Gun lover Robert Poole: Kenya’s hunting ban benefits Tanzania, reverse it

Robert Poole, a game hunter's thrill and nostalgia of gone good old days. [Courtesy, Standard]

Robert Poole, a retiree, does not sit under trees regaling people with stories of his past.

If he is not shooting at the ranges in the outskirts of Nairobi, he is tending to his cattle, sheep and goats at his farm in Malindi.

Poole was only six when he and his mother arrived in Kenya from Seychelles. He was born in Seychelles of French parents.

His father had then just passed away in Nairobi on his way from Switzerland, en route to Seychelles.

When I met him at the Kirigiti shooting range during the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Africa Championships 2021, he was stubbornly turning down an interview.

The Match Director Sammy Onyango was doing his best, presenting him to the news crew but he would have none of it.

As he stepped away amidst the loud sounds of bullets hitting targets at the range, I stepped out with him for an hour-long interview outside a Course of Fire.

Poole is a licensed gun holder and a member of the National Gun Owners Association of Kenya (NGAO-K). But he wasn’t shooting. His thrill has always been in hunting which he begun way back in the 1960s in Mwea, Kenya.

“I began game hunting in 1965,” says Poole whose love for game hunting was brewed in the rice scheme in Mwea, where he mostly shot ducks for food.

The ducks migrated from Europe to Africa during the winter. When they arrived in Mwea, they ate all the rice occasioning farmers huge losses.

The government did not have facilities to control them. So they allowed us who were licensed hunters to go and shoot them. I mostly shot the ducks.” He says.

Poole reminisces about the good old days when game hunting was organised, and there was plenty of animals. He reckons that the ban orchestrated a tremendous decline in animal population because of poaching.

“The game department was working well. We were never allowed to shoot in the game park, or in conservancies. We had blocks designated by the government.

“You booked, paid the government a fee, then they would tell you per year how many animals you can shoot. One Zebra, two Thomson’s gazelles, 10 guinea fowls and so forth.

“There was discipline, we followed the rules. There were surveillance aeroplanes and KWS vehicles on patrol. The system was organised and well controlled. It was rare to find people poaching.

“I didn’t shoot for the fun of it just to kill the animal and leave it laying there. Everything that I shot, I put in the deep freezer for meat. Pigeons, guinea fowl, yellow neck, ducks, were all edible. Impala, Thomson’s gazelles and others,” Poole explains

He adds that only five licensed guns were allowed within a hunting block at any one time. The blocks were thousands of acres and they stretched from Garissa to Maasai land.

Roam freely

According to Poole, game hunters used to pay Sh1,000 per day per gun, per block. So if you went for five days, you would pay the government Sh5,000.

The blocks were controlled by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) which back then was called the Game Department.

He opines that even today, if the blocs are controlled properly and hunting allowed, you would not have poachers.

Poole says that the ban on hunting was shortsighted on the part of government as it resulted in a loss of revenue to the country.

“As of today, the Tanzanian government still allows hunting. Animals roam freely, they don’t have boarders.

Animals migrating from Kenya to Tanzania are being hunted and the Tanzanian government is benefiting from the revenue and creating jobs for their own nationals.

I have friends who travel from Kenya and go to Tanzania to hunt because Kenya doesn’t allow it.” Poole says.

Protected species

“We were not allowed to shoot the protected or rare species of animals, like the mountain Bongo. If you shot them you lost your hunting licence, your vehicle would be confiscated, you would be taken to court and charged, jailed and they would also cancel your firearm certificate.

There were certain times of the year when we were not allowed to shoot anything. Mostly during the rains, when they were breeding. Not even a guinea fowl or a pigeon.

The hunting of the Big 5 game was controlled too. For example you could only shoot one rhino a year, and hunters were not allowed to shoot a female.

We always shot the old males and gave the younger males a chance to breed. So, if you shoot a female, who is ‘gonna’ breed with them? asks Poole.

How one acquired a firearm certificate.

When I applied for my firearm certificate in the 60s, I had to be vetted, go for an interview, and pass exam. Even getting a licence for game shooting required passing an exam.

You had to be able to identify different kinds of animals and birds. They could point to an animal or animal head and tell you to name it. If you failed you failed. You couldn’t get a licence, ‘maneno kwisha’. You had to re-sit for the exam.

There were like 15 different types of ducks, you had to know what type of duck it is. What kind of guinea fowl is it?

