Where lion’s tail is the ultimate prize

None of the carcasses of the kings and queens of the jungle killed on Wednesday had the end of their tails on Thursday.

When the Nation got to the scene at Ilkeek-lemedungi Village, the “victors” were holding the cats’ tails, “happier than ever before”.

Among the Maasai, killing lions is like football. “Like footballers struggling to score between the goal post, morans strive to reach out for the tail or spear the lion first,” said Mzee Silas ole Soropay.

But not all Maasai communities use the tail to determine the winner in the battle with the beasts.

Mzee Soropay, of the Ilkololik age set, says the community that lives in Loitokitok District considers the first person to spear the lion as the winner.

He is proud that one of his agemates, Mzee Terta ole Musungu, is also still the record holder when it comes to the number of tails. “It is a record that none has broken ... he is the champion with seven tails,” he said, beaming.

Age sets are groups of morans separated by between 10 and 20 years in age and walk in groups, learn and carry out their activities and celebrations together.

When a group succeeds in killing a lion, its members are viewed as heroes. Within the group, the first person to get the tail when the cat is still alive is highly recognised and regarded.

According to the 72-year-old Soropay, anybody can kill a lion to protect livestock, and “there are no specific rules that morans are the ones who must do the work. The old and young alike must protect the livestock”.

Mzee Soropay has killed seven lions, by virtue of being the first to pierce the beast with his spear, but has never been lucky to get the tail.

Sharp canines

One has to be swift, strong and courageous, since the lion might still overcome and throw one towards its canines using the tail muscles. Not everybody has the courage to end up with the tail.

Fellow villager Meleji ole Lugan, 74, has killed nine lions in his lifetime.

“While a moran, I killed eight,” said Mzee Lugan. “Then one day (when he was no longer a moran) the ferocious beast attacked and killed one of my cows. I threw the spear that left it groaning,” he said.

Morans simply irritate the lion by making noises, right behind it, say by wailing or just shouting.

“The lion responds to this by stopping and turning angrily, to attack one person in the group,” says Mzee Soropay. As the lion moves fast to confront one person its instinct detects as being tougher than the rest, it is killed.

The elders said the game had been wrongly interpreted “to suggest that a person who has never killed a lion will never be allowed to marry; that is wrong”.

On Thursday, they were quick to add that villagers were in agreement that the community should embrace conservation, except for cases where the beasts attack their livestock.

A Kenya Wildlife Service official, Ms Anne Kahihia, on Thursday said KWS rangers rushed to the Ilkeek-lemedungi homestead when they were informed that lions had attacked livestock.

She said the lions were surrounded by morans and could not leave.

The rangers, she said, pleaded with the morans not to harm the lions and instead await conflict resolution committee involving elders “but they decided to kill the lions”.

“Other lions ran away,” Ms Kahihia said, adding that the homestead where the lions were killed was in wildlife migration area.

Subdivision of land in the area has led to displacement of wildlife.

“The wildlife usually move every year. When it is wet the lions move out of the park and when it is dry, they go back. When the carnivores move, they don’t differentiate between livestock and wildlife,” Ms Kahihia said.

“We are urging communities not to take the law into their hands. Lions are very dangerous and can kill you,” she added.

Dr David Nkediaye, a Kitengela resident, said before the killing of the lions, 42 domestic animals had been killed in the area in the past two weeks.

He quoted the residents as saying that the morans attacked the lions because they were becoming restless and that they feared the beasts could attack locals.