THE NATION (Nairobi, Kenya) 27 June 05 Villagers Under Siege in Crocodile Kingdom (Peter Thatia)
Nairobi: Standing atop the Kiambere Hill in the southern part of Mbeere District, to the south and east tumbles down a rocky landscape that stretches into River Tana below, a valley of tyranny and brutal death. The nearly 100-km long valley is the location of the Seven Forks hydro-electric power stations, comprising Masinga, Kamburu, Gitaru, Kindaruma and Kiambere, which collectively have an installation capacity of 543.2 megawatts. The two other sites along the river, Mutonga and Grand Falls, are yet to be developed.
Contained in these large dams are placid waters which, over the years, have turned into most ideal breeding grounds for thousands of crocodiles.
The local people, spread over the four constituencies of Siakago, Mwingi North, Gachoka and Masinga, permanently live under the threat of brutal death as every day-to-day chore is a potential hazard with a crocodile side to it.
Ephraim Kamwitha, the chief of Mutuobare location bordering Kindaruma dam, has witnessed it all here. He says: "We have lost 26 children, three women and a man in the last two years at Kindaruma. Things are absolutely out of hand. No doubt about that."
However, Kiambere, the newest and Kenya's largest dam commissioned in 1988, is the scenic place where crocodile tyranny is most rampant.
Ten-year-old Antony Njogu was attacked on June 16, (coincidentally the International Day of the African Child) as he watered his family's goats on the banks of Kiambere dam. His remains were never recovered. Like many other children before him, Tony was swallowed whole.
Mwene Mutume, the headmaster at Ngiiri Primary School situated on a land donated by Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (Tarda) next to the dam, says the school loses at least a child every holiday season. "The worst month is August because the crocodile breeding season starts in July. During this period, the animals are hungry and irritable," he explains.
The neighbouring Cieria Primary School has lost four children since the beginning of this year. Mutuobare and Karura primary schools have lost one and three children, respectively. On the day a symbolic burial ceremony for the child killed on the day of the African Child was being done, the proceedings had to be cut short as alarm was raised at the dam. The lifeless body of a middle-aged woman, mauled beyond recognition, had just been recovered by fishermen and laid at the bank.
A view of Kamburu, one of the Seven Folks dams in Eastern Province that are infested with crocodiles.
Leading the operation on June 18 was Joseph Muriuki Ngari, a 62-year-old man locally known as "Mukarafuu".
Mr Ngari himself is a walking statement of crocodile brutality in Kenya's own valley of death. A survivor of two near-fatal crocodile attacks and a brush with a stray elephant from the Mwea Game Reserve, his skin is extensively scarred. One can easily count the five claws of a crocodile on it. He walks with a limp, his right hand cannot stretch and one eye is missing, having been gouged out by a crocodile.
Twelve-year-old Veronica Mutindi was a gifted singer. The Standard Three Karura Primary School pupil was the school choir's lead soloist. On the evening of April 21, she had accompanied other children to draw water from the Kiambere dam. "The water was brown and we didn't see it coming," a girl who was with the Veronica explains. "We only heard a scream as the crocodile pulled her deep into the water." A rescue party organised an hour later was not successful; the girl was gone without trace.
After her father, Alphonse Kisilu, reported the incident to Kiambere Police Station and later at the district game warden's office in Embu - about 150km away, he was duly informed by a Kenya Wildlife Service official that he could not be given a compensation claim form because he could not produce the body "as proof that he ever had a daughter".
However, eight years ago, on April 14, 1997, records at the Embu KWS office show that the family of another child, 10-year-old Esther Kaluti Mukuni, was issued with a compensation claim form even though the remains of their daughter were never found. The file made available to the Sunday Nation, this writer lists her case as Inquest No. 2/97. Eight years down the line, despite numerous visits to the KWS office, the family is yet to be compensated.
Andrew Njagi Munyoki, 10, was an award-winning pupil at Ngiiri Primary School. The boy, who had topped in the zonal examinations, was attacked on the afternoon of April 26, last year as he grazed his father's goats. Only a shred of his torso and the head were recovered three days later.
An official at Embu, who introduced herself as the spokesperson for the district game warden, maintains that this particular case was never reported. On a follow-up, however, her deputy made the file available to this writer and allowed a photocopy to be made.
Munyoki's compensation claim file was opened on May19, 2004, file number 2/2004, and it was signed by the then district game warden, a Mr Waweru.
When contacted by telephone, a senior game warden dismissed people living around the Seven Forks dams as "ignorant folks who never bother to report these cases to us."
But Munyoki's file, which contains a pathologist's report, indicates that even after more than a year, the case is yet to be presented before the district wildlife compensation committee, which is chaired by the district commissioner, with the district game warden as the secretary.
Mr James ole Perrio, the officer in charge of compensations at the KWS headquarters in Nairobi, says the district game warden in Embu never forwarded the file to him for action. Esther Kiluti Mukuni's file, too, continues to gather dust at the Embu KWS office eight years later.
Yet another case is that of eight-year-old Beatrice Kavata, who was killed at Kindaruma on New Year's eve. Her family makes a tortuous journey twice a week to Embu but has not even been issued with a compensation claim form.
That first step to justice has also eluded the parents of victims Nathan Ngai, Robert Njue, Njagi Ngari, Lenna Muli, Kinyua Muriuki, Jackson Kariuki and Elijah Mulinge - all of them young lives snatched away even before reaching puberty.
On the same day Kavata was killed, two dams away, at Gitaru, 11-year-old Nicholas Mwangangi was pulled down by a crocodile, never to be seen again. Only a piece of his white T-shirt was recovered.
According to his father, Mr Njeru Mugera, the KWS office in Embu insisted it could not issue the family with a compensation claim form because there was no pathologist's report. In a strange twist, a pathologist's report, he was to learn, cannot be made without a body.
Across the border at Bolpit village in Mwingi District, John Musyoki died a few days after a letter of admission from the University of Nairobi arrived. His brother, Silvano Musyoki, had for eight years walked on crutches after losing a leg to a crocodile. However, on February 12, Silvano's life of misery ended as he drew water from the dam. It was double grief for the family as his headless body was retrieved two days later. None of the brothers' cases has so far been deliberated on by the district wildlife compensation committee.
Pastor Silas Mwaniki of the East African Pentecostal Church, who has presided over the burials of seven victims this year, says: "If it were not for broken promises and a lackadaisical government machinery, the solution is unbelievably simple. Why is the nearest KWS office so far away, anyway? Though the overriding feeling is that we believe the tide can be turned back, we nevertheless read mischief."
The Seven Forks dams area has not always been a dangerous area. Before Kindaruma dam, the oldest in the complex, was constructed in 1968, the human-crocodile conflict was minimal.
According to an expert on crocodiles at the KWS headquarters, the formerly free-flowing river provided a natural population balancing mechanism in a situation where the strong currents helped in destroying some of the crocodile eggs, besides creating a violent environment that ensured the beasts took longer to mature. "The dams hindered their migratory routes, in effect creating pockets of breeding areas in the dams," he says.
The initial proposition, the expert explains, was to make available running water to the communities living near the dams to ensure their visits to the dams was minimal. Trenches for piped water were made, but 37 years later, the project is yet to become a reality.
Mzee Joseph Ngari has lost a daughter, four bulls, a donkey and 16 goats to crocodiles in the last 10 years. Every day, as parents watch their children drive their animals down the slope for water, they share the unspoken fear that another son or daughter, may never come back home!
Villagers Under Siege in Crocodile Kingdom