.... and now the plague is back in Kenya in ever greater swarms.
The Daily Telegraph recently had a report:- "Biblical plague or manageable threat? Swarms of the pests, driven by climate change, are wreaking havoc on the food supply of a region regularly facing acute bouts of hunger"
From the air, the mountain valleys are awash with millions of flitting white dots. A swarm about twice the size of the City of London ready to devour every bit of vegetation in its wake looks like this from the air.
Commentators compared it to something from the Old Testament – a biblical plague of Abraham, driven on by climate change, wreaking havoc on the food supply of a region which regularly faces acute bouts of hunger.
There had been nothing like it in Kenya since the 1950s and officials were caught flatfooted, trying to battle swarms roughly the size of Luxembourg with a handful of planes and almost no proper equipment.
Pilots tasked with spotting the swarms sent their locations back to base on WhatsApp on shoddy rural internet connections.
A single locust swarm can contain up to 80 million locusts and fly 30 to 80 miles in one day depending on the wind. By the time, spraying planes arrived at the WhatsApp coordinates the next day, it was often too late.
The locusts had warmed up in the morning sun and moved off into the wilderness, laying millions of eggs. Every day, each locust can eat its weight in vegetation daily and multiplies twenty-fold every three months. A swarm can easily eat as much food as 35,000 people in a single day and multiple two dozen times in three months."
Pilots of small planes and helicopters more used to flying celebrities to game lodges are now tracking swarms as they settle for the night, and are ready at dawn to spray the settled swarm as they start to warm up in the dawn sun .... and spray with a U.N. approved pesticide.
I was interested to see a photo of a visit to Kenya by HRH Prince Charles, supposedly from "early 1970's"
I have my doubts about that date, as I remember when we lived in Nakuru, all the families and the children from my daughters first school gathered at the airstrip near Lanet to 'meet and greet' .... HRH was on his way to have lunch with Mzee Kenyatta at State House, and when he went for his lunch, the air crew from HRH's plane invited the children to have a look around the aircraft, and I believe they were given sweets !
Here, I've got a vast collection of letters that we sent 'home' to our parents, probably around 500 or 600 of them, which I've sorted into date order, so was easily able to find the letters for the relavent time; which wasn't "early 1970's" as the children were too young to have been in school then, and we didn't move to Nakuru until about 1976.
Bingo .... I found a mention of the visit in a letter to my mother from May1977, but D.W., my old Maseno friend, found the article below in the New York Times, which dates this visit to March '77 .... so I am now wondering why I didn't write home about it until May, and only to my mother and not also the parents in law ? One of lifes mysteries ....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Prince
Charles Leads Newshounds on a Merry Chase in Africa
NAIROBI, Kenya, March
9—Prince Charles, who is in Kenya on a photographic safari, is
himself the quarry in a journalistic hunt mounted by a Fleet Street
caravan.
The press caravan,
composed of nine top reporters and photographers of the British
popular press, was at Nairobi Airport on Sunday when the Prince of
Wales arrived, landing his own plane. He met the group affably,
saying, “Sorry I'm late. Had to check the controls. Pleasant
flight. Bit bumpy.”
That was all he said
before disappearing for unknown places. It was hardly enough to
justify expenses for a trip to Greenwich, let alone Africa.
Members of the group,
however, are an indomitable breed. Among them is a man who once spent
tens of thousands of dollars tracking a milkman in Argentina in the
belief that he was Martin Bormann. He found out that he was a
milkman.
Through charm, guile
and the disbursement of money, the reporters have, among them,
ferreted out hundreds of circulation‐boosting secrets and true
confessions.
Still, by Sunday night,
they had not learned the whereabouts of the Prince. Messages from
their London offices demanded stories, offered suggestions, provided
goads. Obviously, the situation was serious.
By very early Monday
morning there was a breakthrough. The reporters had reliably learned
that the Prince was in the Aberdares. This is a forested mountain
region about the size of Rhode Island, only much bumpier.
Mau Mau fighters hid in
these dense forests for years from thousands of British troops. Could
the terrain provide enough covering for Charles to evade the Fleet
Street pack?
The journalists set off
in LandRovers for Treetops, a lodge for viewing game in the area. It
was at this lodge that Charles's mother became Queen when King George
VI died a quarter century ago.
