THE BEGINNING OF KWS

The WCMD; better known as the wildlife conservation and management department was a government department under the ministry of environment and natural resources and all its employees were civil servants who were either trained by the Kenya police or the army on basic paramilitary training because it was through that training that the police commissioner loaned them weapons. Yes, they were given the standard 303 mark four rifles and a few G3 rifles which enabled them to form the dreaded anti poaching unit [APU] with camps in Garissa and manyani and isiolo, and they traversed the whole country in the struggle to contain the escalating elephant poaching by marauding gangs from in and out of the country. The government seconded officers from both the military and the police to lead them and in most cases the military choppers were deployed to assist in containing the war.

This were the pioneers of conservation in this country and they played their role as the custodians of our country’s natural resources to the best of their ability with the limited resources available to them then. To say the truth, this was a bunch of dedicated men who did what they did then under the prevailing condition and poor funding to save our heritage. Poaching increased 10 fold in the late 70's and we lost more than 60% of the elephant population in Tsavo alone and this prompted the then government to bring  in a young man by the name of Richard Leakey as the director of the wildlife department and  he came in with his own conditions such as he needed autonomy from the ministry, and the freedom to keep and use donor funds without interference from the ministry , a request that was granted by the then president , HE.Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, and in the process the department was changed into a government parastatal and named the  ‘Kenya Wildlife Service’(KWS) and it was officially given its own flag in April 1991 in a ceremony held in Nairobi Park. The ceremonial parade was led by platoon commander Mr. Mohamed Kheri and the Flag was hoisted by sergeant Julius Cheptai. 

The Director of the service was given a free hand to run an armed government parastatal with zero interference from the mother ministry and he brought in the much needed equipment, vehicles ,  planes and hope to the newly formed service.

In February 1990 , 216 recruits were enlisted from the northern pastoral tribes of Kenya for there was general believe that they were fearless people who needed little training in the use of firearms and they were used to interaction with wildlife . The government then seconded officers from the dreaded FFU, (Fanya Fujo Uone) team also known as the GSU ( general service unit ) or the red berets to manyani field training school to handle training and a man called Abdulahi Omar Bashir {AOB} was brought in from the same force to lead the security wing of the new service. Bashir was a handful of a man who bullied everyone from ranger to the wardens , but he brought in the much needed discipline and order to the division and he introduced the current departments of investigation, intelligence , prosecution and administration including the stores to cater for uniforms, compo rations and many other wares. 

The new recruits were trained both in Naivasha and at the GSU field training facility in Magadi for six months and after graduation they were posted to newly formed companies in Tsavo {A coy} which was commanded by Daniel Woodley while Mark Jenkins  [whom came out of nowhere since he only joined the service at that particular time] assisted by Peter Leitoro started the SOB { Special operation Base } . It is important to note that this were the only two companies that were established by the time the new recruits graduated from Magadi but later that year companies were formed in Mt. Elton {C coy} Meru { B coy }.  D coy soon followed as a strategy when KWS requested to run Masai Mara game reserve,. A request that was granted but lasted for only one day before it was revoked. 

There was a company/platoon commanders and NCOs course in Magadi field training school that started soon after the new recruits reported to Naivasha and this was planned in a way that the officers would be ready by the time the rangers graduated. The officers were in four categories as follows; 10 Field Assistant Wardens who included , Paul Onyango, Peter Lemereu, Mohamed Kheri, Julius Mwandai, Kaviu, Joseph Kitonyi, Mabruk Mzee, Kimani Ndiku, J. Achoki and Samuel Nganga. Some of this officers were later given platoon/company command and some sent as instructors to the newly formed Manyani field school and they were all in the rank of AW 111. The second group were AW11, and this included Thomas Mailu,  David Mutuiwa , Peter Leitoro, William Sang , Suki  Konchela and Peter Sangawe who was later killed by poachers in Meru National Park.

 Then we had two officers of AW1 rank and they included, Fredrick kiminda and Patrick Mbuthia and this is the team that later took charge of Manyani training school as commandants and the fifth group included the two sons of Woodley, Daniel and Bongo . It is important to note that Peter Jenkins was the father of Mark Jenkins and he was the first warden of Meru park, while the late Bill Woodley was the father of Daniel and Bongo and he worked in Tsavo both in Ithumba and Tsavo west before moving to head the mountain parks. David Sheldrick established himself in the Tsavo national parks in the early years of conservation in our country.

AOB was not satisfied by the level of command he got from the company commanders he had , so he convinced management that he needed to recruit fresh hands to lead his warriors, a term he used in reference to the newly graduated rangers who had too much energy but lacked leadership. This was how 28 cadets , me included got recruited in late 1991.

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.

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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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.