Residents demand back world's second oldest man’s fossil

When the world's second oldest man’s fossil (Orrorin tugenensis) was discovered in Baringo county, residents hoped to get fortunes from it.

More than 20 years after the discovery of the six-million-year-old hominid, they have nothing to show for it.

Instead, the fossil was taken away from its original home in Kipsaraman Community Museum in Baringo North Subcounty by officials from National Museums of Kenya for safe keeping. 

The residents now want it back. They say the government is generating a lot of money from donors and researchers at their expense.

Orrorin Community Organisation secretary Micah Cherutoi said fossil was carted away in the year 2,000.

"The Community is not certain where the remains of Orrorin are kept, we only hear rumours that it is stored in a vault and the government is using it to make millions of shillings from researchers ,” he said.

The residents said they were promised many goodies.

"They promised to build a university through the Japanese government  at Kabarsero and a community water dam at Yatyanin at the cost of Sh5 million. Our children were also promised employment opportunities, but all this remain a pipe dream," said Joseph Cheserem, a volunteer at Kipsaraman Community Museum.

The residents said before it was moved, the fossil attracted more than 4,000 tourists every year.

The residents appealed to give back to the community through development and ensure the fossil is returned.

Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi said NMK went against an agreement with the community to keep all fossils collected from the Baringo in the county.

“We are demanding that the fossil be returned to its ancestral home failure to which we will seek legal redress,” he said.

“The Constitution says public resources should benefit the community and the Orrorin tugenensis fossil is our resource.”

Baringo county is rich in fossils with more than 70,000 other fossils already discovered. 

If the Kipsaraman Community Museum is revived, Baringo  county will compete with Nairobi in terms of revenue collection. 

The museum collapsed in 2003 when NMK officials differed  with donors over alleged misappropriation of funds.

Orrorin fossil was discovered by two paleontologists, Brigit Senut and Martin Pickford in the Tugen.

France's Muséum National D'histoire Naturelle promised to put up a laboratory at Kipsaraman at a cost of Sh60 million.

The museum's president laid a foundation stone to start construction but the funds were allegedly misused forcing the donors to withdraw.

The laboratory was to have three floors where all fossils from Baringo county research sites were to be stored.

The French government also withdrew Sh5 million set aside for construction of Yatyanin dam after CMK failed to abide by terms of agreement.

"It is unfortunate that neither Kenyan university students nor residents can see the Orrorin fossil because it is being kept in Nairobi and only foreign researchers can use it for their studies," Pickford said.

Kapsarim museum has rich fossils some as old as 12.5 million years. 

Researchers have identified more than 400 sites potential for scientific research.

Some fossils at the museum include deinotherium bozazi (an elephant tusk) which has become extinct and is estimated to be between 4.5 and 5.1 million years old and fish fossil skeletons which are more than 12.5 million years old.

According to the discoverers, Orrorin proves to be a direct human ancestor, and then australopithecines such as the australopithecua afarensis ("Lucy") may be considered a side branch of the hominid camily tree: Orrorin is both earlier, by almost 3 million years, and more similar to modern humans than is A. afarensis. 

The main similarity is that the Orrorin femur is morphologically closer to homo sapiens.

Other fossils (leaves and many mammals) found in the Lukeino formation show that Orrorin lived in dry evergreen forest environment, not the Savanna avanna assumed by many theories of human evolution.