Kenyan Somalis use the court to prevent the Wildlife Services from translocating the endangered hirola antelope
New hope for the hirola
OTULA OWUOR
THE Mostly Somali nomadic community
in Garissa, the capital of the North
Eastern province of Kenya, recently
took the Kenya Wildlife Services (Kws)
to court in an effort to stop it from
translocating the endangered hirola
antelope, also called the Hunter's harte-beest, from the region to a new game
reserve. Garissa is home to the few
remaining hirola antelopes and is located
in Kenya's bandit-ridden northeastern
region, which borders Somalia.
Kenyan Somalis regard the hirola as
a blessing and consider it a curse to kill
the antelope. However, the population
of hirola in the Arawale Game Reserve
near Garissa, which has the world's
largest concentration of the animal in its
natural habitat, declined from 14,000 in
1976 to 2,000 in 1993. At the beginning
of 1996 there were only 350 hirola
antelopes remaining, with some of them
scattered in the nearby forested Tana
river region and in Lamu. The highly
migratory hirola has been exterminated
in Somalia. This decline has been linked
to the emergence of factional wars in the country.
Kws, which had already translocated
I I hirolas, wanted to translocate more
from the Arawale Game Reserve to the
Tsavo National Park in southeastern
Kenya, where the rare antelopes can be
protected by game rangers.
However, local residents went to
court and managed to block the move,
saying that it would rob them of their
natural heritage and deprive the region
of money generated from tourists
who come here to see the last surviving
hirola herds in their natural habitat.
Local residents argue that KWS cannot
guarantee that these antelopes will fare
better in the Tsavo National Park.
The court in Nairobi ruled that Kws
has the duty of merely conserving
wildlife and cannot translocate animals
from their natural habitat, except with
the express consent of the local community or those entitled to the 'fruits of the earth' on which the animals live.
As expected, Western argued
that the instability in Somalia is a
major factor in the translocation.
He said that the population of
the I I hirolas, which were translocated to safer parks before the
recent court case, had increased to
66 and a further rise could be expected.
Some experts believe that the
issue could have been kept out of
court had there been appropriate
consultation and communication
with local leaders in Garissa. The
leaders may have agreed to the
translocation of the hirola had
they been told in detail about the
dangers from Somalia, where the
rule of the gun prevails. Experiences
with community participation in
conserving wildlife in the Masailand,
which has 90 per cent of Kenya's
wildlife, show that the assurance of
obtaining some benefits from the move
for the local community may have
solved the problem.
The court's ruling, nevertheless,
opens up a Pandora's box in Kenya. The
country has many ranches owned by
foreigners, which thrive on animals
obtained from game reserves in areas
owned by indigenous communities.
This is because the foreigners are able
to provide better protection to these
animals. And though the issue of translocation of hirolas seemed to have simmered off when it became apparent that
KWS would not appeal or go to court,
Kws still has problems with representatives of local communities who make
deals with tour firms or hotel chains for
expansion that may be seen as harmful
to the ecological balance, conservation
and survival of wildlife in the region.
Fortunately, there are moves to
ensure that measures taken by leaders of
local communities reflect the needs of
the majority and not of the mostly self-
appointed spokespersons out to con
their own people.
Otula Owuor is consulting editor, African Science Communications Service,
Nairobi, Kenya
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.