And How Kajiado heritage sites, including ‘elephant maternity’, are sinking into oblivion

By Obegi Malack

Olergesailie village was voted among the best tourism villages in the world by the UNWTO. The announcement was made during the 24th UNWTO General Assembly in Spain in December 2021.

Invasion by property dealers and loggers is slowly depleting the cultural and natural heritage of Kajiado County, threatening to wipe out even the mysterious elephant ‘maternity’.

The Mukinyo Elephants Maternity Ward located in Ngurumani, Magadi Ward, is exactly that: a maternity ward where gestating elephants come to give birth and nurse their babies.

It has for many years been identified and preserved by the local community as a safe haven for elephants to give birth.

It is now a site under siege, brought about by destructive human activity that is a time bomb for human-wildlife conflict.

Elephants usually camp there for months after travelling from as far as the Maasai Mara to deliver their young ones.

It is a well vegetated environment endowed with lush green bushes and indigenous trees which provide food and nice shelter for the lactating elephants.

The availability of water from the Ewaso Nyiro river adds to the list of advantages that the animals consider before making the long journey to the small Mukinyo Forest.

Yet now there is a huge influx of farmers who clear the safe and peaceful cover for farming activities and charcoal.

Olergesailie, one of the UNESCO protected prehistoric sites, is also facing the threat of extinction after it was sub-divided into plots for commercialization.

Charles Leshore, heritage activist and champion for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), said stakeholders should formulate long-term sustainable development plans and strategies to ensure that its cultural and natural heritage sites are maintained.

Olergesailie village was voted among the best tourism villages in the world by the UNWTO. The announcement was made during the 24th UNWTO General Assembly in Spain in December 2021.

Leshore, who is also the director Maa Museum and Centre for Indigenous Culture, has petitioned the Secretary General of Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, Members of the World Heritage Committee, advisory bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN, ICCROM), National Museums of Kenya, Kenyan National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, to act on the matter.

He said the sub-division and sale of plots will compromise and interfere with ‘precious’ and ‘integral’ archaeological evidence that formed the basis for UNESCO to nominate it as a world heritage site.

“A good deal of the archaeology that exists within the area has been destroyed,” he said.

He wants the Secretary General to put all efforts to protect this unique UNESCO world heritage site for future generations.

The Olergesailie archaeological site is famed for the hand axes that have been unearthed, many of which date back almost one million years and are some of the oldest ever found. The majority of the axes are egg-shaped with razor-sharp edges for cutting and hewing.

The Olergesaile prehistoric site’s other attractions include the world renown Maa culture, a wildlife museum, breathtaking landscape because of the Olergesaile mountain, the donkey migration phenomenon, and archeological knowledge that need to be shared with the world.

Olergesailie is also important to the surrounding community, the Maasai. The mountain is used by the Ilkeekonyokie Maasai to perform rituals and offer sacrifices to their God (Enkai) and is valuable to all humanity and must be preserved for future generations.

The current charcoal cutting and significant loss of biodiversity in the mountain has reached its highest levels, the destruction combining with climate change to degrade the awesome sites.

If the trend continues, it will lose its best tourist village status and recognition.

Leshore has written to companies involved in the sub-division of the land, asking them to halt until a ‘cultural asset mapping’ is undertaken that will define the traditional buffer zones and link the site to culture, tourism and economic development as per the UNWTO frameworks.

Grace Nashipai, a resident of Kajiado West, said one of the causes of the prolonged drought that has seen the community lose thousands of livestock, is cutting down trees. She said the government must take action and encourage tree-planting in the county.

Recently, the government launched a 15 billion tree-planting campaign at Kona Baridi, Ngong Hills Forest. The project is expected to boost the country’s forest cover.

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