THE YEAR OF EL NIÑO

The rains got us by surprise as they were not due until mid march, but again it was a welcome relieve to both wildlife and to the barren land. The Tsavo East National Park was completely dry and the only green leaf was not fit for consumption by animal, insect or bird. The wells of Roka on the Tiva river were dry and every living, water drinking animal was concentrated on the Kijito wind pump near the ranger post in Ndiandasa. We had a full platoon of rangers stationed here who patrolled the Tiva river all the way to the Kokani bridge on the Garsen/Hola road, and they had fly camps on the Umbi and Mkomwe hills and they also maintained a two-man reporting outpost in the Orma community centers of Kone and Assa. The Gallana river which was 50 miles south of the Tiva was at its lowest and water level was below the surface at some sandy stretches and the most vulnerable within the wildlife species were the old and the young, and they died every day on the long, lonely paths between feeds and water.

It had not rained for many months in Tsavo such that the once yellow grasses had turned brown, then black before they finally withered and were reduced to powder. The nights were cold but we dreaded day break for heat of the day was unbearable to all living things. It was therefore a relief to us all when the clouds gathered, first in slow lazy circles but later into storms which blew in winds preceding the torrential rains. It rained for four days non stop and we were caught off guard for we were not prepared as the Gallana river soared to levels never witnessed before.The seasonal Tiva river extended its width by ten folds and the Ndiandasa patrol base was completely submerged. The quick thinking of an NCO saved the lives of twenty rangers stationed at the camp by sounding a stand-to alert in the middle of the second night and ordering everybody to vacate camp and to cross the Tiva river while they could. They would have been swept away if they had waited for sunrise and they had no vehicle but they managed to walk for 45 miles to their platoon HQ situated in Ithumba. It took them two horrifying days in the relentless rain and the flooded streams on their path.

The northern part of Tsavo East was a wild frontier even to us rangers but we were always prepared for rainy seasons by stocking our supplies such as food stuffs , fuel for both planes and vehicles and other necessities at all patrol bases in anticipation of floods, but this time we were caught napping and totally unprepared . Our only luck was that it was month-end and most rangers were on pay parade in Voi. There was only one crossing on the Galana River near Luggards falls which was treacherous during the rainy season and the few who had tried to cross it never lived to tell their tales. Six of our rangers who refused to listen to reason and attempted to cross the raging flow in the mid 90s have never been found to date and have since been declared missing in action. The only other route to these parts was via Kibwezi through the Kitui road which was very long route but the most sensible alternative.

I was the company commander for the security force in Park and Daniel Woodley was the Park pilot and we took off from Voi airstrip seven days after the onset of the rains, first to try to establish communication with field teams who have been off air since the onset of the rains, and secondly to asses the extent of damage on infrastructure. We were up for a very short period before it started raining again but what we saw deepened our frustrations though we managed to raise Kone and the gallana ranch units who reported that they had flat radio batteries due to lack of sunshine on their solar chargers. We managed to land safely in Voi but we remained anchored for a whole agonizing week full of relentless rain. We were in a hopeless situation and our greatest frustration was that we were totally cut off from ranger bases in the volatile north and the fact that we did not know how they were fairing on. The pilot and i would try to be airborne every time it stopped raining but we would almost all the time turn back to land due to storms. We got a break one day where we flew for a whole hour uninterrupted and we made it to Mfupa ya ndovu, Koito , up to Huri plains then south through Emusaya, grenade valley and into the rhino ranges of Ashaka , Punda milia and the Sobo rock before we sped down to the safety of Voi air strip.

That evening we held an 'O' group with the other security officers and we decided that we had no other open course left to us but to use the Cessna 180 plane to patrol and take care of the protected area. A new 11 kilogram machine gun had previously been introduced to the service but we were shy in using it due to its weight and the ugly fact that the gun was prone to stoppages. We had noticed this set back when the gun was first introduced to us in Manyani during firing tests, but we were silenced by our senior officers who informed us that we had no option of refusing to take the weapon . It was an MG3, chain fed with detachable barrels, a very heavy monster, and the biggest challenge was the fact that we were expected to carry it along as a section support weapon, and the truth that it was shoved down our unwilling throats made it unpopular to the field units. We had to tag along an extra barrel simply because they turned red hot during successive firing such that we had to change them every time one gave the gun a continuous squeeze on the trigger. This was an extra and unacceptable setback that we had to contend with but in time we learned that we could save the barrel from jamming if we gave the trigger short busts of up to ten rounds each. This was the weapon we decided to take along in our plane during patrols and it proved very useful.

Daniel the pilot would have the door removed on the right hand side of the plane, and I was strapped to the back seat behind him holding the machine gun facing the open door. We attached a cord to the butt and secured it to the seat and the tripods were also connected to the foot step outside the plane. The pilot would then fly till he saw cattle herds or any suspicious activity where he would circle and then he would advice me if I was needed to release a volley. Our main aim was to warn the herders and potential poachers that though foot patrols were reduced to minimal due to flooded rivers, we were still in control and that the plane was just as good as a section patrol. This strategy worked very well for us in that we did not find any poached elephant for the entire El Nino period which was over six months.

