BY FUAD ABDIRAHMAN
The former North Eastern, now split into three counties of Garissa, Wajir and mandera has been recognized before with poor infrastructure and, recently, a deteriorating security situation but a new polestar that may result in masses finally visiting this part of Kenya that has for long been seen to have drifted from the larger country is taking shape.
Garissa County Government logo is an image of a species that resembles an antelope with a caption of ‘Home of Hirola’. This is because on the southern part of the County, Ijara Sub County lives a special type of antelope called Hirola, which is now critically endangered.
Hirola is unique to this region and its number has been reducing drastically until a community conservancy was set up to come to its rescue. In early 1970s the number of Hirola was well over 15,000 but it is now estimated at only 100, which is an improvement from the 48 in 2012.
In 1988 a zoologist named H.C.V Hunter made a discovery of a different type of antelope, a medium sized antelope which later come to be known as Hirola. The Hirola belongs to the subfamily Alcelaphinae within the family Bovidae but there has been debate about the genus in which it should be placed.
The rare antelope is taken care in a community conservancy named Ishaqbini, which apart from the Hirola, also hosts a number of wild species including buffalo and elephant. The community conservancy was set up in 2012 and its initial initiative was to move the 48 Hirola to an enclosed area to keep off predators. This was done with the support of
Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), which often takes care of at least one endangered species, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Nature Conservancy, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and community elders from the region.
Other than the Hirola, the conservancy is now known for having a rare white giraffe, seen for the first time in February 2016 in Ishahqbini. The giraffe has become an Internet sensation after its photo surfaced online and was widely picked by many international media outlets. The conservancy team says they first heard of it from livestock headers.
“The white giraffe,” says Jamie Manuel, a photographer with NRT and who first took its photo, “had been little more than a rumor for the NRT team until some time ago when it was spotted from the NRT aircraft”.
The number of giraffe is decreasing globally with real risk of extinction. Nearly 40% of giraffes has been lost in the last 30 years. But in the outskirt of Garissa town lays another community conservancy that has an estimated 1000 giraffes, the sanctuary is located only 5km from the town and it covers an area of 125km².The large number of giraffes in the conservancy is attributed to the presence of abundant trees which the tall herbivore feeds on.
Many Kenyans and foreign tourists may be surprised to hear a national park called Malka Mari national park. It is a vast park that has a very fine landscape that is home to the dancing gazelles, giraffe, the laughing spotted hyenas, the dik-dik (the dwarf gazelle), the mighty Olympian (cheetah) to the mighty Nile crocodile basking on the sand of the great daua river. It is a wide range area covering 1500km² that would in turn attract many tourists if considered and all its requirements as a part met.
Malka Mari is perhaps Kenya’s most remote national park, located in the extreme Northeast of the country on the Ethiopian frontier. To the south of the Park is the Kalacha Urane and further south lies the Awara Plains. To the north, the Park borders stretches to the Ethiopian border, defined partially by the Daua Wenz River, which forms the border to the extreme Northeastern point where Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet.
What appears to be an opening gate for the North, Wajir Airport comes in handy, with 15, 000 aircraft movements and 123,000 passengers using the airport which is only 4km from Wajir town in 2015.
Tourists who are fascinated in seeing the rich Somali culture and the way of lives of Somali can reach the town in an hour with a flight from Nairobi. Somali culture is full of chanting and singing and astonishing chant in rows during weeding. Their food is also unique with meat made in tens of different recipes, with the notable ones that are only found in the North including Suqaar, a Somali diced stir-fry beef or lamb made simply with onion, tomato and sometimes a bit of spice, Hilib Ari Isku Duug-Braised goat meat, Maraq hilib lamp shoulder soup and the most notable one, hilib kuuskuus literally means meat that has been formed into balls.
The only museum in the region is located in wajir and was opened in April 2011. The main objective of the museum is to give “a glimpse of the rich cultural, historical and natural heritage of Northern Kenya and its interaction with the world.” The museum was established as part of an initiative to open up Northern Kenya to the tourism industry thus forming a part of the tourist attraction that offers distinctive products in the region. The theme of the exhibition is “A Window to Northern Kenya”.
Wajir Town has other must-see sites for any visitors including the Wagalla Massacre Site where the former President Moi dictatorial regime slaughtered 5000 men in 1984. Others are Yahut dam, Shaletey and Orpahey wells that are worth a visit.
The one biggest challenge that has hindered the frontier from opening up to tourism, but which Devolution may, with time, address, is poor infrastructure. The wave of insecurity is transient. A time is soon coming that the Northern frontier will equally compete for the cake of the tourism with leading earners like the Coast region.
