Now an astonishing new accusation has emerged: Kenya Wildlife Service rangers routinely rape Maasai women who graze in the game parks.

The stench from rotting carcasses and the soaring temperatures that greeted us at the venue of the meeting gave a pointer that all was not well.

Since August, tension has been building up between the Maasai and the KWS, with efforts to meet and solve the impasse being postponed every time.

But this time around, the KWS accepted to fix a date for the meeting, and Tuesday last week was found appropriate.

Claims of rape, theft and assault took centre stage during the crisis meeting called to defuse the tension between the Maasai community in Kajiado Central constituency and the KWS.

A shocked deputy KWS director Paul Gathitu immediately directed that investigations on the conduct of his rangers be launched. "We don’t accept or condone this type of lawlessness, and if indeed the allegations are found to be true, then those who will be caught will have themselves to blame," Mr Gathitu assured the meeting.

The charged meeting saw Maasai church leaders, politicians and professionals accuse KWS rangers of arresting and forcing their women into sex in exchange for pasture in the Kyulu Game Reserve.

In attendance, were Pastor Jonathan Mpoika of the Presbyterian Church in Elukulunyeti, Cllr Daniel Kanchori (Kinyewa) and Nominated councillor William Kaia. Maasai herders from Erbisi, Namanga, Kelunyeti, and Elukulunyeti areas attended.

Gathering called
The gathering was called after Maasai elders protested at the manner in which KWS rangers were denying their cattle access to the reserve following the famine said to be claiming the lives of 100 animals daily.

Mrs Kimanyisho Lepilal stunned the meting. Her daughter, she said, was dragged inside a KWS camp at Kelunyeti in Mashuru Division as she watched, and raped by three KWS rangers. "She was grazing animals inside the park, and they took that excuse to rape her. I can pinpoint them," she said.

Two married women openly talked of their rape in an exclusive interview.

Schoolboys Suyianka Lulunken, Marsaipi Kumpat, Nathan Nkasiaka, Richard Parsaloi, Sunte Kisado and Moran Alex Letoire showed healing scars they claim they sustained after they were arrested and tortured by rangers when who caught them grazing in the reserve.

Mr Gathitu and his team, including KWS officials Catherine Wambua, Benson Simba and Mashuru district officer Jacob Ruto, sat pensively as leaders accused rangers of taking advantage of the famine to harass the Maasai.

Trouble between the herders and rangers started in August, according to Cllr Joseph Kutata of Kinyewa Ward. He claimed that more than 500 head of cattle had disappeared in the reserve and demanded compensation for them.

"When they find our herders grazing inside the park, they chase them away or arrest them. In the process, the animals left in the jungle scatter. Many are missing," the councilor said.

Independent investigations by the Nation show that before the conflict, there was an understanding between the herders and KWS rangers. Herders paid the rangers to graze in the park.

"They were paying the protection fee in turns. There were moments when herders would offer a goat to rangers. But this stopped with the ravaging famine, and blackmail took centre stage," said a trader at Simba trading centre on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

The Maasai herdsmen also said Tourism minister Morris Dzoro a fortnight ago gave a directive for a limited access to the park by herders when he addressed a conflict meeting between residents near the Tsavo West National Park, where Kyulu Hills is located, and the KWS. But his personal assistant, a Mr Kioko, denied that his boss made such a directive.

And at one point, the DO was accused of being insensitive to the herders' grievances. "You have not come here to bully us. This is a period of great famine which has forced men and women out of their manyattas to help their animals survive the drought. When it comes to the Maasai and the animals, nothing can separate us," former Kajiado Central MP David Ole Sankori said.

A Maasai leader who organized the Tuesday meeting and traveled from Nairobi to air her grievances, Ms Peris Tobiko, asked to be told which was more important – the wildlife or the Maasais' livestock. "When the wild animals roam our farms and cause destruction, we don’t revenge, but when our people are forced by circumstances to graze their stock inside the game reserve, they are treated like criminals, arrested and fined heavily. Where is the human heart?" Ms Tobiko asked.

Ms Tobiko said the community was enduring much pain. "One is the pain of our children and wives being raped and assaulted. Then there is the pain caused by the drought. My advice to the KWS is to handle the community with utmost care as they are trying to create a wedge with a hungry and angry community,"

So charged were tempers that Mr Ruto was at one stage forced to prevail upon the herdsmen not to storm the KWS camp where they claimed some of their members were being held on trumped up charges.

Mr Gathitu had to intervene and assure the enraged herdsmen that his organisation would not condone acts of lawlessness among its officers. "We don’t accept such behaviour. The allegations are serious. I don’t have to go to Nairobi to seek for orders. I'm going to take action now. I promise you that cases of assault and rape that you have made today are being investigated as from now, and those found guilty will be sacked and then prosecuted."

And, saying the KWS was out to live peacefully with communities bordering parks, he added: "We don’t encourage incidents where the name of the KWS is spoilt, for we don’t encourage acts of lawlessness and that is why we try to offer compensation any time animals under our care injure individuals or destroy property."

But Mr Gathitu told the meeting that he had no powers to allow them to graze inside the protected park.

"If it is a decision to allow you to graze inside the park, then I must discuss the issue with my bosses and definitely a solution will be found," he said.

Fears were raised during the meeting that some of the missing animals were being sold quietly to butchers. "We have unconfirmed reports that the KWS rangers, after arresting or forcing herders to lose track of their cattle in the game park, sell them off to traders who collect the animals in trucks," said Cllr Daniel Osoi from Central Kaptei Ward.

Nairobi lawyer Judith Pareno said the rape and assault cases were serious. She also questioned why the courts were fining trespassers as much as Sh10,000.

"This is indeed inhuman. By forcing a herder who is already losing his animals to pay between Sh5,000 and Sh10,000 in fines for grazing his animals in a park is indeed inhuman at this time of drought," Mrs Pareno said.

Mrs Pareno said she would take up the rape cases and advised the people affected to fill in P3 Forms to facilitate investigations and prosecutions.

"Rape is inhuman. It erodes one’s dignity. That's why we must fight to protect the offended and to punish the perpetrators," she said.

Mr Ruto offered advice: "The deaths so far witnessed of livestock in the field demands that we review the cattle keeping tradition. Don’t wait until your animals start dying before you sell them. Study the climatic changes and do the appropriate thing."

Source: Daily Nation