One day, I Lost grip of the gun during flight and it would have fallen off the plane if it were not for the attachment on the butt. It was routine that every evening we met all Park officers at the officers Mess to brief them on the days patrol and to plan for the next day. This always translates to beer drinking. That particular evening we over did the ritual such that we woke with a monster sized hangover and throbbing headache.We took off and headed north as planned and I started shooting as signaled by the serpent holding the controls only that this time my mind and all my reflexes were kind of slow and I completely forgot to give the gun short busts as always and this led to a stoppage. I shouted to the pilot over the engine noise to level the plane so that I could clear the stoppage but the crazy Mzungu kept on circling and my already sleeping mind went into a spin and luckily my unstable mid section gave in to pressure and I released its hot contents through the open door only to be blown right back into the plane. 

The pilot was not aware of the drama behind him until the fumes of stale undigested beer hit him and that forced him to level off before turning to look at my convulsing body leaning over the open door and the machine gun swinging outside the plane, hanging by the single Manila cord attached to the rear seat. It was a sorry sight, a horrifying episode that the crazy pilot who happened to be the son of the legendary Bill Woodley would continue to describe in different versions to every Tom and listening Mary every time he came to the Mess. It took me some minutes to come back to the world of the living and I did not have strength to work on the weapon, but I managed to dragged it into the plane and signaled for the home run. I could hear the dammed pilot chuckling but for the first time since we met some few years earlier, he did not ask questions and we flew without talking till we landed in Voi.

The El Niño lasted a record six months, but it helped change the Tsavo vegetation. We saw a rebirth of some indigenous shrubs which had completely disappeared. We in the security management team devised great ideas back then on wildlife protection such as the formation of the camel patrol team who managed to reach the Orma villages of Waldena , inyali and Kalalani which were deep in the Tana River wilderness and which were the breeding grounds for the elephant poachers of northern Tsavo. This helped to completely stop elephant poaching in the Tsavos. We learned to bond well with our troops during the tough months and the daily evening 'o' group brought us officers closer together.

The months I spent with Capt Dan Woodley ignited in me a burning desire and interest to fly. Finally in 1998 I enrolled at the CMC flying school in Wilson Airport and attained a Private Pilot License (PPL).

THE HEROS OF MNAZINI

Tana River was declared a bandit county and every vehicle including ours had to be escorted by armed personnel every time it moves out of camp . The nearest shopping center from our camp in Baomo was a Pokomo village called Wenje which was five miles away and we had to send in a section to escort our families every time they go shopping. It was very dangerous to the extent that convoys could only stop on clear stretches of a road during breaks and two or more sentries had to be posted while the rest relived themselves in the nearby bushes.


 Our sentries were never allowed to stand upright and we had to clear every road crossing, road bend and seasonal streams (lugga) on foot before crossing. We respected jungle rules and in the process we became one and the same with the Jungle and we lived . Many who failed to abide by this rules were pronounced past tense and they were many. I remember one time in Idasa Godana Ranch which was west of the Tana river primate reserve we came across a platoon of the Kenya Army resting beside the road and I got genuinely concerned by their care free movement and the fact that they were not posting sentries , so i walked up to the CO, ( commanding officer ) and tried to advice him but he brushed me off,  and he blatantly told me to go take care of wildlife and leave human beings to him. He was a major in rank and I was only an assistant warden , so I tugged my pride and walked away. We got word that same day that a lone gun man had ambushed the army platoon and critically injured the same major while he stood on the cabin of their truck. Tough luck it was.

Laga Bunna was a  notorious ambush site preferred by bandits . A wooded bridge balanced strongly across the seasonal river , but the road was really bad for 200 meters on both sides of the bridge such that all vehicles were forced to slow down to a crawling pace and this was ideal for bandits who would appear from the nearby bushes on the road side and sometimes from below the bridge to rob the unsuspecting motorist. One day I was forced to cancel a planned ambush in Nairobi Ranch to respond to a distress satellite call that came to our senior warden in Lamu from a concerned citizen who saw a bunch of rowdy people welding guns aboard a passenger bus and leading it off road into the bushes some place that sounded like the laga Bunna bridge from the description given. 
The vehicle we were using had a carburetor problem but as luck had it, the warden Hola , a Mr Mohamed was on his way to Lamu so we planned to meet and exchange vehicles near the Nyangoro black spot on the lamu/garsen road . The senior warden was already in the air to lead us to the ambush site and he kept calling us on the VHF car radio to establish our location and he almost made us cause an accident when we gave him our location. 

The communication between us went like this ; " Charlye oscar from foxtrot Oscar Charlie " , Charlie Oscar was my call sign so I replied , " this is Charlie Oscar go ahead sir" and he asked " what is your Lima Oscar Charlie " and I replied " we are now over the laga Bunna bridge, over" then came the bomb shell from him," utapigwa sasa hivi, get out of the vehicle now". Boy, the driver did not wait for an order to stop, he went for the brakes and we both jumped out at the same time, he landed on the bridge and I was not so luck for i ended up landing on the river bed 2 meters below the wooded bridge.
 The rangers at the back of the vehicle were already out and two of them landed next to me as we rolled into cover expecting to be shot at . We stayed in cover for sometimes till we were sure that we were not in immediate danger then we regrouped and cleared the vicinity before we moved the vehicle away from the bridge into cover, and  only then did we call the senior warden on the radio to inform him of our status and to ask him for further instructions.

