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MICHAEL
WERIKHE
AN EXTRAORDINARY
WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONIST
Coastweek
-- Those who knew Michael
Werikhe well; those who are here today to pay their very special
respects to a man of rare quality; knew him as a deeply caring man, an
impeccably honest, modest, loyal friend and colleague.
But in the ways the
outside world normally measures a person, Michael Werikhe was a very
ordinary man.
And in many respects he
led a very ordinary life.
So why did President
Daniel arap Moi, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, U.N. Secretary General
Perez de Cuelleur, the Rev Jesse Jackson, U.S. President George Bush,
and Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh all want to meet this ordinary
man, and shake his hand ?
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He wasn't rich.
He wasn't powerful.
He wasn't a sporting
superstar.
He wasn't a great
scientist or writer or speaker or artist.
He didn't invent
anything.
He was just an ordinary
man.
From an ordinary home.
Doing an ordinary job.
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Coastweek
-- Michael
Werikhe |
From afar, here was one
of life's most ordinary people, strolling down the road, wearing a
funny little cap and carrying a rucksack in which he kept his pet
python, stopping here and there to chat to people along the way.
So, why did several of
the the most eminent leaders of the modern world notice this man who
liked to slowly walk and quietly talk as he ambled across the surface
of the earth during his time upon it.
Why did the Guinness
Corporation, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, the
Goldman Environmental Foundation, The Zoological Society of San Diego
and the Kenya Wildlife Service bestow upon him their highest honours ?
Why did the Eddie Bauer
Institute acclaim him as a member of their elite "Heroes of
the Earth" ?
Why, among the hundreds,
even thousands, of conservation organisations, societies, clubs, zoos,
sanctuaries, environmentalists, sponsors, researchers and leaders of
mankind's efforts to save wild animals in general and endangered
species like the rhino in particular, was Michael Werikhe known and
loved and respected the world over as: "The Rhino Man" ?
When that is the name
that brings you to the door of State House, the White House, the U.N.
Headquarters and Buckingham Palace, it is no mere nickname.
It is a title that
carries recognition of a truly massive achievement.
It is a statement that
here is the champion of a global cause, the symbol of a worldwide
commitment, the standard-bearer of an international care and concern
on a subject of importance to all mankind.
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He did this with no
special advantage of birth or wealth or education or special influence
of any other kind.
He had only one special
ingredient: a deeply caring concern in his heart for the natural
things of the earth, and all the creatures upon it.
He did not seek glory or
recognition, and was never much absorbed with accolades nor impressed
by fame when it was thrust upon him.
His only ambition was to
share his love of the wild, with anybody and with everybody, equally.
Back at work as a
security supervisor at AVA, it made no difference whether he had just
walked out of the bush or just met George Bush.
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| Coastweek
-- Michael
crossing the 'Greina Pass' in the Swiss Alps during his
trans-Europe trek in aid of the African Rhino. |
His work was exemplary,
and he continued to give his superiors, his colleagues and his
subordinates his open-hearted friendship, his honest respect - no more
than he would give to a barefoot toto; no less than he would give to
the president of the United States.
His modesty and his
integrity brings to mind the words of Rudyard Kipling's great poem . .
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"If you can walk
with crowds and keep your virtue,
And talk with kings nor lose the common touch. . ."
Michael Werikhe might
never have read those lines, but he lived them, more literally and
more completely, than any man I know.
So genuine was Michael
Werikhe's character and mission, I suspect that in his quiet personal
moments and with his children Acacia and Kora, he never reflected:
"look at me,
ordinary Michael Werikhe, meeting presidents and royalty".
And by that very real
and very true self-effacement he turned the tables on the high and the
mighty.
He wasn't meeting them with pride.
They were meeting him,
perhaps with envy.
And by that very real
and very true self-effacement he turned the tables on the high and the
mighty.
He wasn't meeting them with pride.
They were meeting him,
perhaps with envy.
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He was not for one
moment deterred by the fact that with nothing he might get nowhere.
His life's philosopy, I
believe, was:"Perhaps there is
very little I can do. But I will do whatever little I can."
With that quiet
determination, he took the first and every succeeding step of his walk
through life, for 46 years.
And as all of us here
well know, he achieved much; in large part because he did not waste
one atom of his scarce resources in achieving anything for himself.
His every care, his
every thought, and his every act, was for others. Therein lies the meaning
of Michael Werikhe.
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| Coastweek
-- MADE
IT ... Michael after crossing the 'Greina Pass' in the Swiss
Alps. |
Much more than any
conservation specifics or awards or achievements, the message Michael
Werikhe carried through the world, and the gift he leaves us with now,
is the knowledge that even the most ordinary life can be lived in the
most extraordinary way.
That poem of Kiplings,
which summarises the very finest qualities any man can aspire to,
might well have been written with a Michael Werikhe in mind, even to
the very end, where he was so bravely true to the challenge:
"If you can meet
with triumph and disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same. . ."
The Rhino Man will
be sorely missed and never forgotten.
It was a great privilege
to have worked with him and known him.
- P.J.C.H.,
Mombasa.
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