First Lady to receive Elephant WalkMarketing

MARC NKWAME in Arusha

FIRST Lady, Janeth Magufuli.

FIRST Lady, Janeth Magufuli, is expected to receive a team of 12 trekkers undertaking the 3,200 kilometres ‘East Africa Grass-Root Elephant Education Campaign’ covering Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania on foot.

The trekkers, including eleven Kenyans and three Tanzanians shocked Arusha Regional Commissioner, Daudi Ntibenda, who flagged off their entourage here, by telling him that the total journey of 3,200 kilometres will be accomplished on foot.

First Lady, Mama Magufuli, will be receiving the Arusha - Dar es Salaam leg of the campaign journey on July 7, 2016, at the Sabasaba grounds during the climax of the National Trade Fair. The trekkers are expected to reach Dar es Salaam on Wednesday July 6.

The East Africa Grass-Root Elephant Education Campaign Walk was flagged off by the Kenyan First Lady, Margaret Uhuru Kenyatta, earlier this month, when the team led by Jim Nyamu, the Executive Director for the Elephant Neighbours Centre, took off from Nairobi for the first trek heading to Arusha.

The trekkers entered Tanzania last Monday, having received at Namanga border by the Longido District Commissioner, then trekked along the leeward side of Mount Meru into Engarenanyuki, through Arusha National Park and arrived in Arusha City on Tuesday.

From this Wednesday, the 22nd of June the trekkers will start their walk from Arusha to Dar-es-salaam through Kilimanjaro and Tanga Regions, targeting to take 15 days along the way and eventually reach the city on the 6th of July 2016.

Speaking here, the walk coordinator, Nyamu said the trekking event across the three East African countries was being conducted to raise awareness of the value of elephants and rhinos, to help mitigate human-elephant conflicts, and to promote anti-poaching activities.

Nyamu’s team intends to walk more than 3200 kilometres over 135 days, with the campaign journey on foot starting from Nairobi to Dar-es-Salaam (via Arusha, Moshi, Tanga and Coast regions) and after Dar, head to Bukoba via Morogoro into Kampala (Queens Elizabeth National Park and Jinja), and then back to Nairobi through Busia, Kakamega and Nakuru, route.

As they trek the 3200 kilometres on the ground, sometimes through thick bushes and remote landscapes, the AMREF Flying Doctors will be providing assistance in form of air rescue should there be an emergency situation, that is according to Catherine Ochola Oyugi the company’s Sales and Marketing Manager.

The walk which will take the team through the three East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is going to set record of being the longest, toughest and most daring campaign initiative to be attempted in the region yet.