We were informed that we should hold ground to await a military chopper from Garissa which was en route to help us capture the bandits and when it finally came we were made to walk below it while it flew above to clear our front. We were used to being dropped by choppers into enemy zones and we would maneuver our way through, but having an armed chopper just above our heads with all the noise, the dust and the presumed armed bandits ahead made things very very unpleasant to us. I could read from the movement of my men that they were also not happy with this arrangement so I gave a stop sign and we all went down together till the chopper was well ahead of us then we retreated to our vehicle and informed the senior warden of our displeasure. We had to wait for the chopper to clear the place and when it finally landed the crew reported that they had not seen a soul. We later learned that we were about five miles from the incident area and that we would have salvaged the situation if we had known the exact location.

On another occasion , we were informed that six armed people were seen crossing River Tana near Mnazini by Orma herdsmen and a section was sent to investigate. One hour later they came into contact and two bandits were injured, one was neutralized and one of our rangers was also critically injured . I sent in two more sections and by midday a spotter plane from Voi had reached the scene and the pilot was leading in the sections for the final sweep when a second ranger was again shot and injured .
My section dropped back to cover the group with the injured ranger and we had to crawl on all fours to get into a better position to actually see where we were being shoot from. Once we located the enemy position, we knew that they had an advantage over us for they were on a raised outcrop in the middle of a clearing and that they had a clear view of all their surroundings. We could not estimate their number for they resorted to firing one weapon at a time and we were pinned down for the better part of the day.
We decided to send in two rangers to approach from the east while the rest of us increased activities on the opposite side to divert their attention,while a third team started taking distracting shots at the bandits making it sound like  we were ready to mount a full offensive on their position. The two volunteer rangers crawled on their bellies for more than 200 meters and because we did not want the bandits to suspect that we had some card under our sleeves,we actually started the final assault where we blasted everything their way including thunder flashes.

They must have panicked then, for they started shooting at our direction with three guns in earnest and this gave us all the time and attention we needed for our two men to get into place. Twenty five agonizing minutes latter we heard two FNs opening up in the eastern side and they sounded so loud such that we all stopped shooting and listened to their pleasant and distinctive clatters, and the screams from the enemy position and then there was total silence.
We all stood up not knowing what else to do and the silence was broken when the two rangers appeared at the hill which was previously commanded  by the bandits for the better part of the day. We all screamed as one and scrambled up the outcrop like a liberated lot. We hugged and carried the two rangers shoulder high like the heroes they were. That day we recovered two AK 47 rifles and a G3. We came to the conclusion that the man in the hole must have been their leader for he had full police uniform including a lanyard and he must have been injured badly and that his men must have been waiting for the darkness to sneak him out. The loyal lot died protecting their leader . A very honorable deed indeed.

Our two heroes were non other than ranger Lenguyayo who is currently in sibiloi national park and the late ranger Kutayon Kuntai. Their bravery saved the day for all of us in the Baomo Platoon and though we had no medals to award them then, our silent prayers, and the constant stares and trumpeting of elephant herds when they pass close to our camp on their way to the mighty Tana River for a dip and drink, would be received by our creator whom we believe is sure to reward them at the end of their tour of duty on earth. 

MY EARLY EXPERIENCE

The wardens under the WCMD[ Wildlife Conservation management department] were workhorses who controlled all budgets in parks and stations and they had knowledge on road building , bridge construction, camp setting and all that one would need to start, run and manage a protected area. The park warden was the procurement officer, the AIE sole holder and the accounting officer. Jack of all trades they were , and to say the truth ,  my dream to be a game warden was  given a new life in  1978 when I met a Mr. Wanyama who was then the warden in charge of Samburu Game reserve , when I worked as a translator during a national population census exercises . Those years the game wardens gave permits to government officers at the local administrative level to kill wildlife during national celebrations like Kenyatta day and Madaraka day for consumption.

The new security outfit was not getting the required financial support from the game wardens in combating wildlife crimes , but the DDS ( Deputy Director Security ) had some cards hidden under his sleeve in that for the first time the security operational funds were to be managed by the new incoming company commanders. This was unheard of, and as expected the idea was met by great resistance by the untouchable park managers. I remember when I needed to service my official vehicle when I was the company commander for ‘c’ company in 1993 and the warden Mt. Elgon a Mr. Ndomasi delayed the servicing for two weeks claiming that the bay was full and it was only through the intervention of a Mr. Wamithi who was the operations commander at the OCH [ Operation Centre Headquarters] that I was advised to take the vehicle to a local garage in Kitale town.  I was relieved to learn that I was not the only one who was having problems with the Game wardens and that almost all of my course mates were being pushed to the fences after funds for security operations were forcefully deducted from the park and handed over to us.  Most of us had to carry this large sums of money in our cars which turned to be our offices due to the work load, so we bought briefcases with combination locks where we kept the cash and they were kept at the luggage compartment behind the seats in the cabins of our vehicles till we eventually opened up bank accounts. I was the only one who knew the secret combination but my deputy had express orders to break the lock in case  of the unthinkable, like if I happen to be at the receiving end of a bandits fore sight mark. 

