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Warriors befriend lions in Samburu

Friday December 16 2016
ewaso

Warrior Watch of Ewaso Lions. PHOTO | TONY ALLPORT

Jeneria Lekilelei is a 27-year old warrior of the Samburu tribe of northern Kenya where young men traditionally hunt lions to prove their bravery. But for the past eight years he has been fighting to protect lions and their habitats.

Jeneria was only 19 in 2008 when he joined Ewaso Lions — a conservation organisation based in Westgate Community Conservancy in Samburu County. Ewaso Lions works to promote coexistence between people and wild animals.

At the time, Jeneria had completed just one year of secondary school education before dropping out for lack of school fees. He recalls his first meeting with Shivani Bhalla, a diminutive lady who is the founder and executive director of Ewaso Lions.

“Suddenly you have someone who comes and says we have to conserve lions. It was shocking for everyone in my community,” said Jeneria, now the field operations and community manager.

For a year, Jeneria collected field data on wildlife then retired to bed every night with hardly a word. Around this time, Shivani became curious about lions extended movements.

One day Jeneria accompanied Shivani on a week-long lion scouting mission in Shaba National Reserve, an arid and rocky terrain where temperatures regularly reach 45 degrees Celsius. Despite sitting on a vehicle roof hatch all day, he enjoyed the experience and talked animatedly all day, a change that Shivani noticed. So when she offered him a position as a lion scout he jumped at the chance.

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As their work-scope increased, Jeneria came up with the idea of employing more warriors because these youth spent most of their time in the bush and knew the terrain inside-out. That is how the Warrior Watch of Ewaso Lions was formed, comprising young Samburu men trained in wildlife monitoring, ecology, conservation, communication and conflict resolution.

Ewaso Lions now monitors over 5,000 square kilometres of wilderness in Westgate, Kalama, Nakuprat Gotu and Ol Donyiro Community Conservancies. The warriors do anti-poaching work, collect data, investigate problem wildlife and stay in touch with herders.

When livestock deaths are linked to lions, the Warrior Watch is quickly dispatched to dialogue with the people, help recover lost livestock and prevent retaliatory killings.

Once a week they attend classes organised by Ewaso Lions, a request by the warriors as many of them have had little or no previous schooling.

Jeneria liaises with the local communities to understand their concerns and to educate people about wildlife. “All they see is an animal coming through the bush and killing their livestock. So they want to reduce the problem by killing a lion,” he said.

Jeneria also believes in promoting cultural values to build tolerance for wild animals, “because if everything becomes about money, then people will value wildlife because of bringing them money. Lions are going to be extinct if we can’t conserve.”

Kenya has fewer than 2,000 lions, and lion populations across Africa have declined by 90 per cent in the past 75 years according to Ewaso Lions.

Since 2007, the lion population in Samburu ecosystem has grown from 11 to approximately 50 individuals and remains stable.

But challenges for the Warrior Watch remain. When droughts affect other regions of northern Kenya where conservation is none existent, pastoralists will drive their cattle into Samburu, raising the possibility of wildlife conflict.

After eight years of research and testing different community programmes Shivani and Jeneria believe they have come up with a formula for people and lions to coexist.

In the coming years, their goal is to take this module into other ecosystems where lions are in serious trouble.

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