False: 5, not 6 elephants died in January 2019 in Olarro Conservancy
A Telegram message claiming that six elephants died within one week is false
On 29th January, a Telegram message posted on the Consumer Grassroots channel claimed that six elephants had died in Olarro Conservancy in the Maasai Mara over one week. According to the post, conservancy officials reported that the cause of death was unclear, adding that another report from the same officials speculated that the elephants had died from poisoning after eating crops sprayed with pesticide.
PesaCheck has looked into the claim that six elephants died over the span of one week and finds it to be MOSTLY FALSE.
While it is TRUE that the cause of death of the elephants was unconfirmed, the number of elephants that died in the conservancy was five, not six as reported, and they did not all die within a week.
Here is what happened:
By the end of January 2019, the number of dead elephants at Olarro conservancy in Maasai Mara was 5. In all the cases the carcasses were discovered with their tusks still intact and no visible sign of injury. The tusks were later removed, weighed, marked and handed over to the local KWS unit with records as is policy of the conservancy.
The Olarro conservancy gave a detailed account of the mortalities in a post on Facebook post on 21st January stating that there were 5 mortalities between the 9th and the 21st of January. One dead elephant was found on the 9th, one on the 15th and another on the 16th, followed by two on the 21st.
Veterinary services quoted by the conservancy stated that the elephants may have died from direct ingestion of pesticide either through infected water sources or direct crop ingestion.
A subsequent post by the conservancy on 21st January stated that an investigation into the potential use of insecticides and poisons on the elephants was being conducted by relevant authorities. This was due to the fact that a number of plantations in the area are in direct proximity of water sources running through areas populated by wildlife, and the chemicals used in these plantations could be to blame for the deaths of the animals either from drinking polluted water or consuming poisoned crops.
In a post dated 23rd January, the conservancy noted that the Veterinary Services and Captive Wildlife Management unit of the Kenya Wildlife Service and his team were on site to perform autopsies on the elephants, but these results have are yet to be shared with the public.
In conclusion, the Telegram post exaggerated both the timings of the deaths and the number of elephants that died at the conservancy. Five, not six elephants died in the stated period, and the deaths happened over 12 days, not within one week.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck researcher Mercy Karagi, was edited by PesaCheck Content Editor Ann Ngengere and approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visitpesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organisations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
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