A four year old boy from Assa village in Tana Delta Sub County, Tana River County who got lost in Tsavo East national park last year has been adopted by a sponsor who will educate him.
Baby Ayub Ahmed made news last year after he was rescued from the park after six days of disappearance.
According to his father Mr Ahmed Abdi Sala, his son Ayub Ahmed was playing at the homestead at a time when herders were driving the cattle out to graze.
“He was playing with others that day when the herders were getting the cattle out and I suspected that he might have followed them,” he said.
After looking for him in the village in vain, Mr Sala immediately notified the area chief who mounted a search. The search would however take six days in the wilderness before the boy was rescued.
When journalists visited the village during a relief food distribution exercise, Mr Sala agreed to hand over his son to Garsen MP Ali Wario who promised to sponsor his education.
“The MP said he wants to adopt and educate my child and I have agreed to release him. I was very frightened and as a family we had even lost hopes of ever retrieving him since the park is inhabited by all kinds of wild animals but we thank God he came back unscathed,” he said.
The chief of Assa location Roba Mohamed Racha said that news of his disappearance on November 28, 2022 brought the village to a standstill and he had to quickly mount a team of 70 local young men to the boy.
“The boy followed cattle out for grazing and the herders never realized. It was raining at the time hence it seems he got tired and was left behind by the herders. They never realized that the boy had followed them to graze,”
The ground searchers were dispatched but they could not trace the boy since there were no footprints to lead them and this forced Mr Racha to seek help from Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Voi.
It is believed that the minor was separated from the herd by a freak storm, separated making him stranded in the surrounding wilderness.
“On the second day, we requested help from Sheldrick rangers who mounted an aerial search but could not locate the boy. The ground searchers stayed for five days and on the sixth day they discovered the footprints and we called the rangers again who flew and located the boy,” he said.
He added that the minor was healthy at the time of rescue on December 4 2022, but was a little weak.
Mr Racha said that such incidents normally occur in villages under his jurisdiction during school holidays and he has started a sensitization program targeting women that will make them give more attention to young children.
He added that two weeks ago, just this month of March, two children disappeared from Naibari village and their bodies were discovered five hours later in the thicket.
According to the chief and residents, the two minors died because of the effects of the scorching sun.
“Two weeks ago, two children who got lost, died of dehydration. Their bodies were discovered kilometers away from home,” he said.
According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website, Mr Racha reached for air support from one of its pilots Roan- Carr Hartley who had reportedly rescued another missing boy days before the incident.
On the morning of December 4, Hartley took to the sky and after flying for 70 minutes, arrived at the destination in which the ground search party had last pitched camp.
“Once again, I couldn’t speak with the ground teams while in the air, but I had been given the general direction to fly north of the village for 15 kilometres,” he said.
“This time, however, the search party was completely out of communication, so there was no way to ask them to signal the aircraft. They themselves had been out for three days looking for the boy, surviving off milk mixed with water,” he added.
As he continued his search for the rescue party, Hartley decided to go west of his initial location and it is here that he surprisingly saw a small figure walking alone in the surrounding wilderness.
“Off my left wing, I saw a tiny figure below me, surrounded by a mass of shrubs and trees. I could not believe my eyes, but there he was: a tiny boy surrounded by endless wilderness. I was in shock that he was still alive and walking. I had not even begun to look for the boy; at that point, I was still searching for the group, which made it 10 times harder to believe what had just happened,” he said.
According to Hartley, the visibly weakened boy initially attempted to hide from his plane which was at this point hovering above his location.
“He was obviously hypoglycaemic and stumbling as he walked. I immediately gained altitude and began to circle tightly, keeping my eyes fixed on him. In a land where everything looks the same, once you lose sight of something it can be very difficult to find it again,” said Hartley.
Mr Abaloni Barisa said that the hardship of the areas was the reason why such incidents occur since lack of water was forcing women to abandon their children in the villages to go and look for water kilometers away.
“The drought is so painful and hurting and two children died out of the scorching sun less than a month ago. Their bodies were discovered a few hours after their disappearance,” he said.
Garsen MP Ali Wario promised to educate baby Ahmed so that he could grow to be a helpful person in society.
“That boy got lost for a whole week without food or shelter in the wilderness but we thank God for sparing him because he was inside the Tsavo East National Park and was discovered 80 kilometers from this village,” he said.
“I want the parents to give him to me so that I can educate him. That incident is a true definition of what my people in remote locations are going through,” he said.
Mr Abdulaziz Gakuria, the Country Director of Humanity First organization, said that he will help villages in the area get water by digging boreholes for them to prevent women from walking tens of kilometers in search of the precious commodity.
“I have heard you want a borehole and I will coordinate with my team so that we dig enough boreholes in this area for a sustainable supply of water,” he said.
