NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK: THE UNSUNG HERO – MERVYN COWIE!!! – By GARETH JONES

In 1898 the Uganda Railway project reached a point where there was a swampy section at the railway marker of “mile 326”. The water was deemed clean and fresh enough to declare the place as a water station for the railway project. Soon there was also a small hotel, and a trading store and an administration office. The British enquired from the local Masai what the name of the place was, they were told it was “Enkare Nyrobi” meaning the place of “cool waters”, however, they translated the name as Nairobi. And so from humble beginnings, the megacity of the Nairobi we know today began about 121 years ago. While the city currently faces massive challenges to manage and control the environment, the Nairobi National Park still remains as a unique global iconic example of a national park with the big game right next to a major city. It is a classic example of the duel of the “jungles”, the so-called concrete jungle duelling against the wild natural ecosystem that includes the Nairobi National Park.

Colonel Mervyn Hugh Cowie was born in Nairobi in 1909 and lived in a hut on a farm at Kiambu, north-west of Nairobi. Before moving to Kenya his father was the chief magistrate of Johannesburg. Mervyn studied Law and Accountancy at Oxford University. An incident happened to teach him that man and beast can live in harmony. One day, while passing a lioness in the area of what was to later become the Nairobi National Park, he came off his motorbike. The bike pinned him to the ground as the lioness lay watching him and he was unable to move, with blood oozing from a cut in his leg.

The curious lioness walked towards him pinned under a lump of metal and stopped just a few feet away. The lioness sat down and they stared at each other for some minutes while young Mervyn prayed that the smell of petrol was greater than the smell of his own blood. Eventually, the lioness got up and walked off. Cowie was to later say that the incident made him grow up very quickly. He realised that man and beast need not spend their time killing each other. “But first, man must learn to suppress his desire to kill, and beast must be afforded a place to live.” He then tirelessly began to pursue the Colonial Government to set aside National Parks in Kenya, starting with the Nairobi National Park.

Towards the end of 1945, the government formally established the concept of national parks and appointed trustees. Mervyn Cowie was appointed the executive director. In December 1946, the Nairobi National Park was gazetted as the first national park in Kenya and then came later other parks like the Tsavo National Park, Aberdare and Mount Kenya Parks, Amboseli and many others, including the Serengeti in Tanzania and Murchinson Falls National Park in Uganda. History now reveals that he masterminded much towards the protection and conservation of Kenya’s wildlife and wilderness areas.

Next time you visit the Nairobi National Park, it is good to reflect on those who made the sacrificial effort to ensure that modern-day people can still continue to view and enjoy the natural heritage. I hope that our modern conservation efforts will continue to help keep Kenya’s God-given natural heritage intact for future generations.

The park is open daily from 06h00 to 19h00.

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