Sh47m monument to be erected for Big Tim elephant

Wildlife and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG

By EDWIN MUTAI
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Summary

• Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala told the National Assembly’s Finance committee that the Tim monument will be erected at the Amboseli National Park.
• Tim died on February 4, 2020, aged 50 years in the Mada area of Amboseli National Park.
• The body of Tim, the majestic super tusker elephant, has been preserved at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi for education and exhibition purposes.

Kenya will spend Sh46.5 million to construct a monument for the famous Tusker elephant Tim, Parliament has been told.

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala told the National Assembly’s Finance committee that the Tim monument will be erected at the Amboseli National Park.

Tim died on February 4, 2020, aged 50 years in the Mada area of Amboseli National Park.

The body of Tim, the majestic super tusker elephant, has been preserved at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi for education and exhibition purposes.

Big Tim was one of Africa’s last big tusker elephants that roamed in a vast, remote wilderness of southern Kenya.

“We have received a funding request of Sh46.5 million from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for the establishment of Elephant Tim Monument. The request is under consideration for disbursement by the Tourism Promotion Fund (TPF),” Mr Balala told MPs.

He made the disclosure when he appeared before the Finance committee which scrutinised the expenditure and management of the TPF.

“Some years back, Tim, the great patriarch of Amboseli National Park, was struck on the head with a large rock and pierced through the ear with a spear, the tip of which was embedded in his shoulder,” the KWS said while announcing the death of the elephant in 2020.

Following the injury inflicted on him, Tim worked his way to the headquarters of the Big Life Foundation, a non-profit outfit and AWF partner dedicated to the conservation of elephants in southern Kenya.

According to the KWS dispatch announcing Tim’s death, elephant families are matriarchal and males are solitary from the group when they reach sexual maturity.

“But Tim was always welcome to travel in the company of females and their families. A benevolent, slow-moving preserver of the peace at the Amboseli, he was well known and loved throughout Kenya,” the KWS said.

The demand for ivory has often driven the iconic species towards extinction.

Elephants are poached for their ivory, and Tim’s tusks were among the biggest in all of Africa.

The latest wildlife census showed that Kenya had 36,280 elephants by October.

The results indicate that the country has 897 black rhinos, 842 white rhinos, two northern rhinos, 2,589 lions, 5,189 hyenas and 1,160 cheetahs.

The population of other iconic species included 41,659 buffalo, 13,530 Maasai giraffes, 121,911 common zebras, 2,649 Grevy’s zebras and 57,813 wildebeest.

The results indicate that Kenya has 1,788 hippos while critically endangered species like mountain bongo number stood at 150 and Sitatunga antelope were 473.

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