya wildlife service mandate is entrenched in the constitution of Kenya to protect and conserve flora and fauna on behalf of the people of the republic of Kenya and to ensure the safety and security of all visitors to the nations protected areas . Wildlife thrived in community lands outside the national parks but poachers could still enter the protected areas with assistance from bad elements within the communities, so we found it acceptable to work with the locals in information gathering and in return we took care of the community interests. We were always conscious to the fact that our excursions out side of the protected areas were risky so we tried not to detour far off the line , and it was a very thin line for sure, because security is nothing more than taking risks and there was no way we could be confined within the park boundaries waiting for poachers to come. 

 There were no mobile phones then and we had to reach out to informers out there , so we had to sneak out to meet them in the mosques, churches, market places and at miraa joints. There were two assurances that we banked on every time we pursued poachers outside protected areas; one was that we relied on what we called "hot pursuit " which was imprinted in the law and it cleared us to pursue poachers when they leave the park and find refuge in the community areas after committing a crime , and the second one was that we had a silent understanding with the police that we could do the job but we had to hand over the case files and the exhibits to them and they would prosecute. Cute.

Elephant movements into Tana river District was seasonal and we had to follow them deep into Baridi areas near Assa or drive to Haroresa forest near Wayu village just to see and count them as expected on normal routines .  It was therefore a relieve to us when the then senior warden who was based in Lamu ( Patrick Hamilton) gave us unwritten orders that we should stop highway robberies between Garsen and Lamu forthwith and that we should treat buses as our elephants .

This was police work and they used to board buses while escorting them but the bandits were bold enough in stopping the vehicles and rob them in broad day light every day as they wished. They could stop a whole convoy and rob each and every passenger individually before sending them off with messages of dire consequences to the police , mostly of death if they dared interfere with their operations. The security forces had reasons to believe in the threats for many a times escorts were shot dead in the presence of the people they were escorting. 

There was total relieve from both the security forces and the public when we announced our intention to join the Frey. The year was 1994.

We did not board the buses as the Police did , for we knew all the ambush spots on the highway, so we got in early into these spots and laid in wait for the bandits to lead in their pray.  We ambushed the hot spots of Lagga Bunna, Lango la simba and Nyangoro bridges on our first stint and we managed to captured 8 bandits that single day. We took them by total surprise and we were ruthless in execution . Well what would one expect? They were not trained soldiers and they had no discipline so they murdered people with impunity. They knew that the local police and the police reservists feared them, so they did not clear their sites before mounting ambushes, so we watched them from our covers as they came in and they just stood in strategic points while they waited for their team members manning the makeshift road blocks to lead in the buses to them. 

We could not wait for the passengers to alight from the buses for fear of hitting them, so we picked out the bandits as they rushed to welcome the vehicles and this took them completely by surprise as very few of them saw their assailants and only one or two of them remembered to release some wild shots with no clear aim. All three ambushes that we mounted were successful that first day and we had no injuries on our side , but again we knew, that the people we were hunting would not give in easily and that things were only getting muck.

Every vehicle was expected to assemble at the police road block at Kanagoni in Kilifi District on the Malindi- Garsen road and they would be escorted by police to the Garsen- Lamu junction were they would all wait for other traffic before being allowed to cross the Idsowe bridge in minjila at noon every day in a convoy. Ambush teams would be in position by first light on the possible ambush sites and a chase car commanded by an officer would ride in the convoy to help keep us on radio contact and also to help us monitor movements. In most days the senior warden would fly over the convoy all the way to Witu town . 

On one fateful day, I was in Idasa Godana ranch to check on some reports and the senior warden was on patrol in dondori and mboni forest so the platoon comander  in-charge of our Mukowe team , assistant warden 111 Mr. Paul kipkoech Rerei, was leading the convoy. It was a normal hot and humid day with a typical coast weather and the escort team was in an old four gear Toyota land cruiser we nicknamed " Nine Nine ", it had no top and on this particular day the wind shield had to be raised to stop dust from the convoy from getting into the men's eyes . 

The ride from Minjila was smooth and all vehicles stopped briefly in Witu for refreshments but some buses that were already full of passages did not stop but continued the race towards mokowe. 10 miles out of Witu, the first three buses were stopped and directed towards the small road leading to Kipini village where every passenger was robbed of all belongings including watches. Some were beaten with no particular provocation and to cap it all some women were molested and abused then forced to go naked into the buses. The message given to all was to tell KWS to get out of the escort duties or passengers Would die next time round.

The vehicles that stopped in Witu were not aware of the hijacking and they streamed past the ambush spot in full speed and were not interfered with until the KWS escort vehicle came into view, then all hell broke loose. Eight AK 47's loosened up , all of them spitting  automatic fire directed on the open ranger cruiser. The bandits were on both sides of the road and they would have razed down the entire unit had they respected the rules of setting up ambushes, but they were not a disciplined lot, so they rushed the oncoming car. They started shooting while they were still more than 300 meters away and by the time they came to the effective shooting range, their magazines were empty and they stopped to reload, but by that time the escort vehicle was in their midst and tables were over turning. 

The escort commander was seated in the front seat next to the driver and when he realized that they were under fire, he instructed the driver not to go off the road but to drive straight into the oncoming volley and by doing that he saved his men, for he did not expose their flanks , and he narrowed  the angle of attack. The bandits did not expect this move, so most panicked and started running to the nearby bushes, but by that time the vehicle  had stopped  and the rangers were jumping out as in a drill, rolled on the hard Tarmac in union and as commanded by their officer, pushed safety catches into the singles position and picked out the now retreating bandits one by one until there was nothing left to shoot at. 

Many of the vehicles they were escorting zoomed past the action zone without stopping and many passengers were injured by the flying lead but luckily none was fatal. It was these vehicles that got into mokowe village and reported that the entire KWS escort team has been massacred . This is how the message was transmitted to us via our VHF car radios by one of our stations and three sections reached the scene within an hour after receiving the report.

All the six rangers and the officer in the escort unit were safe, but they were covered by bruises and cuts they sustained while rolling on the Tarmac.  Their ranger driver  ( Abdi Kobe ) was not lucky for he must have been hit by one of the rounds that killed the engine of their vehicle  and he died trying to slow down the car, for he was found dead in his seat with his right foot on the break pedal. 
He was discovered when a ranger was sent to the car to pick the first aid box after the Firefight and this stopped the rangers from pursuing the bandits into the bush. We found them sitting around their vehicle with dejection written all over their faces and after attending to their injuries using the few understocked first aid boxes in our possession. The GSU team based in Nyangoro joined us and we cleared a kilometer radius on both sides of the highway before we took our injured team for treatment in mokowe.

This particular engagement  proved to be very costly to organized highway robberies in lamu and garsen but we continued responded to isolated incidents in the coming weeks but peace eventually reigned in both districts. We continued to serve our partners and stakeholders through the CSR initiative and wildlife was assured of space within the community lands.

The whole company led by our company commander Mr. Samuel Ndiku assembled in Mukowe the following day to see off the convoy which took our departed colleague to his final resting place , were we presented arms, gave him our final salute and prayed to the Gods of his people to grant him easy passage to the next life. That was one of the many rangers I lost to poachers and bandits during my active years in service , but this has never discouraged us , rather it gave us more resolve , more energy , and the urge to pursue wildlife poachers . We took a solemn oath to protect and conserve both flora and fauna and we did not mind doing a little more for our partners, for these is our creed , and soldiers have died for less.

 Paul Kipkoech Arap Rere, better known as “ baba moi” is now the SOPPS { staff officer operations} incharge of Eastern comand.

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