War in William and Kate’s Happy Valley
Carnage as armed tribesmen invade ranches in desperate bid to escape drought
IT IS the spectacularly beautiful region of Kenya where Prince William proposed to Kate in 2010.
But that peaceful idyll is being ripped apart by a war prompted by one of the worst droughts in Kenya’s history.
Thousands of herdsmen – many armed with machetes, automatic guns and spears – have invaded the savannah in search of fertile grazing land for their vast herds of cattle.
The growing conflict has left several dead, and there are widespread reports of elephants and other endangered species being killed to protect the cattle.
The trouble in the north of Kenya started three months ago when Samburu tribesmen brandishing spears and automatic weapons forced their way on to Il Ngwesi, a sprawling conservation ranch where the Royal couple had stayed seven years ago.
Two security staff were killed in the ensuing gunfight, and many of the herdsmen were injured during their ultimately unsuccessful invasion.
Battles have continued to break out across the vast estates of wealthy white landowners, whose way of life echoes that of the aristocratic ‘Happy Valley’ set of British and Irish settlers of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Two weeks ago herdsmen invaded Suyian Ranch, 44,000 acres of savannah and woodland owned by Anne Powys, whose family emigrated from Dorset a century ago to seek their fortune.
Police were called in and an armed officer shot dead a 23-yearold herdsman, Lemati Mpoikai, who leaves behind a widow and a four-month-old baby. A lodge was also burned down in the violent clashes with the invaders, who continue to occupy the land with thousands of cattle with no resolution in sight.
Miss Powys told The Mail on Sunday she fears a land-grab similar to events in Zimbabwe. She said: ‘I am sure powerful politicians are behind this with elections coming up. I consider myself Kenyan but I see this as the end of everything for us.
‘We have grown up next to these people and now they want to finish us off. I’ve been living under virtual house arrest for nearly a month. Our ranch is overrun with herders who have come in illegally and set up camp with thousands of cattle.’
In the dead herdsman’s home village of thatched mud huts, Mpoikai’s uncle Henry Naiputari said: ‘We had brought our cows on to Anne Powys’s land after failed negotiations with her.
‘We herdsmen have 1,000 cows and no grass to feed them. We pleaded with her to lease us grazing until the rains come. We could not agree a price. She wanted to charge us for the calves who do not even eat grass. So we went on her land anyway and this terrible thing hap- pened. Afterwards, I admit, we took revenge by burning down her lodge during the night.’
Ian Craig, a friend of the Royals and the conservationist who set up Il Ngwesi, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have enormous sympathy with herders who cannot access grazing. If you have cattle and you don’t have grass, you are in a terrible situation.
‘We have heard for years about the historical injustice by which huge areas of land are in private hands, but the truth is that there is a Land Act here, and private property, properly leased, must be respected.’
At Kifuku Ranch, owned by English expats Maria and Anthony Dodds, two pet rottweilers were speared to death by herders, and gunfire can be heard almost daily. Mrs Dodds said they had been forced to move their own cattle to another farm for safety.
She said. ‘We are going nowhere. We want the herders to know we are here to stay, whatever they do. All the ranch-owners are helping each other. It’s like a wartime spirit.’
Laikipia police commander Simon Kipkeu said: ‘We are upholding the law against an illegal invasion from people outside of our county. They are troublemakers and the ranchowners need our protection.’ Yesterday, the Kenyan government declared the drought a national disaster.