Conservationist Travels 3200 Kilometers Creating Awareness on Elephants

Reknown conservationist, Jim Justus Nyamu is targeting to travel 3200 Kilometers creating awareness on Elephants through the, Ivory Belongs to Elephants; East and Central Africa awareness Campaign.
He arrived in Kakamega on Friday last week after spending 20 days on the road from Nairobi where he left on 29th July.
Nyamu, who is the director of the Elephant Center, together with his team of environment enthusiasts are leaving Kakamega heading to Congo passing through Mumias, Bungoma, Busia, Uganda and Rwanda.
This walk is the 16th edition of the campaign that will bring the total number of Kilometers he has travelled since he began the campaign to 21 700Kilometers.
He passed through Kakamega in 2016 on his way back to Kenya after completing the Walk in East Africa from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro all the way to Kampala Uganda and back to Kenya.
During his stay in Kakamega over the weekend, Nyamu joined other environment groups, the Rotaract Club of Kakamega and Mulembe Women caucus for a tree planting exercise at Khayega Police station and at Kakamega Forest.
He says they expect to arrive in Uganda on Friday next week and be handed over by Kenyan police to Uganda police and Uganda Wildlife Authority(UWA).
“We know that elephants that we share with Uganda used to go all the way to Kidepo Valley National Park and also all the way to Mabira forest, but because of the influx and the expansion of human population, they are now found within Mt. Elgon,” he pointed out.
He said during their Walk, they will cross all the way to Kagitumba which is the border of Uganda and Rwanda and cross to Akagera National Park which has over 130 Elephants.
From the Park they will head to Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and finally into Garamba National Park.
“We take cognizant that the number of elephants in Africa has come down since 1979 when Africa was hosting approximately 1.3Million elephants.30 countries have now come together to form the African Elephant Coalition,” he explained.
He said Uganda has approximately 5000 elephants according to data from Wildlife Conservation Society of Uganda with Kenya’s Elephant population increasing to 36 280 in relation to the Kenya National Wildlife Census Report of 2021.
“Rwanda has approximately 100 elephants with DRC Congo having about 10 000,” he added.
Nyamu says that through the campaign, The Elephant Center is trying to support the African Elephant Action Plan, strengthening the cross border elephant action plan while also supporting Kenya Wildlife Service, Uganda Wildlife Authority and other East and Central Africa countries conservation efforts.
“Congo at some point had crossed 300 000 elephants but we have lost close to 80 per cent of their elephants due to various factors,” he said.
Apart from creating awareness on elephants, Nyamu said they will also create awareness on other wildlife and advocate for environment conservation efforts.
“This campaign is actually to create awareness on the plight of elephants, we use elephants as flagship species. We do know that some of the areas that we are passing have no elephants but there are other species that are of concern like in Nandi we raised the flag of the Sitatunga antelopes and also the habitats. In Kakamega we have the Kakamega Forest,” he added.
Kakamega Central Deputy County Commissioner Ndalya Ngaya who flagged off the walk from Kakamega commended Nyamu for his contribution in conserving the biggest land animal and ensuring that we retain the Ivory on the Elephants and also engaging in climate and environmental protection.
By Wycliffe Andabwa