Why all humans share a common ‘Kenyan’ ancestor

By BEATRICE WAMUYU

What do you, your next door neighbour and Eskimos have in common? We are all children of the same ancestor.

 According to paleontologists, this ancestor once roamed the plains of the Great Rift Valley, and lived on the shores of Lake Victoria. Kenya, therefore, is regarded as the true cradle of mankind.

 The country has the biggest collection of pre-historic fossils, which show that the earliest human beings came from our land before migrating to other continents. The fossils, many of which are preserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and can be viewed by the public, also support the theory that humans evolved from apes.

 One of the biggest finds was the so-called Turkana Boy, the first complete fossil of early man. Discovered by Kenyan researcher Kamoya Kimeu in 1984, it dates back 1.6 million years. The boy, who was about nine to 12 years old, was 1.6 metres tall. Kimeu was a member of a team working with archeologist Richard Leakey.

 Sites found in Kenya date back about 23 million years.

“There is a wide genetic representation among some of its people (Turkana) pointing to the fact that humans have been here for a very long time,” says NMK.

If all people came from the same person assumed to have been black, the immediate question is: where did the other races come from? The differences in colour and other physical features are explained by the theory of evolution and natural selection.

Scientists say by living in different environments such as sub-tropical areas, all animals (including humans) adapted to survive. People in colder areas like Europe, for instance, have more hairy skins than those living along the Equator. People who live in extremely cold environments are shorter and fatter. Their skins have thick layers of fat, which help in trapping body heat and keeping them warm. People, therefore, adopt traits dictated by their environments.

However, some Kenyan church leaders have opposed the theory of evolution. In 2006, they urged the NMK not to host the fossils that explain human evolution.

 “The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact,” Bishop Boniface Adoyo of the Christ is the Answer Ministries told the Telegrapgh.

 “Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory.” However, the museum went ahead and displayed the fossils.