Reclaiming Mau 1 tree at a time

Alex Lemarkoko

 

Big names always cloud the Mau reclamation exercise. But the real heroes are the forgotten implementers of the project. ALEX LEMARKOKO, the deputy commandant Kenya Forestry Services is one of them. He spoke to GARDY CHACHA

When the project to give Mau Forest an extreme makeover played out in the press, names of political bigwigs obscured the real implementers of the project.

Top on the list of unsung Mau heros  is Alex Lemarkoko, the deputy commandant Kenya Forestry Services.

When the project was rolled out,  Alex was the team leader among a group of forest servicemen chosen to secure the 20,000 hectares of land in the south-western slopes.

Alex’s life is decorated by trees at every instance.

“Destruction of trees led to erosion of our soils,” he says. “Wildlife disappeared, unique species got wiped off the landscape and the environment grew harsh by the day,” Alex says.

When he was born in 1967, Kenya had barely celebrated its third birthday as an independent nation.

haemorrhage of trees

The haemorrhage of trees had began and swaths of land lay bare to pave way for arable land.

As the trees came tumbling down with a thud, a single thought of undoing the damage grew in his heart.

Draped in a neat suit and portraying an unusual cool for a man who has worn forest uniform most of his life, Alex shares his journey: “Where I grew up as a boy in Ng’arua Laikipia the land was a settlement scheme and many times government bulldozers came to clear vegetation for agriculture,” he narrates.

“My father was a respected elder and he wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion. He protested but his voice alone wasn’t powerful enough to reverse the damage that was happening.”

Even though the strong feeling to get back forest cover onto Kenyan lands was almost blanketed by life events while he was growing up, the flame of restoration never went off.

But when he joined Kabarak High School to undertake his O and A-Levels, the flame was relit.

With the advantage of formal education, he felt bolstered to go on with his dream.

love for trees

At school, he implemented one of the punch lines that enthused young men at school, coined by former President Moi — ‘Jishinde Ushinde’, meaning, to be successful, you have to discipline yourself to achieve your targets.

However, when time to farther his education  came, he was torn by three options —  veterinary medicine, surgery and forestry.

 “I wanted to be all these but then I realised I had to pick one,” he says succinctly, adding, “I took time to think about it. I realised that the desire to restore the forest cover fiercely burned more than anything else.”

That settled his dilemma and he enrolled at Moi University to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry.

When he completed his studies, not wanting to laze around, he became a volunteer with a collaboration project between Moi and Toronto University  that geared towards understanding Njemps, the flooding of Lake Baringo and the unique dry land tree species.

 

When the project wound up, he took up another volunteer position as a Mathematics and Biology teacher at Kiserian Missionary School.

He joined Public Service in 1991 as an assistant district forest officer in charge of farm forestry and extension.

“My focus shifted to helping farmers acquire skills in environmental conservation. But barely two years later, I was promoted to district forest officer and moved to Uasin Gishu District,” he recalls.

Undeterred will

Every few years he would be relocated.  In Meru, he led the reclamation of 6,000 hectares of forestland.

He also steered the Ngare-Ndare forest reclamation, which put him at loggerheads with powerful politicians, which almost cost him his job.

In 2005, due to his undeterred will to reclaim forests, he was posted to the Department of Forestry Protection and taken to paramilitary training college.

He graduated in 2006 and was appointed head of Forestry Protection, a role that would see him lead others in the reclamation of Mau Forest.

He says, “Yes, I empathised with those who were getting evicted from the forest but I also understood what was at stake. After the process began,  the forest started to regain its lost glory. We started seeing wildlife return to the forest.”

After 21 years managing forests, you would think that Alex is done. Not yet, he says.