Buffaloes oust town bullies
The Herald, 7 June, 1984 NAIROBI. - Kijabe a prosperous little missionary town on the wooded slopes of the Great Rift Valley situated some 50km north-west of Nairobi has been experiencing bewildering peace and quiet for the last month.
For months, the town was a prime target for armed robbers, who roamed the streets from sundown to sunrise.
Then a month ago scores of buffalo arrived from the nearby woods and appeared determined to stay.
As soon as the sun goes down, they invade the town from all sides and patrol the streets till morning.
Promptly the town was cleared of the bandits, and police patrols were replaced by game wardens, but the poor townsfolk of Kijabe must continue to observe the “curfew” behind securely locked doors.
Several nights ago, a train arriving from Nairobi in the early evening found buffalo, rather than the regular guards, in charge of the station.
The awesome arrival of the engine cleared the stage and enabled the Kijabe commuters to dash for the protection of the station warehouse, but no one was able to get home that night.
“Unfortunately for me, I must catch the return train before sunrise,” says Joseph Mwangi, a civil servant who works in Nairobi.
“So I stayed the night in the warehouse in full view of my house and then took off to work the next morning. A dozen or so beasts lay idly on the footpath to my house.”
What has brought the buffalo to Kijabe? Pose that question and you get a bewildering variety of theories.
The readiest response from the people of this deeply religious community is that the animals were sent by God to clear the streets of bandits, “lovebirds” and drunks.
The game wardens have a different explanation: “The animals normally pass through here about this time of the year on their northward migration.” - Ziana-KNA.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
◆ In life, we sometimes get help when we least expect it and more often than not from sources we least expect. The residents of Kijabe did not in their wildest imagination think that their solution to the bandits that were terrorising them could come from buffaloes.
◆ Our thinking is sometimes influenced by our beliefs. The people of Kijabe believed that the buffaloes were God-send because they were deeply religious people. If they were traditionalists, they may have been persuaded to think that the buffaloes were sent by their ancestors. ◆ Sometimes a solution to our problems can present fresh challenges or unforeseen circumstances that may also hinder us from moving forward. While the buffaloes presented a solution on the challenge of bandits, they also hampered the movement of the town’s residents.