It is the spectacularly beautiful region of Kenya where Prince William proposed to Kate in 2010.
But that peaceful idyll is being ripped apart by a war prompted by one of the worst droughts in Kenya’s history.
Thousands
of herdsmen – many armed with machetes, automatic guns and spears –
have invaded the savannah in search of fertile grazing land for their
vast herds of cattle.
The
growing conflict has left several dead, and there are widespread
reports of elephants and other endangered species being killed to
protect the cattle.
Thousands of
herdsmen have invaded the savannah armed with machine guns and machetes
in search of fertile land to feed their cattle. The growing conflict has
left several dead.
The trouble in
the north of Kenya started three months ago when Samburu tribesmen
brandishing spears and automatic weapons forced their way on to Il
Ngwesi, a sprawling conservation ranch where the Royal couple had stayed
seven years ago.
The picturesque Kenyan land was where
Prince William chose to propose to Kate in 2010. The peaceful idyll has
is being ripped apart because of the drought.
Two
security staff were killed in the ensuing gunfight, and many of the
herdsmen were injured during their ultimately unsuccessful invasion.
Battles
have continued to break out across the vast estates of wealthy white
landowners, whose way of life echoes that of the aristocratic ‘Happy
Valley’ set of British and Irish settlers of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Two
weeks ago herdsmen invaded Suyian Ranch, 44,000 acres of savannah and
woodland owned by Anne Powys, whose family emigrated from Dorset a
century ago to seek their fortune.
Police
were called in and an armed officer shot dead a 23-year-old herdsman,
Lemati Mpoikai, who leaves behind a widow and a four-month-old baby. A
lodge was also burned down in the violent clashes with the invaders, who
continue to occupy the land with thousands of cattle with no resolution
in sight.
Miss Powys told The Mail on
Sunday she fears a land-grab similar to events in Zimbabwe. She said: ‘I
am sure powerful politicians are behind this with elections coming up. I
consider myself Kenyan but I see this as the end of everything for us.
‘We have grown up next to these
people and now they want to finish us off. I’ve been living under
virtual house arrest for nearly a month. Our ranch is overrun with
herders who have come in illegally and set up camp with thousands of
cattle.’
In the dead herdsman’s home
village of thatched mud huts, Mpoikai’s uncle Henry Naiputari said: ‘We
had brought our cows on to Anne Powys’s land after failed negotiations
with her.
‘We herdsmen have 1,000 cows
and no grass to feed them. We pleaded with her to lease us grazing until
the rains come. We could not agree a price. She wanted to charge us for
the calves who do not even eat grass. So we went on her land anyway and
this terrible thing happened. Afterwards, I admit, we took revenge by
burning down her lodge during the night.’
Battles have continued to break out
across the vast estates of wealthy white landowners as herdsmen fight an
increasingly brutal battle for available land to feed their cattle.
Ian Craig, a friend of the Royals
and the conservationist who set up Il Ngwesi, told The Mail on Sunday:
‘I have enormous sympathy with herders who cannot access grazing. If you
have cattle and you don’t have grass, you are in a terrible situation.
‘We
have heard for years about the historical injustice by which huge areas
of land are in private hands, but the truth is that there is a Land Act
here, and private property, properly leased, must be respected.’
At
Kifuku Ranch, owned by English expats Maria and Anthony Dodds, two pet
rottweilers were speared to death by herders, and gunfire can be heard
almost daily. Mrs Dodds said they had been forced to move their own
cattle to another farm for safety.
She
said. ‘We are going nowhere. We want the herders to know we are here to
stay, whatever they do. All the ranch-owners are helping each other.
It’s like a wartime spirit.’
Laikipia
police commander Simon Kipkeu said: ‘We are upholding the law against an
illegal invasion from people outside of our county. They are
trouble-makers and the ranch-owners need our protection.’
Yesterday, the Kenyan government declared the drought a national disaster.
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