The land...and the work!

The land is baked. The sun scorches away any form of life possible. Dry, hot winds blow across the plains, giving life to the ocassional dust devil. In this seemingly baren landscape, people live . In addition to their settlements are farms and herds of cattle and goats. Human habitation is indeed possible in a place that resembles the threshold of a place cursed to the depths of hell. A true testament to the human capacity to persevere, to adapt, to suffer and above all to survive!

Of lunch dealings, lesser kudus and more crowded matatus...

Day two and three of our work here has gone quite according to plan. We successfully met the Chiefs of the four locations in which we would like to conduct our participatory rural appraisal. These locations are Lucuiti, Kabachi, A.Kiongo and Kawiru; the locations border the Ngaya Forest and the 'corridor' that lies between it and Meru National Park. Incidentally, communities from these locations farm in the 'corridor', hence the human-wildlife conflict in the area. We have been suitably warned that the local communities live in fear that conservationists are keen to grab the 'corridor' and gazette it a protected area, a move which will mean the farmers and other settlers will be kicked out. This fear has led to violent reactions against KWS staff on previous ocassions, and so to avoid this happening to us as well, we are practising the art of being politically correct and referring to the 'corridor' as the 'site'. This is something I plan to do on the blog as well, from now onwards.

Our barazas in the four locations begin tomorrow, at Lucuiti, and end on 1st Oct at Kabachi. Thereafter, we will embark on the data collection exercise, in conjunction with representatives from the communities. The representation is fairly well spread, and our efforts are being focused on getting the youth, women, children, religious leaders, local governance figures, the elderly, members from the KWS and KFS, and local user groups and associations. The days to follow will show us whether our efforts have been successful or not.
When we embarked on this crucial phase of the project, we envisioned being as grassroots as possible. In that spirit, we decided against hiring a car and moving about our project area, but instead chose to use public transport. This has led the PRA team to enjoy the most comfortable of matatu rides ever! Imagine 13 people, excluding driver and conductor, being packed into a 7 seater matatu for considerable distances; the smell of sweat, cigarettes and alcohol tickling yor nostrils; elbows, shoulders and behinds being shoved into you, and you'll get a rough idea of how things are. We're not complaining though! :)

Our grassroots ways has also meant that we've used rather unconventional means to meet the chiefs I mentioned above. The encounters have been over lunch, at Administration Police recruitment drives, and even one while running behind the chief while he was zipping away on a motorbike!

Today, 25th Sept, we had to meet the Senior Warden of Meru National Park. He conveniently asked us to meet him at the Park headquarters - a mere 23 km from the park gate, and in turn 25 km from where we've been put up so far. Considering that we do not have any private means of transport at our disposal, making it to the meeting involved a fair bit of logistical planning! A 23 km ride from the park gate to the park headquarters can be easily be thought of a game-drive...and apart from the regulars such as buffalo, impala and giraffe, the sight of female lesser kudu was rather special for me. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those. The park itself is on the whole rather dry...though the combinations of swamps, streams, rivers, savanna and dry bush, doulm palms and acacia trees give the landscape a very unique, and mystical appearance.

Victor doesnt seem to take a fancy to this whole blogging thing...i hope that my powers of persuation will bear fruit, and you all get to read his posts soon enough.

AKSHAY

And the PRA begins...

In the afternoon of Monday, 22nd Sept, Victor and I departed from Nairobi for Meru. We arrived rather late in the evening and so we decided to halt there for the night.

The next morning, we hopped onto a matatu to Maua. We had no clue our 'adventures' would start so soon! Not only did the matatu tout wrecklessly overload the vehicle with passengers, he even thought of making extra money by refusing to give us the proper change for money we had paid for fare. The protests that Victor and I put forth had no effect on the tout, and we had to resort to an adamant refusal to share seats with extra passengers. The tout was arrogant enough (or is it ignorant??) to retort that we had no right to talk about overloading of passengers since we weren't policeman ourselves. Of course, the rest of the passengers in the matatu were perfectly ok with having their dignity and safetly put at risk in this manner by the tout.
During the commotion and heated arguements, the tout refused to let us alight at our destination (about 2 km before Maua). Luckily enough, a while later we passed by a traffic police checkpost. Victor and I desperately caught the attention of a policeman, who then flagged down the matatu. We quickly explained our situation to him, despite the innocent pleading by the tout and driver. A more senior police officer came to the scene, and promptly ripped off the PSV License from the matatu, and instructed us to continue to the matatu to Maua, where we would explain the situation to police officers based there. The senior policeman, who had kept the PSV License, would join us later and help prosecute the tout and driver. Unfortunately, things didnt exactly work that way.

On reaching Maua, all the other passengers alighted. Before we realized it, Victor and I were driven to another part of the matatu terminus. The tout jumped out and called several colleagues. Within seconds, the matatu we were in was surrounded by growing numbers of touts and drivers. Hurling abuses and threats, we suddenly realized that things had taken a rather dangerous turn. The aggression was steadliy increasing, as the crowd of over fifty grew...it seemed that it would be only moments before things turned violent. 'Our' tout seemed to have a chuckle on his face.

The fight for justice is not, and will never be, an easy one. One is faced with tremendous danger, and several obstacles, in its pursuit. However, true conviction in a cause can sometimes lead to the utmost clarity in thought and action. Its almost as if the all the craziness, emotion and anger melt away to liberate a clear mind. I believe it is this conviction that allowed Victor and I to remain extremely composed.

Victor began talking to some of the aggressors in Kimeru, while I did likewise in Kiswahili. Our lack of fear, and tone of voice, had an immediate effect. Though the threats and abuse contunued, it became clear that many of them realized that we weren't out to make unecessary trouble. We managed to kill enough time to allow for some of the 'terminus managers' to arrive and take charge of the situation. They propmtly got into the matatu (Victor and I remained inside all this while, well aware that getting out would be detrimental to our safety), and began to 'investigate'. After much debate, it was agreed that we would get back our correct change, and a drop back to the intended destination, in return that we ask the policemen to return the PSV License and take no further action. So, we drove back to the police checkpost in the same matatu (no passengers - only us, tout, driver and a couple of the 'terminus managers') and talked with the senior policeman there (the same one as before). Unfortunately, he refused to accept their apology and let them off the hook. He ordered them to take us to our stop, and then return to 'sort out' the further action.

We got off at our stop, with the matatu speeding away...evidently a clear show of bitterness and anger on their part! Hmmm...all this drama, and it was only 10.30 am. We still had a whole day to go!!

Well, the rest of the day went on peacefully. We had a long session with the District Forest Officer (DFO), and our local support team for the PRA exercise. A fairly comprehensive, but tentative, workplan for the next 20 days was developed. It involves meetings with chiefs, local community members through barazas, data collection and Community Action Plan formulation. Yes, very challenging indeed!! I was even christened with a Meru name - Mwambia. The DFO explained that this would help me 'immerse' myself into the local communities as the project proceeds...i just figure it was a strategy to help everyone around here avoid the arduous task of trying to pronounce and remember my name!

More details and updates in the coming days...

AKSHAY.

The First Blog!

Hello!

Welcome to Youth for Conservation's blog!

Look forward to reading about the staff of YfC and their 'adventures' as we go about engaging Kenyans in saving the country's wildlife and natural habitats.

Keep it here!