Women in colourful headscarves, barefoot children, men pulling impossible loads taking the place of the donkey they can’t afford, alpine highland scenery and suddenly, when we’re barely out of Nairobi, the Rift Valley falls away below us with views of hazy, distant lakes and extinct volcanic craters as far as the eye can see.
I am on my way to the Lake Bogoria National Reserve, a game park created in 1973 by the government, the object of the Endorois community’s struggle and the reason for my trip to Kenya.
The Endorois are indigenous pastoralists, people who earn their livelihood through the rearing of livestock.They were evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for the Reserve, depriving them not only of prime pasture for cattle and goats during the harsh dry season but also of sites important for cultural activities such as initiation ceremonies.
Minority Rights Group’s Trouble in Paradise Campaign is aimed at helping the Endorois get redress for the loss of their lands.
Driving around the lake as the sun begins to set behind the dark escarpment overlooking the Reserve, we see zebras, warthogs, gazelles, giant tortoises and the pink blur of thousands of flamingos gathering by the water’s edge. Yet somehow it all seems too empty – there are no humans. Unlike elsewhere in Kenya, there are no small boys tending their herds of goats and cows here and my appreciation of the wildlife and scenery is tinged by sadness.
Despite being originally promised 25% of revenue from the Reserve and 80% of the jobs in the park – today only a handful of Endorois work as wardens and, 36 years after the creation of the Reserve, the community receives a paltry 4% of money raised at the gates. Improved roads were also promised by the government when they gazetted the land for the park in 1973. Yet those roads have never materialised – even the road through the Reserve is a match for our sturdy 4-wheel drive.
Today, the vast majority of the Endorois live in severe poverty – many can’t afford services or education. They have little or no electricity or running water and are dependent on food aid because of regular droughts in the region.
The Endorois traditionally believe that poaching wildlife will bring down a curse on their livestock and have a vested interest in protecting endangered species for future generations. Despite being the rightful custodians of the land, their very survival is under threat. Kipkazi, an Endorois leader who is my guide on this fact finding trip, is visibly excited by being back in his homeland – as he reminisces about the fertile grazing and plentiful fresh water supply in the area I picture how it must have been in those happier, more prosperous times.
He points out the geysers representing sacred sites for the Endorois, which, together with the flamingos, are one of the main reasons tourists now flock to the park. Legend has it that ghosts inhabit the geysers and try to entice you into the afterlife by calling out your name – community elders used to offer tobacco and milk in the old days to appease the spirits. We press on and visit other traditional sites. Many of the Endorois’ ancestors are buried around the park – the community would normally come and visit their graves for children’s naming ceremonies, but are now prevented from doing so by the authorities. At the southern, isolated end of the lake, which is now a tourist campsite, Kipkazi shows us the place where young boys used to come for initiation ceremonies – they would stay for 1 month in the bush. The area is wooded, providing shade for those undergoing the hardships of the ritual and a small river flows nearby which allowed the boys to quench their thirst.
The light is fading and our short trip to the Endorois homelands is coming to an end – we head out of the Reserve, avoiding the dikdiks who dodge in and out of our headlights along the way…
The Endorois, with support from MRG’s Trouble in Paradise Campaign, have been involved in a 30-year-long land rights battle with the Kenyan government for collective title to their homeland in Lake Bogoria. At the same time they are more than ready to embrace responsible tourism that could directly inject income into their community. Instead lucrative revenue from tourists oblivious to the plight of the Endorois serves only to line the pockets of government officials.
You can help right the tourism wrongs of the past by signing MRG’s online petition in support of the Endorois. We hope that by pressuring the Kenyan government and international tour operators, the Endorois can one day fully benefit from the tourist industry being carried out on their one-time home.
