Baringo ancestor will be back soon

After six years of anxiety, Baringo county residents have seen the light shine from a narrow view to overcome darkness after a promise by a member of parliament to return their oldest fossil, Orrorin Tugenesis.

Taking the over six million years dated hominid out of the county was like telling Abraham to sacrifice his own son on a raised altar.

The residents have fear of the fossil being sold to another country to benefit the foreigners instead of profiting them after celebrating its invention for believing God gave them the fossil deposits despite living in an arid area where food crops rarely thrive.

According to East African newspaper dated 12 April 2010, the fossil was taken away from its base in Kipsaraman Community Museum in Baringo North Sub County for further examination and safekeeping leading to the closure of the museum which was purposely designed for its exhibition.

Locals blamed the director of the museum Eustace Kitonga who has maintained that the fossils are stored in a secret and safe bank vault in Nairobi contrary to the earlier plans to keep the fossils within the community with a view of attracting tourists, scientists and researchers, the paper stated.

An official government site reported that Kipsaraman sites contained fossils dated to be within 15.8 and 15.5 ma, and is one of only a few from middle miocene within Africa.

A further report by BBC news showed that the fossil was unearthed by French and Kenyan scientists in 2000 at Kapsomin in the Tugen hills and that the remains included pieces of jaw with isolated upper and lower teeth, arm and finger bones.

Kenya Paleontology Expedition (KPE) recovered male and female body parts belonging to atleast five individuals having fossilised left femur showing the hominid had strong back legs which enabled it to work upright proofing its advanced stage of evolution.

After an experiment undertaken on the arm and finger bones by KPE a conclusion was made that Kapsomin fossil was an agile climber of trees and legs showed it was bipedal meaning it walked like a human being.

The structure and arrangement of teeth showed that the manlike creature depended on hard skinned fruits as the canines were reduced than those of apes but are larger when compared to those of modern man.

As per the statement written by KPE, it is evident that the millenium man was attacked by a carnivore before meeting its death as the leg bones had been chewed.

According to nation newspaper Dr. Mzalendo Kibunja the then director of museums, sites and monument at National Museums of Kenya (NMK) suspected that unscrupulous business men could secretly be pocketing millions of shillings from the fossils by hiring it out to learning institutions.

The paper cited that in 2009, the NMK reported that the fossil had gone missing despite the fact that Kitonga had it in his custody and was the only person who had the safe's deposit box number.

Mzalendo noted that it was unwise for Kitonga to keep custody of national heritage which is a public property.

Baringo County Executive for Trade and Tourism Kipchumba Keitany said that the county government has been working towards the departure of the fossil to its base since the inception of devolution and will do anything possible to ensure the fossil is returned.

"We shall bring back the fossils to Kipsaraman to ensure local and foreign tourists are able to view from its area of origin thereby generating revenue that will directly benefit residents of Baringo as it is a strategy to attract investors,” Keitany reiterated.

Keitany noted that the county has lost a lot of revenue which could have sourced from the charges collected from tourists who visit the museum where the fossils used to be exhibited.

The CEC said it is easier to establish other tourist attraction sites within the area such as cultural villages and centers once the fossils are returned to Kipsaraman museum to enable various communities showcase their traditional cultures and talents for job and wealth creation. 

Baringo North sub county Member of Parliament William Cheptumo said the bank demands 100 million for the release of the fossil back to Kipsaraman community museum as a way of improving tourism sector in the county.

Cheptumo affirmed that, he will never give up till the fossil is brought back and is going to file a petition to the government for the fossil to be returned as soon as possible as investors have already signed contracts with the county government.

“We are not going to sit down and watch another county benefit from our own resource while the residents continue to languish in poverty and our youth rendered jobless”, Cheptumo said.