On one other occasion, one of the patrol land cruiser had an accident in the park during a mud slide and I was advised to take it to a panel beater in town but I did not know the drills, so I requested our intelligence officer Mr. Dominic Wambua who was conversant with the trade to help and I only came in during payment , but eventually it turned out that the payment receipts were inflated and an investigator was flown in from Nairobi. The officer concerned was grilled for days but when I was requested to explain my stand, I exonerated him from the allegations when I honestly said that I did not have a clue on what was going on and that the only thing that mattered to me was that the vehicle was repaired and it was on patrol.

In-fighting within the  security department did not play out in the open, but it existed all the same. There were two senior wardens under the DDS who were in charge of the WPU, ( wildlife protection unit ) and the CLIC, (intelligence) and both of these senior officers were from the nomadic tribes of the north. Our intelligence  brothers collected information and in many cases they never bothered to sieve through them as they should, and they wrote long radio messages on poachers movement and gang sightings then they would disappear from the radar such that we could not get clarifications on issues they raised . They insisted that their work was to collect and disseminate information and that we had no business asking questions. We were foot soldiers whose sole duty was to track down poachers. 

We tried to make our boss see through our concerns, and we urged him to instruct the intelligence people to give us intelligent reports and not information,  but he would hear none of this , and this hurt us bad, because we knew where his heart was, and we also knew that he was once a foot soldier . But he was extensively protective towards the clic team and he had a soft spot for them. I was branded a rebel in the department because I asked questions, and I remember one time during a quarterly security meeting when it was said that I was encouraging rifts between the two sister units, yet all I was asking for was a little accountability from the others.  I remember giving an example of looking for a  coin in a water pond. I requested that we in the field only wanted to be given some extra directions as to what side of the pond to start with, how deep the pond was and maybe if we would need extra tools for the job. 

The Intelligence team always gave us an exact number on members of a gang, the types of guns they carried and sometimes the amount of ammunition held by each individual, but they have always refused to lead us or give us pinpoint information on bandit hide outs. The strained relationships were not exposed to the surface within the department due to the fear that the information could reach our boss but the truth is that at times we could not see eye to eye for months in the field apart from exchanging the radio messages written to OCH and copied to the field commanders. At times we could refuse to follow their leads, and we would take opposite directions, and in most instances we succeed on hits, but woo unto us if anything happened on the direction they gave.  I later learned that the infighting was not localized to us alone at the service, but to every other security outfit including the GSU , and that encouraged us a little.

When I wrote the article on the Sarara Massacre, where eleven elephants were killed by poachers, I failed to mention the fact that I almost got sacked when I submitted the final report on the operation, highlighting what really happened, what we did wrong, and lessons learned. I drafted a situation report every evening giving relevant information on what we encountered during each day, state of the personnel, our intention the next day and what we expected others to do outside the danger " D " area. 

I mentioned that we wanted intelligence teams to monitor all access roads in and out of the area including all the small villages that dotted the highway between Sere olipi and Marsabit. But all this requests were ignored and I pointed this out in my final submissions. This almost sent me home were it not for Dr Richard Leakey and some senior officers who had seen the report earlier. The final report was forwarded to the Director by my then senior warden in Meru National Park, a Mr Daniel Kilonzo who was less than six months old on the job  and he was summoned to HQ to explain why he should not be sacked for forwarding a malicious report from a junior officer. He was advised to come and force me to write an apology letter for castigating a sister unit and that I was to be charged for being a bad boy.  

As expected, I refused to apologize and was ordered to report to the big mans' office in twelve hours and by the time I was being marched into his office, word had spread that I was being sent home for standing up to the DDS.  I was lucky though, for the Director knew what was happening and that he had intentionally forwarded the report to the  team so that he could personally witness and confirm the White House injustices within the department. ( the security HQ was housed at a building we called the White House ). My reputation as a rebel was written all over me. I might have escaped the sacking , but that was due to the excellent work I did as a company commander and the fact that I was among the few who found pleasure being with the patrol teams in the fields rather than issuing orders from an office desk.

 I remained the black sheep of the department and believe you me, the worst was still to come when I went flying against the wishes of the security team and i obtained my PPL (private pilot license). The almighty God works in mysterious ways and as fate would have it,  my flying was completely ignored by my security department for three years, until a man named Nehemiah Rotich came in as the Director of the service and when he heard my story, he instructed the Air wing to give me a plane, and I finally wore the wings. Tough luck it was for me for the security department soon transferred me to the air wing  claiming that they wanted commanders and not pilots to lead their unit and Mr. Mbogua who was my senior warden in Tsavo West was made to write the decisive letter that ended my sun shine years in security department. They have however relied on me during poaching crisis when i joined park management in 2008 and that explains my constant transfers to hot beds of Mt. Kenya and the Tsavo between 2010 to 2017.

