Kenya - amazing animals (not stuffed) and a fight for the rights pf Samburu women

I have been in Kenya before but never overlanding so this time it’s been quite a different experience. Especially first couple days were interesting eye opener about how security works here. Border crossing from Ethiopia to Kenya was fast, clean and relatively civilized (apart from the fact that 2 people had expired Ethiopian visas so some “polite convincing” of the immigration officials was required). But things changed immediately after we drove through the border. We were told it wasn’t really safe to bush camp in the border area so we pitched tents in… a police compound (it felt very safe to be drinking beer and playing pool with lots of police officers). Next day we were told it wasn’t really safe to drive through the Marsabit desert without police escort so we got 2 police officers on our truck with big guns. Oh well, welcome to Kenya. We also had some other security-related travel adventures but I won’t talk about them here because my poor mommy would likely get a heart attack. I will tell her (and you) all about it when I return home safely and promise her not to venture on another Big Trip like this for awhile J

Samburu National Park and Nakuru National Park - those of you who have been on a game drive in any of the African national parks, know the feeling exactly. Oh my God, the animals!!! I have been on numerous game drives in Kenya, Botswana and South Africa before but seeing the animals in the wild again still stopped me in my tracks for a little gratitude prayer to the Higher Force. It is so amazing and overwhelming to be surrounded (literally! They come to within few meters of your car!) by elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalos, rhinos, even some cheetahs and leopards. This time around I had proper set of big lenses on my Canon (purchased specifically for this trip) so the photos turned out great (go check them out on snapfish.co.uk, I think I have sent you all a link). We were even extremely lucky to witness a leopard killing a baby buffalo and then being chased by a very angry mommy buffalo up a tree. I truly love the African wildlife. The walls of my old flat in Richmond were decorated by the photos of the Big Five from my last trip to Kenya. Now I have a new vast collection of photos to decorate the walls of my new flat in Chiswick (you are all invited to a housewarming party in May, details will follow!). And while I was certainly not staying in the fancy expensive ($300 plus) lodges in the national parks, I went to a couple of them for lunch and a swim in their beautiful swimming pools. Sneaky overlanders J

In Samburu I also had an unusual experience of meeting some women (including their chief – Rebecca Lolosoli) from a local women-only Samburu village, which they started to escape their abusive husbands and fathers, as well as the painful cruel ritual of FGM – female genital mutilation. The village was started by Rebecca in 1990 and now has about 50 members living there. Rebecca gave us a chilling account of the Samburu culture and especially its treatment of women, which led her to start the village and a nationwide campaign for the women’s rights in the Kenyan tribes. In Samburu culture women have absolutely no rights, they are considered property of their fathers and then husbands. There’s even a saying in Samburu culture comparing a women to the top of the warrior’s spear – if it’s broken, you replace it with another one. Women cannot own land, property or livestock. Women can be killed or hurt by men and it’s not even considered a crime under Kenyan law (even if an abused woman gathers the courage to report the attack to the police, the response she gets is always “well, it’s part of your Samburu culture so it’s not a crime and we cannot intervene”). All girls at the age of 12 are subjected to female genital mutilation and married off. Immediately after the mutilation the girl has to walk – while bleeding heavily from her private parts - with her new husband to his village, often up to 40 km away. On the way she faints, sometimes dies. If she refuses to undergo the mutilation, she will be killed. If she refuses to have sex with her husband, she will be ganged raped by the village men in front of her father. As Rebecca was describing these horrifying stories (including her own story of how she had to flee to Nairobi and he hidden by some NGO friends of hers because her husband wanted to kill her and steal the land she got from the government to start the women-only village), the only question in my mind was “how can I and my friends/family back home help her cause?”. I had a long talk with her about it. Her answer was: education and fundraising. She now travels around Kenyan fundraising and spreading the word to NGOs, government, donors and individual travelers like me. Each of us could help by spreading the word further in our home countries, donating money to her cause and maybe even getting involved in related causes at home – there are numerous charities in the Western countries fighting for the improvement of women’s rights in Africa and for stopping the practice of female genital mutilation). If you’d like to learn more about Rebecca’s story and how you can help, please visit http://www.umojawomen.org/. I am also of course always more than happy to tell you more about what I have heard from her and her fellow Samburu women.