The death of Satao: Just one tragedy of many

I cannot comprehend the greed and sickness that infiltrates peoples’ minds to keep slaughtering these beautiful creatures. The recent murder of Satao- Kenya’s “Big Tusker”, has brought the attention of this brutal crime to the reality of many more people. Grief and sadness has spread far and wide. Satao had been a target before, but the poisonous arrow did not penetrate deep enough to be fatal.  He fought through it and survived. This time however, on the 30^th May 2014, the poisonous arrows rammed too deep into him, that he yielded to the fate of his killers. When he was found, his face was hacked off and it is presumed he was only identifiable by his size and the scar on his trunk. Not only was Satao a target for those monsters, but so were many other beautiful bulls who were found massacred- it was a “killing field” said Mark Deeble.  

How does this keep happening time and time again? Why has something more drastic not been done to fight this crime? The deaths of these magnificent creatures is far outdoing their birth rate, that sooner than expected they will be no more.  At this rate, we will be the generation that allowed our elephants to become extinct. Our grandchildren will be growing up and will not have the honour and pleasure of seeing these creatures in real life.  I have so many stories of accidental close encounters of being charged and having one trumpet midst mud bath as I drove around the corner and frightened it. These are fantastic memories of mine and make great stories. Soon, stories like mine won’t exist.

Kenya is going through a crisis with security- Al Shabab have forced their way into our minds and have caused fear among the people.  They have broken up families. The Kenyan Government has a responsibility to protect their people and to protect their wildlife. At the moment I don’t see either issue being addressed appropriately or action being taken to solve this problem. I see the Government running from the problem because they don’t know how to handle it.

Terrorists are getting involved with the ivory trade as this is what funds them. These two big issues are intermingled together. On numerous social media networks, when it comes to Kenya, all that is talked about is terrorism and poaching. I googled “travel to Kenya” to see what it came up with: Terror attacks and travel advisories against coming here. I understand that people are scared, I am scared, but fear should not consume our lives. Tourism fuels are economy and if people stop coming it is going to crash.

These are not problems that are going to be solved over night, but more needs to be done. Instead of hiding and running away, they need to be tackled head on. I fail to understand that with the amount of KWS rangers that are in the parks, how this is still happening. Obviously more need to be instated, so train and employ more people so not only are you taking a step towards fighting this, but more people are being educated and employed.

I cannot stress the importance of the grave situation that Kenya faces at the moment.  Please don’t let our wonderful country lose these beautiful elephants. Please don’t let these terrorists take any more of our people. Let our country thrive with the beauty that it encompasses and let us start again to have time to rejuvenate.

Kenyans, non Kenyans, young and old. What are you doing to help? Don’t just read a post and “like” it. Do something.  You can start by signing this: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Uhuru_Kenyatta_The_President_of_Kenya_Give_Presidential_protection_to_the_last_great_tuskers_in_Kenya/?ddykhdb&pv=39

Thank you.