Kenyan animal advocates keep working despite post-election violence
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
NAIROBI–More than 150 of the estimated 530 mob and 82 police
killings wracking Kenya during the four weeks after the disputed
outcome of the December 27, 2007 national election came in Kibera,
a shantytown just a stray bullet’s distance from the headquarters of
the Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS animal orphanage, Nairobi National
Park, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant and rhino
orphanage, the Kenya SPCA, and the offices of Youth for
Conservation and the African Network for Animal Welfare.
They had all escaped the violence, as of press time for the
January/February 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Wildlife refuges elsewhere in Kenya were also imperiled. “A
few dozen miles from the Masai Mara game reserve in Narok,” reported
Associated Press on January 19, “Masai fighters and men from
President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe battled for hours with machetes,
clubs, swords and bows and arrows. Five people were killed and 25
wounded, police chief Patrick Wambani said. Homes and shops were set
ablaze.”