Martin’s Story

Martin is part of our Kumuka crew, a tour leader who has joined our trip to study the route as he will very shortly be running this trip as a tour leader in his own right. 

Martin was born in Kangaita, a small village in the  foot hills of Mt Kenya.  He was the youngest in a family of 5 kids and grew up attending the local village school till he was about 15 years old.  His parents were Christian and he grew up with the Christian values his parents instilled in him.  He still attends church in Nairobi when time and his travels permit.

Martin grew up in a farming village, in a small community where you knew all your neighbours and people helped each other farm the land.  He tells me how his fore fathers who were pastoralist were pushed out of their home land to more arid parts when the British colonised Kenya and took over the land.  After independence in 1963, many colonisers returned to England and left the land in the care of their African managers who inherited it by default.

His parents and others like them formed co-operatives to repurchase the land that had been theirs for generations and bought shares from the new owners which they were once more able to farm.  This is the life that Martin was born into. 

Martin left this farming community for the big city lights of Nairobi to commence his secondary education.  He then attended college for 2 years to study tourism, his passion in life.  He was given an opportunity to complete an internship for a year with Kobo Safari’s, a private company running luxury safari trips in the lodges I dream of staying in one day.  After completing his internship, he does 2 years of part time work with East Africa Shuttles and Safari’s before landing a full time job with Kumuka, the overland company I am travelling with right now.

He has now been with Kumuka for 4 years and loves both the company he works for and the job he does.  He finds his job challenging and enjoys the variety this kind of work presents as well as the opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

I have had long chats with Martin about his values and way of thinking.  He he tells me that while he respects the traditions and culture in Africa, he does question blind conformance to a way of life that has been handed down for generations.  For example, we have discussed the preference for boys by most families and the practice of polygamy in the event a couple are not able to have boys.  Martin is flabbergasted by the fact that many girls are denied an education and not valued because of their gender.  He wonders why nobody questions this practice in a day and age where people should be more enlightened.   He tells me we need traditions that add value to our lives rather than blindly following a way of life that has been handed down by our forefathers.

We talk about Martin’s concern for the environment and his fear the forests of Africa are being destroyed by people’s greed.  We talk about the use of charcoal for cooking.  Many people take the easy option of cutting trees down for conversion to charcoal and say the government gives them no other option.  Martin argues that poverty is not an excuse for destroying our environment and makes the point this use of charcoal has only come about in recent times.  He reminds me that Africa is an ancient continent and the original inhabitants of this continent did not  burn charcoal to survive.  The original tribes of Africa respected the forests and considered them to be spiritual places that needed to be preserved.  We talk about how the Masaai people still live today in harmony with their environment  and no use of charcoal and acknowledge this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

We talk about the premier of Africa, Raila Odinga who has banned the use of charcoal in Kenya today and the Nobel Prize winner for Forest Conservation, Wangari Mathai who has spear headed the Green Belt Movement which has already planted more than 10 million indigenous trees across this continent.  Martin tells me that Wangari’s push for conservation stems from a fear that one day the Sahara desert in the north might be one with the Kalahari in the south.  It is a frightening thought, and one which many of Africa’s politician’s do not seem too concerned about.      

Martin reminds me of our own individual responsibility for our planet and tells me that he himself has advocated that the people in his village devote a portion of their land for tree planting and gives seedlings away to those who can’t afford to buy their own.  I am inspired once more by the difference one man can make to the environment he lives in.

Martin dreams of further expanding his knowledge of tourism and becoming the best tour guide of Africa.  He aims to promote ecotourism here and perhaps join a team of experts who will promote and develop a variety of destinations that will reduce the pressure on destinations such as Victoria Falls, the Masaai Mara and the Serengeti which is all many travellers seem to visit.  He tells me that while it is important for Africa that the numbers of visitors increase, we do need some balance in the regions they visit.  For example, while most people wish to climb Kilimanjaro, very few visitors even visit Mt Kenya, the second tallest mountain here.  Why?

I wish him all the best in his dream.  It is very inspiring to find a kindred spirit in my travels.  A man who cares about the environment while he pushes for people to discover his continent.  Good luck Martin, I hope your dreams come true. 

 There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud.  ~Carol Shields