Reflections on the Nairobi National Park

A couple of Sundays ago, Lut and I went to an exhibition at the Nairobi National Park. It was called Art in the Wild. We had been attracted by a very artistic poster we had seen in Kenya Buzz and in Instagram. Unfortunately, the exhibition didn’t live up to its poster.

It was held on a strip of concrete at the Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters. Behind it were offices; in front of it were the cars moving along Langata Road. We couldn’t hear the cars because of the blaring music. The art on display was the usual mix of themes that you see at some of the farmers' markets – landscapes, portraits and very few of wild animals.

The event was advertised as starting at 12 o’clock; we arrived at 1.30pm, and some exhibition stalls were still being erected. At the check-in table, I asked who had organised the exhibition and I was told KWS. They were all young members, as far as we could tell. We admired their energy and enthusiasm, but they could have done a better job of it. The most bizarre thing was a couple of stuffed animals – a lion and a leopard – on display at the KWS stand.

Fortunately, we had tickets for the real wild. We also had a picnic with us, so we decided to enjoy it at the Ivory Burning Site. When we have guests who have not visited the Park before, we usually take them there; we drive around the monument and give them a chance to read the message from President Daniel arap Moi at the first burning in 1989: ‘Great objectives often require great sacrifices. I now call upon the people of the world to join us in Kenya by eliminating the trade in ivory once and for all’. Yes, that was an extraordinary and significant event. I remember it got huge international attention, and no doubt it did much to increase political action in putting in place stronger international restrictions on trade in ivory. It is certainly no ordinary picnic site.

Interested in birds

When we moved on, instead of turning right, as we usually did, to make for the Impala Observation Point, we turned left and stopped the car at the Hyena Dam. There, strung out at the water’s edge, was a Sunday congregation of black-headed herons. Actually, after so many visits to game parks, we have become somewhat more interested in birds rather than four-legged animals. I guess it has something to do with the challenge – birds are much more difficult to identify.

Nevertheless, as we drove on across Lion Valley, we were delighted to stop and watch a mother rhino and her small calf. It turned out to be a rhino day in the Park, because we had three more sightings. As the late Gordon Boy wrote in the splendid guide to the Park that he edited back in 2012: ‘Few other sanctuaries can boast a black rhinoceros population of comparable density’. There are white rhinos too.

On Middle Ridge we came across an acacia tree that was occupied by a flock of squeaking wattled starlings. Then came a disappointment. A fine zebra was standing at the edge of a thicket. I was about to take a photograph when a friend rang me. The zebra was disturbed and moved into the thicket. It would have been a good photo of real art in the wild.

Before moving on, I checked the map in the guide; I saw the title of Gordon Boy’s Introduction: A National Park Like No Other. At home that evening, I went back to that article. This is what he wrote to justify his title: ‘Nairobi National Park is unique among wilderness areas in being located on the doorstep of a major city. From within the precincts of no other capital city can such a broad array of a locality’s original wild fauna and flora still be seen and cherished in a natural, wild setting that has remained intact, despite the mushrooming backdrop of modern skyscrapers.

The following day I read a critical piece on the internet on the current controversy about removing a significant portion of the Park’s forested area. Among the many concerned comments were a number like these: ‘Haven’t we got enough game parks across the country?’, ‘Those arguing against this development are putting the interest of animals above the interests of people’.

Little money

I was reminded of an incident that happened a number of years ago. I had taken a group of public health officers to Kitani Lodge in Tsavo West. It was a break in a training course I was running for them. There was one experience I was particularly looking forward to: reaching a crest of a road near Kilaguni Lodge, where you have my favourite landscapes here in Kenya – a broad savanna with Kilimanjaro stage left and the Chyulu Hills stage right. As I braked the vehicle on the crest, the immediate reaction of one of the public health officers was, ‘What a waste’. It was a reminder that this can be an understandable viewpoint of those many people with no land and little money.

Because of the rapidly expanding city, encroachments will continue to be a threat to the Park. Another threat is the increasing number of fenced settlements to the south that restrict the Park’s migration routes.

The Park could become smaller and little more than a zoo. However, as Gordon Boy argued 14 years ago, the Park gives Nairobi a tourist attraction like no other city. It provides the people of Nairobi with a tranquil, scenic retreat from the many stresses of urban life. It is one of the diminishing lungs of an increasingly over-crowded and choked city.

On this last visit to the Park, it was good to see more tourist vehicles than I remember seeing before. That is very fine. But unless the local people and their leaders recognise the Park as a unique wildlife sanctuary, an important economic asset and a valuable, healthy retreat from the concrete and glass, noise and litter, of the city, then the stifling threats will continue.

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