Is it a crested guinea fowl? Is it ummh,……he tries to remember their names but before he remembers, he quips  “ I am getting old also,”

We all burst into laughter before all of a sudden he remembers them. “We’ve got a vulturine fowl, white breasted fowl, black and plumed guinea fowls.”   

The white guinea fowl comes from France. But they are not wild, they are domesticated like chicken.

The ban on game hunting

The game hunters thrill was however not going to last forever; at least not in Kenya. As Poole explains.

The Kenyan government effected an immediate ban on game hunting on 19 May 1977.

“After the ban, people started using snares to capture animals. You would find an animal trapped in wires around their necks, or with broken legs and they are fighting to free themselves. A shame.

A lot of hunters were doing it on a commercial basis.

They had guests coming here, paying to take a gun to shoot a rhino, elephant or a buffalo in various hunting blocks.

We as licensed hunters being in the block, poachers knew there were always people around. But once the game hunting was stopped, the poaching went completely out of control.

If they had not stopped game hunting and enforced control, today we would be having more animals than there is now and good revenue for the country and employment for the people.

These days you cannot even shoot a guinea fowl, it is against the law. If you are found with it, you can go to jail, where did you get it from?”

What next after game shooting   

“My game shooting days are over. I didn’t hunt for profit. Now I am more into conservation and social work.

I retired about 15 years ago. My profession is civil engineering, we were consultants for the Ministry of Works. We did a lot of World Bank projects mainly roads.

I was involved in the development of all the Tea Roads - Kisii, Kericho, Kakamega, Aberdare, and Mt Kenya.

I was the supervisor for the dual carriageway from Muthaiga Police Station to Blue Post hotel during Mzee Kenyatta days. I did a road from Timau, Isiolo, Lewa, Meru, Kutus, Kerugoya, Embu, name it; I know the country well.

When I retired from civil engineering I went into farming, in Seychelles. There was a coup, and we lost everything. I came back to Kenya and went into security.

I operated my company for about 15 years then sold it to G4S. It used to be called Falcon security.

The farming dream did not die with coup. Currently I run a farm called Mpirani in Malindi where I rear cattle sheep and goats.

Mpirani name comes from latex. During the colonial period, the British used to grow latex plant on the land. There’s still traces of the latex seeds on the 112 acres farm.

Poole’s school days and side hustle

During my school days I used to take a matatu to school. I went to Delamere High School. Now it’s called Upper Hill School. I was also a founder member for Muthaiga Primary School.

During school holidays we used to roam freely without fear. I used to play football, rugby, cricket, and tennis for leisure. We grew up enjoying the country.

I started working at the age of 16 and I was getting Sh150 per month as salary. If your lawn needed cutting, I would come and cut it and get paid for doing that like a shamba boy.

If you wanted your house painted, I would get you a few fundis who would paint the house for you. That is how I grew up.

Poole says he is no longer a shamba boy. He now has two gardeners - Dickson Ngatia who has worked for him for 40 years and Mary. He describes Ngatia as honest as the day is gone.

Mary sometimes takes time off work to take her daughter to school. She says she is scared that some matatu or boda boda guy might snatch the girl. Where are we heading as a society? It is ridiculous.

Times have changed. There was a time we would leave our baby with the maid, and went out. She looked after the baby until we came back home from dinner.

Today, you wouldn’t think of leaving your young child with a servant because they steal the babies. I think it is lack of discipline.

We grew up with the ‘kiboko’. I personally got beaten by my mother if I did anything wrong. And you knew where the line was. That was white, this was black. And that is how I brought up my children.”

On gun ownership

“Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Gun owners need a high level of discipline and training. You can give a 14 year old a firearm, train him, and if he is well balanced you don’t have a problem with him carrying it.

You can give a gun to a 50-year-old who is an idiot, then he goes and gets drunk, comes home and shoots his wife, that is the difference.

There is a need for thorough vetting and controlled use of firearms to prevent such incidents from happening.

After the interview as we stroll up to the IDPA awards pavilion. Poole’s friend Ibrahim Annous, who is a sports shooter, swings by and asks, “how much dowry has he paid?”  We all laugh and I tell Annous, “Not yet, you will be on the negotiating table,”

But as it stands, the dowry was just a joke. Poole is married with three children.

“Unfortunately my third born son died at the age of 32 due to medical negligence after an accident in Mombasa,”

Poole, who is now a Kenyan citizen, is happy about his accomplishments.

“This is my home. I have lived in several places in Kenya including Timau, Nanyuki, a coffee estate in Ruiru, Lower Kabete Road and Malindi. Now I am living in Gigiri as a retiree.