by Njoki Kibanya

On Wednesday 5th April 2006, we received a distress call from Gilbert (Save the Elephants’ Research Assistant based in Samburu) that both the Save the Elephants research camp and the nearby Elephant Watch camp had been hit by floods.

Following the long rains currently being encountered in Kenya, the Ewaso river had apparently broken its banks and flooded both camps! The Elephant Watch Camp was hit the hardest and the staff was frantically trying and save what they could in such short notice. Equipment worth thousands of dollars has been damaged but luckily there has been no loss of life like in some other parts of the country. Wainaina from STE flew to Samburu to assess the situation and damage and brought some pictures of the destruction. At the time of the floods, Iain and Oria (who owns and runs the Elephant Watch Camp) were in the US where Iain was being awarded a Disney Conservation Award in Florida. The staff in Samburu is busy with the reconstruction of the camps.

If you would like to assist/donate towards the reconstruction of the STE research camp, please contact us on info@savetheelephants.org