The reporters saw
elephant and buffalo but no sign of royalty.
For a while the
resident Nairobi press corps, all colleagues and admirers of the
Fleet Streeters, lost contact with the group. Some of the Fleet
Street pursuers had said they would be back in Nairobi for dinner.
When they did not show up, one resident journalist explained,
“Newsmen in Lion Horror,” offering as well a paradigm of a
British headline.
Yesterday came word by
telephone that—except for no Prince—all was well. The journalists
moved to the Outspan Hotel. Many funny stories were reportedly being
told. Expenses were mounting. The man from The Sun said that royal
tracking was being impeded by Kenyan soldiers under orders to keep
the newshounds at bay.
“They're not playing
about,” said the man from The Sun.
But neither are tilt
reporters. Those who have watched them in action before are not eager
to bet against them. After all, they haven't yet used disguises or
hired bearers. They may yet burst upon the royal encampment, emerging
from a thicket of thorns, ragged but triumphant, cornering their
quarry with a “Your Royal Highness, I presume?”
(Its a pity the lady in blue isn't wearing her mask correctly !)
NAIROBI (BLOOMBERG) - Kenya expects to get its first Covid-19 vaccines by the end of this month and inoculate 16 million of its roughly 53 million people by June next year, according to Health Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.
The country will procure vaccines made by AstraZeneca Plc, Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson, and any others in the Covax facility, an initiative for developing countries to access doses, Mr Kagwe said Friday (Feb 12) in a statement.
East Africa's biggest economy targets 24 million doses from Covax and will buy another 11 million shots from other mechanisms.
The first vaccination phase covering 1.25 million people will prioritise health, security and immigration workers.
At least three people have died of Ebola in Guinea, with five others testing positive for the virus, health officials say.
They fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a burial.
Between 2013 and 2016 more than 11,000 people died in the West Africa Ebola epidemic, which began in Guinea.
But in response to that epidemic several vaccines were developed, which have since been used to fight outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ebola infects humans through close contact with infected animals, including chimpanzees, fruit bats and forest antelope.
It then spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments.
Community funerals, where people help wash the body of the person who has died, can be a key way of spreading Ebola in the earlier stages of an outbreak.
The bodies of victims are particularly toxic. The incubation period can last from two days to three weeks.
Dr Sakoba Keita, head of Guinea's national health agency, said more tests were being done to confirm the situation in the south-eastern region near the city of Nzérékoré, and health workers were working to trace and isolate cases.
The World Health Organization's Africa director, Matshidiso Moeti, tweeted that the global health agency was "ramping up readiness and response efforts" given the potential resurgence of Ebola in Guinea.
One hundred patients were identified and then close contacts were either vaccinated immediately, or three weeks later. In the 2,014 close contacts who were vaccinated immediately there were no subsequent cases of Ebola.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has said that no rhino was poached in the East African nation in the year 2020, a rare occurrence to be witnessed in the country since 1999.
According to the latest poaching statistics from KWS, poaching is all-time low since the onset of COVID-19 that saw travel bans in many African countries.
In a statement, KWS Director-General Brigadier (Rtd) John Waweru said: “For the first time in 21 years, KWS reported zero poaching of rhinos in the year 2020. Rhino poaching has reduced from a high of 59 cases in 2013 when poaching was at its peak to zero poaching in 2020. The last time this feat was achieved was in 1999.”
Waweru attributed the achievement in reducing rhino poaching to working with stakeholders, anti-poaching and intelligence-led operations.
KWS said during the COVID-19 pandemic period, there were increased threats of poaching as the authority recorded an increase in bushmeat poaching and associated crimes.
KWS said there were increased cases of human-wildlife conflicts due to rising demand for agricultural land and space for human settlement.
Kenya also recorded the lowest number of elephants poached in 2020, Waweru said, adding: “Elephant poaching has also reduced from a high of 384 cases in 2012 when poaching was at its peak to a record low of 11 in 2020, the lowest ever in KWS history.”
According to the Kenya Wildlife, by the end of 2017, Kenya had a rhino population of 1,258 (745 black rhinos, 510 southern white rhinos and 3 northern white rhinos). The last male northern white rhino died, bringing the total number of northern whites in Kenya and across the world to just two.