 In many instances I have reflected back on those early days and I have almost all the time concluded that we, the cadet officers were deployed at the right time to lead a very willing and disciplined ranger force. Most of our days were spent in the bush doing what we knew best and only went to the shopping centers and towns for little admins and supplies. We were total strangers to towns, in fact we feared them to the point where we were always bunched together in small groups. But the local maids loved us, for we were generous on tips. We occasionally picked fights with other friendly forces, mostly the police who simply loathed our simple and carefree style. The police were used to seeing the old game department rangers whose sails were long deflated but not these vibrant, free spending , smartly dressed youths who spoke very little Kiswahili and nothing of English. How we loved picking fights with the police , and I remember one time when I took a full armed section into a police station to free two of my notorious trouble shooters from the cells.

We were young, we had good allowances and we wanted to dominate others. We were full of confidence and we believed that a little mischief was good for us all. The truth was we needed to release work pressure from the field routines , thus the mischief.  We could only afford this errands for two days in a row before we trooped back to our niches in high spirits and would talk about our misgivings until  the end of the month, and we tried not to visit the same town for the next two months or more. We were a very contented lot and an envy to other security forces, and  we instilled fear into the hearts of poachers , and wildlife was safe in and out of the protected areas.

THE MAREMBO INCIDENT

We were building a fence around the air strip near our camp within the Tana River Primate Reserve to stop the Orma livestock and people from traversing the air strip. We have had scares in the past when planes bringing  in our supplies land  at the strip and we  were also preparing to receive our Director; Dr. David Western who was expected to kick off repatriation of the local Pokomo community members who were being relocated from the reserve to Kipini area in Lamu. There was too much pressure exerted on the primates environment by the locals and the government was given a grant by GEF [ Germany fund] to buy 5 acre plots for each family. Fence materials were delivered from nairobi and i was required to purchase ballast for the works to start, so Iwas picked by plane from the new air strip and flown to Wilson.

The truck I was to use was still being repaired at the central workshop and the directors visit was scheduled to start in a weeks time so I was given one of the newly acquired four ton canter truck to transport some ballast to help kick start the fence line. It was a Toyota Dyna , white in color For it was yet To be painted with the KWS green,  so we filled it with the pebbles and started the 1000 plus kilometers ride to Baomo in Tana river district.                    We were four in the vehicle ; the driver named Gele, ranger Ngorongoro who was coming to the platoon on transfer , the mason and Me, and we were all crammed in to the small cabin and it took us more than 13 hours from Nairobi to Malindi were we rested while waiting for our escort. We left Malindi some times past mid night and proceeded with the escort team trailing us but we were heavy so they would drive past us then wait for us ahead, then we would pass them and they pass us again and we continued like this till morning found us some  miles out of Garsen town. We stopped beside the road for a short rest and the rangers chose to drive in to the town for breakfast while we in the truck continued on our slow pace.

I dosed off as soon as we started again and I had to raise the window Because i needed to lean my head on the glass and i must have slept for when i was woken up by the ranger and cries of the mason, I saw the MAREMBO sign post which is normally more than 20 kilometers from the Garsen - Hola junction. I did not have to ask why my group was exited for two shoots fired in succession rant the calm morning and a tall light skinned youth came out of the bushes to my left and Started running along the slow moving truck. I could see his face clearly for he was less than 80 meters from the road and his head and part of his face was covered by a blue scarf . He was carrying a G3 rifle and he was not shooting directly at the truck but in front of us which was a polite way of  asking us to stop. We had no intention of doing stopping as requested and the driver needed not be told that we were not armed and that we should never be at the mercy of high way bandits, more so now that I was on board , yes I was on board and every highway robber and bandit in the Tana River and Lamu Districts would love to have my heart for lunch. He changed gears and the nose of the truck pitched up and started gaining momentum gradually and this must have stunned  the man who was trying to stop us for he came to a sudden stop and started taking aimed shots at us.

KWS had officially joined the police in fighting highway hijackers and it was only three weeks since the Witu ambush where the driver of our escort team was killed , and here i was on a lonely road not knowing where my escort team was while seeing death in the form of a young, G3 welding, not so handsome bandit firing shots at our vehicle. In normal circumstances I would gladly have welcomed such opportunity to engage a much sought after contact with a lone bandit but I was not armed, not even with a pistol which had never left my side since I graduated from manyani field training school in July 1992. It was not that I forgot packing my side plate, no, but I flew to Wilson and I knew that I was to board public transport, and experience has taught me that commuters on public transport don't welcome such wares and we have witnessed people literary jump out of moving vehicles when they know that you are carrying one, mistaking us for car jackers.

