A renown conservationist, Jim Justus Nyamu, is targeting to travel 3200 kilometres to create awareness about elephants through the Ivory Belongs to Elephants; East and Central Africa Awareness Campaign.
He arrived in Kakamega on Friday last week after spending 20 days on the road from Nairobi, where he left on July 29.
Nyamu, who is the director of the Elephant Centre, together with his team of environment enthusiasts are leaving Kakamega and heading to Congo, passing through Mumias, Bungoma, Busia, Uganda, and Rwanda.
This walk is the 16th edition of the campaign and will bring the total number of kilometres he has travelled since he began the campaign to 21,700 kilometres.
He passed through Kakamega in 2016 on his way back to Kenya after completing the Walk in East Africa from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Morogoro all the way to Kampala, Uganda, and back to Kenya.
During his stay in Kakamega over the weekend, Nyamu joined other environmental groups, the Rotaract Club of Kakamega and the Mulembe Women Caucus, for a tree planting exercise at Khayega Police Station and Kakamega Forest.
He says they expect to arrive in Uganda on Friday next week and be handed over by Kenyan police to Ugandan police and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
“We know that elephants that we share with Uganda used to go all the way to Kidepo Valley National Park and also all the way to Mabira Forest, but because of the influx and the expansion of the human population, they are now found within Mt. Elgon,” he pointed out.
He said during their walk, they will cross all the way to Kagitumba, which is the border of Uganda and Rwanda, and cross to Akagera National Park, which has over 130 elephants.
From the park, they will head to Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and finally into Garamba National Park.
“We are cognizant that the number of elephants in Africa has come down since 1979, when Africa was hosting approximately 1.3 million elephants. Recently, 30 countries have come together to form the African Elephant Coalition,” he explained.
He said Uganda has approximately 5000 elephants according to data from the Wildlife Conservation Society of Uganda, with Kenya’s elephant population increasing to 36,280 according to the Kenya National Wildlife Census Report of 2021.
“Rwanda has approximately 100 elephants, with the DRC Congo having about 10,000,” he added.
Nyamu says that through the campaign, The Elephant Centre is trying to support the African Elephant Action Plan, strengthening the cross-border elephant action plan while also supporting the Kenya Wildlife Service, Uganda Wildlife Authority, and other East and Central African countries conservation efforts.
“Congo, at some point, had crossed 300,000 elephants but has lost close to 80 per cent of their elephants due to various factors,” he said.
Apart from creating awareness about elephants, Nyamu said they will also create awareness about other wildlife and advocate for environmental conservation efforts.
“This campaign is actually to create awareness about the plight of elephants; we use elephants as our flagship species. We do know that some of the areas that we are passing have no elephants, but there are other species that are of concern, like in Nandi, where we raised the flag for the Sitatunga antelopes and also the habitats. In Kakamega, we have the Kakamega Forest,” he added.
Kakamega Central Deputy County Commissioner Ndalya Ngaya, who flagged off the walk from Kakamega, commended Nyamu for his contribution to conserving the biggest land animal, ensuring that we retain the ivory on the elephants, and also engaging in climate and environmental protection.
By Moses Wekesa