Some 500 northern white rhinos were roaming in several countries in East and Central Africa, south of Sahara till 1970. Poaching reduced the population of the species to 15 by 1980 and then 32 in 2003. There are now just two female rhinos left, both born in captivity.
As water levels rise around the lake, the land continues to shrink threatening the survival of trapped animals. There are still six giraffes remaining, that will be moved in the coming months. They had been trapped in Lake Baringo following a bout of flooding caused by heavy rainfall.
Rothschild’s are one of the largest of the nine subspecies of giraffe and can reach heights of nearly six metres.
"We recently moved one more giraffe in addition to the previous two, which removed early December. This is because over time we've trained the giraffe to feed within the barge, they got used to feeding and it was easy to move that giraffe without tranquilising it or using any medicine." Aloise Naitera, from the NRT- Baringo county said.
The giraffes were originally homed on the island in 2011, in order to protect them from poachers. There are thought to be fewer than 2,000 Rothschild’s giraffes left in the wild, making them one of the most endangered giraffe subspecies. Today, fewer than 3,000 Rothschild’s giraffe are left in Africa, with about 800 in Kenya.
Naitera explained "The target is to move these animals by maybe April or May latest, or around there, then we'll have moved all the animals."
Watching a repeat Michael Palin programme about the Sahara, he was reading a book about the Niger river, and being me, I was tempted .... so managed to get a very cheap secondhand, ex library copy, post free, on the 'net.
I visited the Niger about 48 or more years ago, at a place called Lokoja in Nigeria, and remember just about nothing of the trip ! But seeing Michael Palin visiting the Niger at Bamako and Timbuctu in Mali, my curiosity was stirred. I knew the Niger flowed out into the sea at the Bight of Benin, and that it had been seen (I think) by the explorer Mungo Park, but I had absolutely no idea where the source was/is ..... and am now astonished to find it rises in Sierra Leone, flowing north-east, and then taking a sudden turn past Timbuctu, to the south-east. For hundreds of years it was thought it started at some unknown lake or springs far north in the Sahara. "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi."I'm enjoying the book !
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My second new book is about the 'white settler' houses to the west of the Aberdares.
There is a group of enthusiasts who have formed a group called 'The Happy Valley Heritage Trust', who have realised the importance in the history of Kenya of old buildings ... and Juliet Barnes, who wrote 'The Ghosts of Happy Valley' is one of the trustees. They have a Facebook page:- https://www.facebook.com/happyvalleytrust/
So when I saw in Old Africa magazine that they had published a small book called 'Happy Valley Homes' .... well, I was more than tempted ! Several of the houses have fallen down or are in an advanced state of disrepair, but others are now used as schools and community venues. I can imagine that, if repaired and advertised, several would be very profitable small hotels, and could bring useful $$$ in to the community. Look at how successful Giraffe Manor (in the Langata suburb of Nairobi) is as a hotel now, where guests can feed the giraffes who poke their heads in the bedroom and dining room windows !
At the start of the pandemic, experts wasted no time in predicting that Covid-19 would quickly overwhelm Africa. InKenya, where millions live in crowded slums, the expectation that the country’s limited health services would soon become swamped led to many expats fleeing to their home nations in April. That same month, the United Nations forecast that without intervention,3.3 million Africans could die from the virus.Isolation units to house hundreds of people were hastily built across Kenya, and protective equipment was stockpiled as medics prepared for the worst. Yet catastrophe was avoided and the huge death toll has not happened.
Dr Betty Addero Radier, chief executive of the Kenya Tourist Board, says the government’s decisive action in closing borders and effectively sealing off the country has so far, thankfully, managed to help protect citizens. “Kenya was one of the first countries to close our entire air space, and it remained closed until mid August,” says Dr Radier. “Kenya’s response has been swift and practical. The perception [in the West] might be that ‘Africa has suffered a lot of diseases and knows the repercussions’, but really the interventions made by our government have served us in good stead. “There is a mindset in the Western world that says whenever anything happens, Africa is going to be the hardest hit. But Africa has been able to prove this wrong. “What’s happening in the UK is shocking. It sounds that as if there is a lot of uncertainty as the pandemic evolves and that there is no plan. "
Kenya has so far reported just over 100,000 official cases of coronavirus infections, and of those, just 1,744 people died. Given testing is on a more limited per capita basis then in many Western countries, it is near certain that many cases have not been detected. Recent antibody testing suggests the virus has been far more widespread throughout Kenya than official figures have uncovered.