I felt naked, totally helpless but curiously I was not afraid  and I  turned in my seat to watch the man shooting at us till we were out of range and i could just imagine the dejection and utter disbelieve written all over him. We stopped to examine the vehicle when we were 10 miles from the ambush site and we found four bullet holes in the canvas which must have been stopped by the pebbles we were transporting for they did not reach us in the cabin. We resumed our journey to camp with no more incidents and waited for the escort team to arrive and when they came half an hour later they reported that they had stopped at exactly the same position where we were shoot at after they smelled gun powder in the still morning air and the same guy who shot at us appeared from the bushes but he despaired when he saw the rangers. We dispatched two sections to search for the bandits and their foot prints led the team to their hide out 5 miles from the main road. 

They were not found that day, but word soon spread out that the white truck shot at belonged to KWS and that I was actually in it and this caused panic in the district and emissaries were sent by the local leaders to assure us that the people concerned would be identified and brought to us. The gun which was used during the ambush was surrendered to us in a weeks time and the owner was arrested soon after. The local community was fed up with banditry and their resilience was evident when they handed over the man responsible for the ambush. This was a big achievement to our efforts in wildlife conservation in the region and it was prove that we in KWS were a major partner in security  and that our direct and mutual approach to issues concerning the communities was accepted and appreciated by them.

The service was not impressed by my actions of not Carrying a sidearm , and I received a stern warning letter from the Deputy Director Security ( DDS ) to the effect that I will be charged the  next time I endangered my live . I felt loved , and touched by his affection , and I promised me never to leave my tools of trade behind again. This was the service at its best. The HQ cared for our well being and our welfare was awesome. We in turn did our bit and more and we exceeded expectations. We were happy and we loved and enjoyed our work.

Kakamega Forest Reserve.

Kakamega forest is a National Reserve which is managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service. In 1993 I was requested to send in men to arrest charcoal merchants who had invaded the forest.The warden in-charge of the reserve  had only three rangers and he lacked transport. We had never been there before so two rangers from the reserve joined our patrol. Back then there were no roads in the reserve, so we packed our back packs with dry ration which would last us for three days. 
All other self belongings were packed into the vehicles which then were driven and parked in the park head quarters. We were twelve in total and we walked slowly for in most places we had to cut our way through in the forest thicket.  I have led patrols before in Mt Elgon forest for many years but it was totally difficult to walk in the kakamega forest as there were no big game which could open up paths. 
So we were forced to use machetes to clear paths and this took almost all our time. We managed to cover only five kilometers that first day before it rained and we were forced to make camp.

We were used to ants, but the kakamega ants were big and were everywhere. They did not bite but they got into our nerves for they found their way to our food, our clothing and eventually into our eureka tents. They were quite a nuisance , and though they were running away from the tormenting rain , they had no business coming to us.we expected them to go climb trees. 
We had a sleepless night and we could not light fires due to rain, so we covered our bodies with the tents and prayed for the sunrise which took long to appear. We could not make tea that morning but we took biscuits and gulped them down with water then we started from where we left the previous evening. 
By midday we came to the only river that cuts across the reserve and it took us time to find a place to cross it for it was swollen and had no bridges. We found a huge tree that had fallen across the river and two men had to clear the branches and make some foot holds before we eventually trooped over it to the opposite bank. 
30 minutes after crossing the river, we smelled smoke and we heard someone singing, so we stopped and sent in two rangers on Reece missions . It took them one full hour but they established that there were two camps and they saw only six people who were very relaxed for they were sure that no security men have ever reached these depths before.
 We consulted and it was agreed that due to lack of sleep the previous night, we could not guarantee the safety of the prisoners during the night so we chose to enjoy our sleep and do the rest in the morning. So we let them be, and we slept without posting sentries for the first time in many moons.

We were up before sunrise and found occupants of the first camp still asleep. The three were roped together and tied to a tree where we posted two rangers to guard them then we proceeded to the second camp which was a kilometer away. The paths between the two camps were well used meaning that they have been there for a long time and this was confirmed by the explanation given to us by the occupants of the second camp.
We heard them shout to each other in loud voices which told us that they were not in the same place. One man was seated near a burning tree while smoking a joint.We could not see the second man for he was in the bush probably fertilizing the forest floor , so we waited until he emerged still trying to tie his worn out belt.
 The guy in the bush was explaining to the one seated at the fire that they were sure to harvest three bags of charcoal every day for the next three months from the burning tree. We later realized that they had cut down a mature Elgon Tick tree whose trunk took six of us to circle while holding hands.  It was quite a shame to see a monster of a tree like that being felled for charcoal. Elgon Tick tree has some of the very hard timber in the world and it must have been there for over a hundred years.

The two men we arrested refused to tell us where the third member had gone, so we ambushed the camp and waited for him to come. We waited for more than three hours and when he finally came he took us by surprise , for he refused to surrender and attacked the rangers with the machete he was carrying. 
The man rushed the armed men while welding the sharp weapon above his head and did not heed the warning shots fired at his feet. 
The rangers shouted at him to stop but he kept on coming giving us creeps and hints that he was possessed.He tried to cut off the head of the lead ranger but he ended up cutting the FN rifle the ranger was using to block the  blow. 
The rest of the group , me included , did not wait to see who the man would try to behead next,  so  we all raised our weapons and opened up on him. He stood there shaking for a whole minute , gazing at us with his mouth wide open in disbelieve. I failed to see his eyes for there were bullet holes all over his head and by the time I called for a cease fire, his own mother would never have recognized him. He was quite a site, and he was in a mess, I felt sorry for him.

