Aidan Hartley Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 9 April 2011

Aidan Hartley's Wild life

issue 09 April 2011

Weregoi Plains

Three shots rang out in the night air. Rustlers had attacked my neighbour’s boma a few hundred metres from home. At the time, our children were watching a cartoon before bedtime. Thankfully, the bandits were only after the cattle. They got away with a couple of dozen steers. Cow theft is a noble pastime for the Samburu youth. Stealing televisions is still beneath them.

When called, the police announced that they were not permitted to work in the hours of darkness in case of ambush. It was a revelation I sense might help ne’er-do-wells plan efficiently. After hours of milling about, we set off in the pre-dawn chill to pursue the raiders. We had torches and water. It gave me the chance to witness again the incredible talent even ordinary people here possess of tracking.

‘Look, there are four of them,’ said my friend Celestina.

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