Nevertheless, when the overall number of deaths is compared with previous years there remains little significant discrepancy, reinforcing the reality that the country led by president Uhuru Kenyatta appears to have so far done better than its former colonial master in handling the pandemic,
Theories abound as to how Kenya - and many other African nations - have escaped the high Covid death counts seen in countries such as not only the UK but US, Brazil and India. As well as the government’s swift Covid-stopping public health actions, scientists are continuing to look at factors including the country’s young, fit, primarily rural populations who may have been previously been exposed to pathogens. But its public health experts know the success so far does not rule out subsequent spikes if the government, and people, do not remain vigilant. It is concern shared by others who had adopted the country as their home.
One ex pat, who fled to Germany in April before returning to Nairobi before Christmas, said “with schools reopening across Kenya, lots of foreign travel and the new Covid variants, it feels like its a matter of time before there’s a big increase. "A lot of people fear getting tested. They think the government will force them to stop them working.”
But, so far this has not happened. A worrying rise in cases in November rapidly diminished in December, not least as a spate of cold weather ended and the sun came out, prompting less mixing indoors. The most recent figures released yesterday showed just four people had died of the virus in the previous 24 hours. That is why, as much of the rest of the world remains stuck in miserable lockdowns, Kenya is open. Officials hope this means that it can now start slowly rebuilding its tourism sector, on which so many local jobs and livelihoods depend. Tourism accounts for an estimated 9% of Kenya's GDP. In 2020 that figure diminished sharply. For months no foreign visitors arrived, resulting in lodges being shuttered and their suppliers facing the leanest of times.
In response, the cabinet secretary for tourism, Najib Balala, led a switch to focus on domestic visitors. He demanded swift action from his tourism officials and corralled operators to change their business model. It is a solution that many businesses, previously seeking the high-spending international market, were quick to adopt.
Thomas Silvester is chief executive of Loisaba, a 57,000 acre wildlife conservancy in Laikipia, Northern Kenya. He says domestic tourism enabled them to ensure continuity last year but international bookings are now finally returning. “Before Christmas we opened up one of our camps, which did ok with families from Nairobi who would otherwise have been travelling abroad,” says Mr Silvester.“We are now keeping that camp open, and we are seeing an uptick in enquiries from wealthy people seeking longer stays.”
Loisaba has also supported local communities by educating them about preventing Covid, and conducting outreach clinics to help test and treat those in need. These are vital safeguards to protect the local people who work at tourism businesses, enabling them to fully operate again one day soon.
“Tourism has really suffered badly, but we are now feeling hopeful,” adds Mr Silvester. “I think there will be pent up demand with people desperate to get out. If they’ve had their vaccine, they’ll be getting out of there and going on holiday. “Fear and uncertainty are the enemy of tourism, but we hope the vaccine will mark an end to that worry about getting stuck somewhere. We hope to be fully open by May, following the Government’s Covid-secure protocol for tourist facilities.” He said: “I am so proud of the Kenyan government. The country has known great tragedies before, but Kenyans are brilliant, accepting, and have shown real resilience. We’ll get through this together.”
Despite the nationwide night-time curfew having been extended to 12 March as part of the package of precautions the government continues to keep in place to combat fears of a second spike, Dr Radier echoes the message that Kenya is “open and ready to receive visitors.” “The tourism recovery is driven by the measures other countries put in place to protect their citizens. But as soon as travel is possible again, our parks and animals are waiting. Animals have thrived during the lockdown, parks are regenerated. It’s an even richer experience to visit Kenya.”
As the pandemic approaches its first anniversary in March, the East Africa state - and much of sub saharan Africa - has suppressed the first year of a virus that has brought many of the world’s most advanced healthcare systems to their knees. And, in having achieved that, Kenya has also proved the doubters wrong.
I'm still here ! Its a very odd winter; living alone and being on the Welsh level four lockdown ! I spent Christmas Day by myself for the first time in 40 or more years .... very odd indeed !
At the moment, I go for the prescribed walk for a couple of hours each morning (unless its raining !) I read books and the news on the internet, listen to the radio, attend meetings on Zoom (I never realised until recently its possible to get Zoom fatigue .... but I've got it !), watch the occasional DVD, stare out of the window, and go to the end of my drive to have socially distanced chats to passers-by.