We dosed the fire and destroyed the kilns, then forced the guys we arrested to dig a shallow grave and bury their dead before we tied them to each other and marched them towards kakamega town. 
It took us two hours to reach the town and we booked them at the police station where we recorded statements on the  dead man. The police were amused when they saw the rifle cut and warned us never to try and arrest such people .  
They told us that the weed they smoke was not the normal one , and they always mix it  with other additives . Well,  he met his match that day and though we might have cut short his supply here on earth, he might as well get plenty more where he was heading to , but of course that also depended on where he was destined for.

We patrolled the forest for a whole week but never managed to arrest any more timber poachers, for  word had gone out that the Kenya Wildlife Service rangers were in town and not the Normal game department rangers from the kakamega station they were used to, and whom lacked muscle. 

We took a different route out on our way back and we went through Bungoma to Malakisi where we zeroed our weapons at the police range grounds before checking into the Cheptais wonder land for active engagement .

Nakwamoru incident. South Turkana National Reserve. 1993

 Charley coy, had its head quarters in Cholim on the slopes of Mt Elgon, which was 27 kilometers from Kitale town, but it had platoons based in Kaberua on the western side of the mountain taking care of the new Mt Elgon district to cheptais, and the whole of Kapsokwony.  The second platoon was based at Sarmash which was at the boarder of Turkana and Pokot , but was latter moved to Lobokat. There are two National Reserves here; the South Turkana National Reserve  which starts at the Wei Wei river near Kainuk, to the Kerio river as its eastern boundary. The second is the Nasalot National Reserve which is found between the Wei Wei river and the Turkwel river which emanates from the now Turkwel hydro electric dam. 
The platoon also takes care of the Rimoi and the Kamnarok National Reserve towards the south. There has ever been a resident herd of elephants numbering 200 between these two reserves which are threatened by the ever increasing population of people migrating from the high mountains raising from both sides of the reserve.

South Turkana is surrounded by the Loturuk mountains and the Kailangon hills to the east, and has pure plains of Kaadengoi ,and Kaakong which are teemed with all types of wildlife during the rainy season before they take refuge at the towering mountains during the dry spell. 

Two incidence took place here during my tour of duty ; one was the Nakuamoru killings , and the weiwei poachers. 

Reports were received from the local people that an elephant was killed near the Nakuamoru rock, and the reserve Warden who was based at Sarmash decided to take his own PAC ( problem animal control unit ) without informing the WPD ( wildlife protection department ) rangers based at Lobokat to arrest the situation. It is important to note that PAC rangers are trained to deal with human wildlife conflict , but the WPD group are more conversant in security management and are more equipped to handle security complexities . The warden took four rangers and visited the scene where they found many people cutting away meat of the dead elephant, and for reasons best known to them, they opened up fire on the group and killed two of them on the spot. 
They were then led to where the tusks were hidden and they decided to arrest the two people who took them to the loot. The team then proceeded to Lobokat to report their success and recorded it in the OB, ( observation book ) and they wrote a radio message to be transmitted to Nairobi as required, then proceeded to Lodwar police station to commence prosecution.

The HF ( high frequency) radio had a microphone problem thus the rangers failed to dispatch the written message but the company command in Cholim was informed through the VHF radio and this prompted my need to drive more than 200 kilometers to verify and confirm the incident. I got to Lobokat in the night and after repairing the microphone the written message was transmitted and we retired to bed. 
Early the next morning I visited the scene and found the dead elephant , then we were led to the two bodies and we placed them together in a makeshift grave and buried them. We then patrolled the Turkwel basin and went back to meet the OCS (officer commanding station ) at the Kainuk police base and he was shocked to learn that two people were killed by our rangers. We failed to understand the actions of the warden and I had to call him to come and explain his actions. 
We later learned that the officer was advised by his able sergeant to do what they did. They even tried to erase what they had written on the OB and they also destroyed the radio message form they had early written. What they failed to know is that the message had already been transmitted to Nairobi and was latter used against them. The officer and the Sargent were arrested and charged for the murder of the two alleged poachers. The case took one year and the two were latter acquitted for lack of witnesses and evidence.

In the weiwei incident , rangers on patrol came across two people skinning an antelope they had previously killed and they opened fire upon seeing the rangers. The patrol shot back and one of them was gunned down and the other injured but managed to shoot his way through. A Kalashnikov was recovered with 80 rounds of 5.56 mm and this were taken to the Kapenguria police station but the police  refused to keep the gun at their armory claiming that the local community ( Pokot ) would overrun the station looking for the gun. 
We took it to our main armory in Cholim . The next day there were demonstrations in Marich pass by the Pokot claiming that KWS were their enemies and that they should be moved out of their land. They declared that they would shoot every KWS person on site and that grenades should be fired at our vehicles. Such threats are never taken lightly mostly when they are issued by the Pokot .

