A family’s solo quest to preserve Homa Bay swamp that homes flamingos

Margaret Sole watching over flamingos in Ondago Swamp in Homa Bay County the family aims to conserve the ecosystem and protect the village’s livelihoods. PHOTO: HEZRON OCHIEL/STANDARD

KENYA: A love for mother nature drove Margaret Sole's family to live next to the Ondago Swamp in Homa Bay County.

With the sole purpose of conserving the ecosystem and protecting the village's source of livelihood, the family has opted to live next to the swamp, which draws its water from surrounding rivers.

The swamp is home to mosquitoes, which makes life difficult for the Sole family, but they have for decades chosen to live next to the knee-deep mud, popular in the community as a grazing ground when the water recedes, and becoming a fishing point when it rains.

"We realised that these activities were not controlled and felt the need to adopt a strategy that would reduce over-exploitation of the swamp's resources," says the mother of five.

In 1989, there was a turn of events at the swamp as large flocks of flamingos from Lake Nakuru National Park, started to arrive causing the Sole family to step up its conservation efforts.

"We knew the birds were being attracted to the algae in the swamp but we also knew they could not thrive in the then hyacinth-infested waters. We therefore, began to uproot these plants in order to make the ecosystem friendlier for the birds," she said.

It worked. Today, what started as a small initiative, has seen the family play host to visitors of all nationalities who tour the village to see the birds, which come in as early as 6am to feed, and then return to 'sleep' at 6pm.

"Besides keeping away predators like dogs, we also control human movement by encouraging visitors to visit the site in small numbers. It is however, difficult to control movement at the open ground," she said.

At one point the Government wanted to fence off the swamp, only to shelve the idea following protests from residents who feared this would deny them opportunity to freely fish or graze.

Despite this setback, the family's resolve to push through their conservation efforts has not been hampered.

"We are currently talking to locals asking them to accept the idea of having the swamp fenced off. We want to see locals come together to preserve the swamp and maybe put up cottages for visiting tourists.

My biggest desire is to see visitors pay a small amount of money to see the birds," she says.