In 2023, the first time I was up to "the plateau" in Kenya at Nadungoro where our driver, Evans, and his entire family were born, I recalled that my son and his wife visited the plateau in 2018. They heard a shot fired way too close to them and left.
I learned today that someone on the plateau had been killed. It was targeted.
In 1975 and 1987 the Tema family built wooden structures on land they have used for as long as they can remember. Their livestock were cows, goats and sheep.
Evans and his brother, Saaya, recounted to me that Samburu bandits would come down and continuously raid the family.
Karmushu Tema's family moved to Ngare Ndare in 2014. His wife had had enough.
One of the Tema sons, Samuel with his wife Theresa and their children, stayed on the plateau. In 2021, he had 11 cows stolen in broad daylight and Samuel was shot in the finger.
They still live there, but they now only have sheep. Bandits raid at night and sheep are harder to steal as they refuse to travel in the dark.
The community around the plateau and rangers from a neighbouring community have been a big help.
Community Conservancy Rangers are trained to shoot and kill poachers. The rangers have killed eleven Samburu raiders.
However, 11 ilngwesi community members, two Borana Rangers, a ranger from the LeKuruki community lost their lives to the raids and several people have sustained bullet injuries over the nine years of conflict.
The luxurious grassland for the Tema patriarch and his buildings stand deserted except for a caretaker, Fudi Murangori, from the Bantu people. He has been the lone caretaker from 2014 to now. He greeted us with a beautiful smile when we called in to say hi.
A couple of days ago, Evans borrowed my son’s truck to go up to the plateau and bring Fudi home.
It is Tema’s family's desire to be back on their luxurious land with their cows, goats and sheep, but then peace would once again be tenuous.
For love and peace, I hope a resolution can be found.