 I immediately assembled two full sections together and drove straight to Lobokat to reinforce the platoon. I  had five vehicles and a total of 45 men to face the challenge and I wanted to show off my strength , what we call show of might, to see if I could force the community to the table.  
For two days we traversed the entire place, from Tot to Sigor to Lomut , Chesogon and back to Marich pass without interacting with anyone.  At the police road block in Marich pass , I left a message for the senior chief, that the ball was now in his court and that he should plan for us to meet. He requested us to meet the next day at his place.

I took  one section to the meeting but  left them at the police lines and walked alone , without even a pistol to their meeting. You see, I am a nomad just like this people , and I know that stupid courage , and naked boldness , has great impact to them , and it is a pure sign of manliness and everything else associated to courage. I was only a boy to them , light skinned and very slim, and my actions took them by complete surprise , and they gave me the floor to explain things, and this I did very well,  for all those who were facing the other side simply because they disliked me , turn around to look at me,  and those who were laying down as they normally do when they don't like the speaker or the topic, rose up and listened, and when I eventually sat down, they did not talk for a very long time, and when they did , it was only to request me to walk back to my men , and that they would contact me latter. 
 On our way back to Kainuk , we found the man we had injured previously , and his foot had a big gaping hole and that the wound had turned septic and he was dying. We drove him to Kapenguria hospital for treatment then we informed the police. The simple act of taking this man to hospital rather than killing him was passed to all corners of the Pokot lands and it changed their perception towards us over night. 

A delegation of elders was sent to meet us two days latter at Amolem, and our differences and misunderstandings  were solved to date. My gamble bore fruits and the Pokot and the Turkana communities agreed to work with us in developing the two Reserves of Lobokak in Turkana district, and Nasalot in Kapenguria district. The wardens office has since been moved from Sarmash to a site very close to the Kengen Electric Power Company and the Lobokat base now has permanent ranger houses. 

THE SPOILS OF A MOUNTAIN GOD

My first posting was to Mt elgon national park way back in 1992. Elephants and all other wildlife associated with a big forest were found in this park , but it had something else unusual ; tribal clashes. The communities around the park were ripping each others throats and the authorities did not seem to mind it at all. But i had to secure the park from the marauding gangs who had to go right through the park to steal from each other. The Sabaot tribe stole from the Bukusu who were a sub clan of the greater Luhya tribe, and the Wagisu monsters came out of Uganda to help their cousins the Bukusu. The Bukusu did not have guns, but the other two were citizens of both  Kenya and Uganda and they had access to guns and dual citizenship , and they were fearless and merciless . They could kill without blinking.

The forests of Mt Elgon was very thick and hid very many evils , and we needed to get in to the forest to solve some riddles  and in the process crush some beliefs , such as trying to prove that the Wagisu were cannibals. The police department believed in such myths and they refused to take part in any operation planned or even thought off anywhere inside or around the forest. We walked into enemy ambushes plenty of times and we lost personnel, and many people were injured and almost all were direct hits on the buttocks. Don't ask me how that was possible but if you ever get the chance to hike in those forests then maybe you will know why. we took it positively and talked about it jokingly, and made fun of the guys who got hit , and we never ran away from the forest, in fact we could not work anywhere else in a better way. we learned to work in small groups of four men each,  and we were very effective , and deadly. In the park we  had hundreds of refugees driven away from their farms , and they were killed like chicken by the bandits, and we had a duty to protect them. This outfit was first identified as * FERA * and they were fighting the Ugandan government, but their accomplice in Kenya latter became the famous Sabaot land defense force, ( SLDF ). 

It was not normal for a day to pass without hearing gun fire those days, either friendly or enemy, and there was one particular time that we failed to hear gun shots for a week and we were all uneasy, and i had to call all the teams together and one officer was asked    to shoot in to the air and we cheered and this settled our sugar levels to minimum. Cattle rustling was a daily activity then, where the agriculture development cooperation ( ADC ) grade cows were stolen and later sold like hot buns in neighboring Uganda . The park was used as a conduit for years and we tried to stop it by ambushing all known routes in the forest but the area was too big and the plant called stinging nettles got into our nerves. We eventually took our patrols to the moorland and waited for the cattle that high up and this paid dividends. We completely crashed the rustling rackets and the ADC managers of Transzoia will attest to this, and my men were sold livestock products from these farms at half price for our efforts.

I was born to a nomadic tribe in the northern frontier thus rustling was a normal way of life to us. I lost many family members to cattle rustlers to the extent that death did not scare me any more. Guns were common to my people and  this helped me greatly when i was trying to bond with the teams in Mt Elgon. I fused in very fast with them, and I was grateful , for though it was baptism by fire, it helped prepare me for the rest of my tour as a security warden. 

In the beginning i didn't know enough to be scared. The thing about a bullet is , you cant see them. All you can do is hear them. And until you connect the sound of a bullet with someone dying , you don't have enough sense to duck. That is exactly what kills most people in the early stages of combat. They hear a shot , they stick their head up , and they get killed. until you have actually shot someone or been shot at yourself , it doesn't really sink in. It really sunk into me in Mt elgon. I knew those bullets could kill me , so i kept my head down. and i said *oh my God* . This is real , and i survived.