I wonder how my Kenyan friends are; Hands Around the World has more or less closed down 'for the duration' as was the phrase in WW2 .... so we are unable to put on fund-raising events; we can't send volunteers to our projects, and we receive scanty news from Africa. We are sending money to some of our projects, and we trust our African partners to use it wisely, particularly to keep up the feeding programmes for orphans and the disabled children, but ....
We get regular reports from them; one worrying thing is that with African schools Covid-closed, some of the teenage school-girls (orphans) have been getting food from 'boy-friends' in return for 'favours', and are now pregnant ... and possibly HIV+ also.
I did a talk at a local church at the beginning of December (all people socially distanced and masked) and raised about £150 for HATW, which money has now gone into our Zambia food fund. The money is so useful, but I really do wonder just how much people here can understand the way in which orphans live, and especially disabled children. "Are there no food banks ?" I was asked; "Why so many orphans with HIV ?" "Don't the governments provide care ?" Ahhh ..... (heavy sigh).
To change the subject completely, I've been spending my spare time (I have a lot of it !) in continuing with my African quilt. Over several visits to Kisumu, I met up with my friend Lilian, who is a dressmaker, and she gave me masses of scraps of African wax prints .... and here are some of the blocks I've made so far, which I will eventually join on a plain background.
You can tell I like gaudy !
If I can remember from my mothers patchwork making days, I think most of my 'blocks' are based on what I believe is called 'nine-patch' design, but I'm varying it a bit and adding borders.
'Old Africa' for December 2020 and January 2021 has arrived ...
... and among the reviews, I saw one for a book called 'Peacocks and Picathartes'. I knew that peafowl occurred in India, and that one species also occurred in central Africa. Picathartes was a species of bird I had first heard of many years ago on a David Attenborough TV programme .... which it had taken him over 25 years to see in the wild ! How could I possibly resist this book ?!
The other book, 'Home Going' I had heard reviewed on the BBC World Service one night when I couldn't sleep .... it is two parallel stories of sisters beginning in Ghana .... one sold into slavery, the other a slave trader's wife. It follows their descendents in the Gold Coast and on to Mississippi over two hundred years. It came two days ago, and am already half way through it !
Another book I ordered at the same time has yet to come ... 'Kenya Kaleidoscope' ....
Marooned giraffes, fleeing flamingoes and stranded impalas: in recent years the rising water levels in east Africa’s Rift Valley lakes have become the norm, displacing people, threatening wildlife and submerging schools and hotels.
The gradual rise was first noticed 10 years ago but was accelerated by heavy rains in 2019, according to Kenya’s principal secretary in the ministry of environment and forestry, Chris Kiptoo.
This year Lake Turkana, the northernmost lake in Kenya, was six metres deeper than usual by November. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has described the threat to the lake as “critical”. Its 2020 conservation outlook, published this month warns: “Lake Turkana’s unique qualities as a large lake in a desert environment are under threat as the demands for water for development escalate and the financial capital to build major dams becomes available.”
Experts have also expressed fears that two other Rift Valley lakes, Baringo and Bogoria, could merge with catastrophic ecological consequences. Comparative images taken by Nasa’s Earth Observatory in 2013 and 2020 show heavy deposits of sediment along the edges of the two lakes that are now 13km (8 miles) apart, down from 20km.
A government spokesman says Lake Baringo has expanded from 176 sq km (67 sq miles) to 260 sq km, while Bogoria has expanded from 34 sq km to 45 km sq. “Lake Bogoria National Reserve … has experienced a change in the lake ecosystem, leading to marked reduction in the number of flamingos from 1.5 million to fewer than 100,000.”
Lake Baringo is a freshwater habitat that hosts fish, Nile crocodiles, and hippos. Local people rely on its water for domestic use and farming. Lake Bogoria is alkaline and home to thousands of flamingoes that depend on the blue-green algae thriving in its waters. The hot water geysers and hot springs that used to attract tourists to the region lie buried underneath.
“Should the two lakes ever merge, fresh water from Baringo would dilute the alkali in Bogoria and reduce the growth of algae,” says Mark Boitt, a geographic information system expert. “Several years ago, a similar rise in the waters of Lake Nakuru caused millions of flamingoes to flee the lake for Bogoria. But for how long can they keep on moving? We stand at the threshold of rapid loss of biodiversity around the lakes.”
