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The hirola - a rare species of antelope only found in Ijara District is associated with luck. The community prides in hirola and ostracises anybody who hunts them down.

Two former MPs paid dearly by losing their seats for backing the translocation of the antelopes from their natural habitat.


The MPs, Nassir Arte (Ijara) and Mohammed Salat (Fafi) lost their bid to recapture their seats in 1997 and subsequent elections after the electorate accused them of "betrayal".

The two backed Kenya Wildlife Service bid to move the animals from Arawale in Garissa South now Ijara District to Tsavo National Park.

Researchers are yet to establish why the animal, nicknamed the hunter's antelope for being an easy prey, became extinct in other continents.

Their number has dwindled alarmingly from 14,000 in 1976 to 350 by 1995. Today they are classified under the endangered species in accordance with the rules of World Conservancy Union (IUCN).

In 1996, KWS decided to move the animals but what followed was a protracted court battle that defined who had the mandate to conserve endangered species and where. KWS had not expected any resistance, after all it was an exercise they had carried out before.

They had in 1969 moved 40 hirolas to Tsavo National Park and 36 in 1996.

The then KWS director David Western argued that poaching and encroachment threatened the animals.

He enlisted the help of Uganda, South Africa and wardens who had been involved in the initial translocation in 1969.

But former Garissa County Council chairman Abdikadir Sheikh Hassan resisted the move, earning himself the name "jojiye" Somali for stopper.

"We could never have known what was happening had he not raised the alarm over a plan to airlift the animals overseas," said a resident.

On August 29, 1996, High Court Judge Philip Mbito ruled that the respondent would be acting outside its power if it were to move the animals from their natural habitat without express consent of the community.

The Wildlife Management Conservation Act entitles the respondent to conserve the wildlife in their natural habitat.

Abdikadir says of the landmark ruling: "We wanted to know whether KWS had the mandate to move the animals without our consent."

He says it had become a routine for KWS to come to the area with helicopters to move the animals.

"Due to the fear attached to uniformed officers the residents would flee," he recalls.

It seems they took advantage of our ignorance, says Abdikadir.

"We had all along feared that the animals ended up in private ranches and zoos abroad," he says.

His fears were confirmed when a documentary aired on Cable News Network (CNN) in 1996 showed a hirola at a zoo in Brownsville Texas in the US. The zoo was in fact seeking more hirolas for research and breeding.

This worried Abdikadir because he knew hirolas were only found in Kenya, particularly Ijara.

He suspected that KWS had colluded with Government officials to sell the animals abroad. He mobilised the residents to put an end to the "illegal" transfer of the animals.

The community moved to court under a certificate of urgency on August 19, 2024 seeking an injunction on further translocation of the hirola from Arawale.

The residents believe the animal brings good omen.

"Our livestock multiply and rarely contract diseases as a result of their co-existence with the hirolas," says Mowsar Hajji Abdi.

Businessmen believe that renaming their premises after the antelope brings luck.

"It is against our tradition to hunt the hirola and those who do are ostracised," says Mowsar.

Abdikadir says reports that Kenya is to sell 300 hirola's to Thailand is unwelcome.

A KWS official, who sought anonymity, says under the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species the translocation is not allowed.


Source: The East African Standard (Nairobi)