Locals protest as two more suspected poachers are killed on Solio Ranch

Samwel Ngatia 27, whose father Joshua Ngatia Mbogo who was killed on Feb 13, 2015 by Kenya Wildlife Services rangers who alleged at the time that he was a poacher in the company of friend , Samwel has also escaped from his house within his father's homestead after ranger visited the village looking for him and his friend. PHOTO: MOSE SAMMY/STANDARD

Last Saturday at dawn, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers on patrol gunned down two suspected poachers on the expansive Solio Ranch.

Another suspect escaped with gunshot wounds and fled towards Kiawara, with the rangers in hot pursuit. One rifle loaded with eight bullets and an identification card were recovered from the suspects.

KWS Senior Warden Cyrus Mureithi said the suspects wore heavy jackets and a lot of clothing to ward off the cold, while one of them, reportedly from Tetu, had an identification card stashed in his wallet.

Mr Mureithi said the suspects were ambushed, some 200 metres from Ngiri cut-line bordering Kiawara.

"The three had sneaked along the cut-line at around 1am and were about to scale the fence, when the rangers on patrol noticed them," he said.

He said the three refused to surrender upon being prevailed upon to so, and instead took off prompting the officers to open fire and managed to kill of them on the spot, while their accomplice managed to escape.

"There have been several attempts to gain access to the Rhino Sanctuary by people suspected to be from the neighbouring Solio Settlement Scheme," the senior ranger said.

He said in the wake of increased poaching, rangers have intensified patrols and have been swift in preventing such incursions, adding that had it not been for the quick action, the three would have killed the rhinos, as they were very close to the sanctuary.

The killing adds to the growing number of victims gunned down by KWS rangers, allegedly while attempting to poach the rhinos in the Solio Ranch.

Although KWS has been defending its action claiming the dead are poachers, queries have been raised over the circumstances leading to the shootings, with the residents of Solio Settlement Scheme and human rights groups claiming the rangers have been engaging in an execution spree.

FOREST SQUATTERS

Solio Ranch neighbours the scheme where the Government settled more than 10,000 residents in 2010. The beneficiaries were squatters evicted from Mt Kenya and Aberdares forests in 1989 and 1990.

Although the resettlement was welcomed with jubilation, the squatters have now turned into fugitives.

Mureithi said most of those killed are from the seven villages that constitute the squatter scheme, noting that sniffer dogs always lead KWS personnel to houses in the six villages that constitute the scheme.

Resident are now wondering whether settling in the scheme was a curse meant to make life difficult and subsequently cut it short.

This follows a trail of mysterious murders and disappearances of people suspected to be poachers, with residents pointing an accusing finger at KWS rangers.

Most of those who talked to The Standard alleged that the rangers have been interviewing and interrogating school children with a view of revealing residents behind the poaching of rhinos in the sanctuary.

"Anybody who happens to put up an expensive house or is considered rich is always branded a poacher by KWS, and this makes them an automatic soft target for murder or they will disappear under unclear circumstances," Boniface Mwangi, a resident said.

Damaris Wangare, 60, told The Standard that her husband, Joshua Mbogo, 65, received a call from an unknown person who wanted to meet him on the evening of February 12 last year as he milked their cows.

"He was a village elder and he told me his friend called him on his mobile, and wanted to meet him at an undisclosed location," she observed.

She continued: "I hardly slept the whole night hoping he would return until the following morning when his body was discovered on the ranch."

Ms Wangare only came to realise that there were killings the following day when she heard it on the radio. Her husband was shot dead on the ranch alongside another unidentified man and KWS personnel claimed they were poachers.

"I did not geo to the scene but my son went to view the bodies of the alleged poachers. Later in the afternoon, we were called by police and informed his body was lying at Nyeri Provincial General Hospital mortuary," said Wangari.

POSSIBLE EXECUTION

KWS Mountain Conservation Assistant Director Aggrey Maumo claimed the duo were armed with a Mark IV rifle loaded with three bullets, arrows and a pair of pliers.

The story is the same for Anne Wairimu, whose husband Ibrahim Wanjau was found dead inside the ranch.

Ms Wairimu said her husband, a timber merchant, on October 22 last year traveled to Othaya for a business trip but did not returned home alive.

Wairimu said KWS rangers had visited their home earlier in the week looking for her husband but they only found his cousin since her husband had traveled to Nairobi.

"The ranger beat his cousin before bundling him into one of the three KWS vehicles they came with and took him to Mweiga Police Station. He was arraigned in court in Nyeri the following day on charges of being a suspected poacher," she added.

Another woman, Lucy Wangui told The Standard that she is yet to recover after the execution of her husband, George Nderitu.

Mr Nderitu was a police officer attached to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Nyeri branch. His wife said her husband received a call while in the house from a friend and left in a huff.

Nderitu left never to return home as he promised, and his bullet-riddled body was recovered the following morning on Solio Ranch.

KWS claimed he was a poacher armed with a G3 rifle, which they displayed to journalists.

A senior police officer who is among officers dispatched to the scenes of shootings, at one time questioned the KWS story.

"We fear they have been recycling the same guns recovered from crime scenes and planting them on innocent people," he said.

Surprisingly, most of the bodies are recovered inside the conservancy, but short distances to the settlement.

A source who sought anonymity, told The Standard that rangers who kill suspected poachers receive a Sh10,000 award, hence raising fears that they kill innocent people to fatten their wallets.