Already, the rising water levels in Baringo have affected wild animals residing on the lake’s Longcharo island as the waters reduce the size of the island and the areas for them to forage. In September, wildlife authorities relocated ostriches, impalas and warthogs to a conservancy on the mainland. Earlier this month, two of the eight giraffes marooned on the island were also moved to safety.
Several years ago, flamingoes fled the rising waters of Lake Nakuru. Now their numbers are dropping on Lake Bogoria. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters
“Moving a giraffe is a delicate process. We have to survey the habitat and make sure we anchor the barge in a manner that makes it easy for the giraffes to enter without causing them unnecessary stress,” says Jackson Komen, a warden for the Kenya Wildlife Service in Baringo. “It took a whole day just to move one giraffe, with the barge taking at least two hours to get to the mainland. The remaining ones, including some pregnant females, will be moved a little later.”
The government has appointed a multi-agency technical committee to investigate the cause of rising water levels in the lakes, with the final report due for release in the coming days.
Silas Simiyu, a local geologist, says human activity around the water catchment areas is a key reason for the rising water levels.
“We may be talking of increased water volume but forget that it is the lakes’ capacity to hold water that has reduced. Water from underground aquifers has always risen depending on the tectonic movement cycles. But never have the lakes been silted as they are today,” says Simiyu. “Rather than act like deep bowls that can hold more water, the lakes are becoming wide, thin-rimmed pans due to siltation.”
A warden from the Kenya Wildlife Service walks on the flooded main road into Lake Nakuru National Park. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images
He says: “Some talk of increased rainfall, but the ongoing rains are not the heaviest to be witnessed in these areas. Let us accept that our own activities have exacerbated the problem.”
Susan Jepkemoi, an environmental scientist with the Great Rift Centre for Research and Development, says the population increase has come with demand for more farmland, and more people have settled close to the lakes.
“Change in land use without regard for the environment will have serious climatic consequences on these lakes,” she says. “People around the lakes continue to cut down trees for charcoal burning. This depletes the ground cover leading to flooding. The runoff water takes with it the top soil to the lakes, the lowest points in the Rift Valley, and leads to silting.”
The phenomenon has brought upheaval for local communities. As the water has pushed further inland, grazing fields have continued to shrink and churches, schools and hospitals that were in use at the start of the year now lie in ruins.
“Take a boat ride here and chances are that you will be riding on top of multi-storey buildings, the relics of a lost city,” says Francis Cherutich, a tour guide in Baringo.
For 83-year-old Kangogo Arap Kipotota, his small grocery shop at Kampi Ya Samaki township doubles as his home. His former house lies submerged several miles from the shop. He remembers the lake swelling in 1961, but nowhere near the current levels. Back then, it was a long walk to get to the lake. Now it is almost at his shop. Like other residents, he fears he may have to move to higher ground again.
“The lake was so far out that I would graze our sheep and goats beyond that tree,” he says, pointing to a tree trunk more than 500 metres from his shop. “We would walk in the shallow edges of the lake. You cannot try that now since crocodiles and hippos have become our closet neighbours.”
Both lakes are Important bird areas that attract thousands of ornithologists from all over the world. However, a 2019 assessment of Baringo and Bogoria by BirdLife International put their threat status as “very high”.
A fisherman paddles a traditional raft made from reeds past one of the submerged buildings of the Soi Safari Lodge hotel on the shores of Lake Baringo. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images
The local hospitality industry has also been hit hard by the rising waters. Hotels and lodges that relied on tourism have been either partly or completely submerged. At Soi Safari Lodge in Baringo, the only visible part of a hall styled after the traditional African hut is the roof. As recently as July, the building stood 800 metres away from the original lake’s shoreline.
“Covid-19 took away the hotel business. Now the lake has taken the hotel. And there seems to be no end to the lake’s encroachment on the properties,” says Peter Chebii, a manager at the hotel.
With no sign of the waters receding, Boitt warns: “We have failed to protect the environment and are now reaping the bitter fruits. We either reform or lose our livelihood when the land – laid bare through over-cultivation – fights back using the lakes. Only we can put on the brakes. But can we?”
