Great elephant exodus: Racing Drought Across Northern Kenya

On the night of May 21, 2026, Moi, a 30-year-old elephant bull, crossed Oldonyiro town in Isiolo County en route to Naibunga Conservancy in Laikipia County.

From a real-time monitoring tool, stationed at Save The Elephants (STE) research camp in Samburu National Reserve, when he crossed the rapidly expanding town, the jumbo was in a terrific speed, all just to avoid any contact with humans.

Moi was migrating from Samburu National Reserve, sensing the onset of drought and imminent conflict over diminishing pasture and water.

Benjamin Loloju, the Corridors Manager at STE, pointed out that elephants are very smart animals and never make any move whenever they feel it is likely to be unsafe for them.

“They wait until it’s dusk, and then start moving. They perceive humans as a risk because of what has happened in the past years with poaching and resources-related conflicts, which is also driven by climate change,” Loloju noted, explaining that with the impending drought conditions in large parts of Samburu County, the huge animals have already identified what to do.

“They already know where to go, and at what time,” Loloju noted.

The knowledge about elephants and other wild animals that follow their footsteps is based on more than three decades of tracking data by the STE.

Through a GPS tracking system, STE monitoring teams followed Moi’s journey through the forests during both day and night when it hit the corridors.

Loloju noted that Moi’s story is interesting, and so for the big animals, it demonstrates how clever they are.

“He started his journey on May 10, leaving Samburu National Reserve on that date. He moved north to Kalama and Westgate, spending six days in those conservancies on the Samburu side of the Ewaso Nyiro river,” he said.

Lologu explained that the STE WildTracks tool used to track animals is powered by the EarthRanger platform, an app that tracks GPS-collared elephants, not only in Kenya but across Africa, helping researchers, rangers, and local communities protect the animals and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

The lone elephant bull crossed to Isiolo County on May 16, using the major corridor that connects the two counties, and headed west to Lchurai in Oldonyiro, where he rested and fed for four days. Moi avoided visibility, hiding not far from Mlima Chui settlements, waiting for the dusk to start crossing.

At midnight, the elephant moved through Oldonyiro town corridor, west into Naibunga conservancy in Laikipia.

“He came ahead of us, coming all the way from Samburu, where he had been for a few weeks, feeding and mating with females there. Just yesterday, he went right across here where we are standing today, all the way and ending up in Laikipia,” Loloju told The Standard during a recent visit to Samburu and Isiolo wildlife and livestock corridors.

That just speaks a lot about how smart the elephants are, he added, noting that it was the first time the STE corridors monitoring teams had seen the collard bull passing through this particular corridor in Oldonyiro.

“For the past three years, we have tracked him; this is the first time we are seeing him go through to Laikipia,” Loloju added.

The STE GPS tracking system is a pioneering conservation tool that equips elephants with specialised tracking collars to monitor their movements, behaviour, and daily needs in real time.

The teams can do monitoring on their smartphones, and on a real-time screen in the organisation’s offices within the Samburu National Reserve.

Moi set the pace, signalling to other jumbo populations to be on the move to avoid an imminent conflict as pasture and water were drying up in Samburu.

And as Moi was settling down at Naibunga Conservancy in Laikipia County, Mungania, a female elephant was hitting the corridors from Meru.

“Mungania is fascinating! She started her journey on June 1 in Meru, Gambela, and, in just four days, she crossed through Oldonyiro in Isiolo county,” Loloju reveals.

Together with her family, Mungania entered Laikipia, passing through three counties and covering over 150km in five days.

“It is incredible that even young ones keep up in this kind of seasonal migration. She has done this journey over the years,” he said.

The female jumbo and her family crossed Oldonyiro town through a designated corridor on June 4.

On May 22, 2026, down in Isiolo’s Oldonyiro Valley, in the dry river, a herder was busy scooping water from a shallow well for hundreds of his goats and sheep.

“This shows you the symbiotic nature of life in the wild,” Loloju added.

This particular day, Loloju was leading other corridor monitors known as Mama Tembo, and immediately jumped into explaining why wildlife routes should be kept safe.

“Elephants are an umbrella species, and this is because the moment you have secured their movements and the corridors, you have done it for the other wildlife; the smaller ones, the zebras, the dik-diks, the hyenas, among others that use these corridors,” he told The Standard.

The corridors, Loloju explained, are avenues for co-existence between wild animals, human beings and their livestock. But above all, he emphasised, they have to be kept safe.

“Elephants are huge animals and always need to move from one area to another for survival, for food and water in different seasons. They know even the right time to cross these highly populated areas,” Loloju said.

Fresh data from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) shows that human-wildlife conflict remains a major issue in Kenya, with 2025 reports revealing 26,641 incidents over two years, leading to 255 deaths and 725 injuries. The most common complaints included 9,300 farm raids and 5,200 livestock predation cases, and elephants were responsible for the majority of severe conflicts, including 7,556 cases of crop destruction and 121 deaths.

Hyenas were the main threat to livestock, involved in over 3,100 cases.

However, recent efforts to designate safe routes for the animals have started to bear fruit. This initiative, which has been piloted in the last 10 years, is a partnership between STE, members of the communities interacting with wildlife, and the national and county governments.

Loloju gave a detailed explanation of the efforts by the STE’s coexistence programme to reduce human-wildlife conflict by securing their corridors, done by analysing decades of Global Positioning System (GPS)tracking data.

To identify crucial migratory pathways, he said STE works with local communities, county governments, and the National Land Commission (NLC) in Kenya to legally secure and gazette these routes against fragmentation and infrastructure development.

“So, for the past 10 years, we have been working with this Oldonyiro community to make sure these corridors are open. As you can see, the town is expanding, and that is actually the threat here,” he noted, pointing to the beacons that mark a major wildlife corridor which connects Samburu to Laikipia through Isiolo County.

But even as the town is expanding rapidly and soon becoming a sub-county according to information at the ward level, Loloju revealed that numerous engagements with the community are bearing fruit.

And because the corridors are dual-purpose spaces, used by wildlife, elephants and livestock, he said the community had to buy the idea.

“When they migrate in search of pasture and water, both the pastoralists and wildlife use the same corridors, and therefore a need to have a well-designated route,” he explained.

The efforts have materialised in the securing of three corridors around the Oldonyiro area.

“Working with the communities, we have demarcated these corridors with beacons along the corridor so that no one will live right inside the corridor,” he said.

The corridors are 30 meters to 50 meters wide, enabling the animals to move.

Save the Elephants has a total of 22 Mama Tembos (corridor monitors). Sixteen are in Samburu, with six in Oldonyiro.

Initially terrified of elephants, Panny Lemantile and ⁠Lucy Lokorukoru, two of the six Mama Tembos in Oldonyiro, who were at the valley on May 22, 2026, now view themselves as ambassadors.

“Educating our own community about elephant behaviour reduces fear,” said Lokorukoru.

She confessed that her social status has improved. She used to survive on and educate her children using proceeds from bead making. Now, however, she is assured of a monthly stipend from her daily monitoring of the corridor.

They started working in April this year in the Oldonyiro side of the corridor, while in Samburu, the patrols by Mama Tembos started in 2018.