Dr Emma Mbua discovers prehistoric creatures estimated to be 3.5 million years old in Ongata Rongai
For more than 30 years, palaeontologist Dr Emma Mbua has been digging up dirt in dry and dusty places in search of prehistoric animals and early man. Most times the excavation works were carried out in faraway places like Turkana and Sibiloi National Park. So it came as a surprise when one day, in 2009, she received a phone call about some old bones poking through the banks of a river in Ongata Rongai near Nairobi.
“We were called by the owners,” recalls Mbua, one of only two indigenous Kenyan women in the field of palaeontology, which is the study of fossil animals and plants. “They are now in their mid-50s. They were telling us they used to cross that little stream when they were going to school in Ongata Rongai.” Tucked behind private farms, the riverbank site has yielded a treasure trove of prehistoric creatures: herbivores, rodents, birds and, perhaps most exciting of all, the remains of early humans.
Though her research work has yet to be published, Dr Mbua has made an early prognosis about the probable age of the fossils. “3.5 million years — it’s that old this site. It’s amazing,” she says, smiling. “I’m very excited about it.”
Digging out fossils is painfully slow process. It took Mbua’s team one month just to excavate the skeleton of a hippopotamus which is now housed in her analysis lab at the National Museums of Kenya. The humongous lower mandible of an ancient hippo sits on a large sponge in the lab’s broad work table. The jaw has six incisors and canines, unlike modern day hippos that have four. “This is quite primitive,” says Mbua. “This is probably a male; it’s huge.” Wooden trays piled up on counters along the walls contain more bits and bones uncovered from the same site: antelopes, gazelles, elephants, ancient zebras and much more.
A petite, spectacled lady with a quick smile, Mbua divides her time between the Museums, field work and lecturing at Mt Kenya University. Mbua expects to publish her latest findings before the end of this year, and as with other prehistoric discoveries, the fossils will become national heritage objects under the custodianship of the Museums. Replicas of the fossils are being made to enable people to view the new discoveries.
It seems amazing that such a rich cache of fossils can occur so close to Nairobi and near human settlements. But this is not the first time fossils have been discovered in private land and Dr Mbua thinks there might be many more such locations. “I think why we are not getting so many sites is that people believe if you notify the Museum you have something on your farm, they will come and take your farm,” she says. “But that’s not the case. There are discussions and compensation.”
“In most cases we just excavate and if we find things coming out, for the next three or four years we’ll just try to recover what we can and then we’ll go,’ she adds. “So the owner can still have his farm.” She explains that the National Museums and Heritage Act makes provision for national heritage items discovered on private land and allows the Museums to enter into agreements with the landowners. In the case of the Ongata Rongai site, an agreement with the farmer allows Mbua’s team road access in order to reach the stream.
The fossil findings from Ongata should also yield a lot of information about the natural history of the area and the environmental changes that have occurred over millennia. Because the site is abundant in hippo bones, Dr Mbua believes the river was once much bigger and characterised with large pools of water, but today the waterway is just a seasonal stream. The absence of reptiles is also intriguing. “In a normal environment you will find that everything is represented — different mammals and other forms of life. But in this particular place I’ve not found a crocodile and I’ve not understood why. I’ve never found even a single tooth,” she says.
A career palaeontologist, Dr Mbua came into this field quite by chance. “I saw an advertisement after my Form Six, and I applied and I came,” she recollects. “They were advertising for what they call ‘curatorial staff’. The curatorial staff is in charge of numbering the fossils.
Mbua joined the NMK in 1980 when it was headed by Dr Richard Leakey and his wife, Dr Meave Leakey, both palaeontologists. There were very few Africans in this field when Mbua joined the Museums. “The scientists were foreigners from western countries. Me and another lady, Dr [Alfreda] Ibui, we were the first Kenyan curatorial assistants,” she says. Mbua then went abroad to study Evolutionary Anthropology, obtaining her Masters degree from the University of Liverpool, UK, and her PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany.
During her 35 years with the Museums, Dr Mbua has risen to the rank of Senior Research Scientist and the Head of Earth Sciences at NMK. She is also the chairperson of The East African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology, an organisation which she founded in 2005.
EAAPP is a platform that brings together scientists working in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Eritrea. “It’s a forum whereby we wanted to be meeting and disseminate our scientific information because normally it’s very expensive to attend conferences overseas unless you know you are funded,” explains Mbua. “We, as indigenous eastern Africans, have to be responsible wherever we are. Responsibility means having a voice into whatever you are managing and this platform is one way of having a voice.”
Over the years she has participated in numerous international conferences abroad which were excellent forums for networking and exchange of ideas. But Mbua noted that these scientific gatherings were often characterised by acrimony between researchers and jeering during plenary sessions. Mbua wanted to avoid these sorts of theatrics during EAAPP meetings. “For the future of this field, there has to be minimal fighting. There has to be lots of research and people have to be tolerant,” remarks Mbua.
The formation of EAAPP was greeted with scepticism but the platform has grown to almost 300 members that include university students because another of the organisation’s objectives is to mentor East African scholars. Ten years down the road and EAAPP has earned the respect of western scientists and its secretariat now incorporates palaeontologists from around the world.
When she steps down as the EAAPP chairperson later this year, it will be with pride for having steered the platform from its infancy into a world-respected scientific body rooted in East Africa.
In January, Mbua resigned from NMK after 35 years, but she remains an associate researcher at the institute and will not likely be retiring from fossil hunting anytime soon. As one of only a handful of Kenyan scientists in this field, Mbua is cognizant of the need to grow palaeontology at local universities and as a viable profession.
Even today, Kenyans wishing to study palaeontology must follow the same route overseas as did Mbua. One challenge is a limited job market locally. “You either come to work in the Museum or, if you study to the PhD level, teach at the university,” says Mbua. Consequently, many Kenyan scientists have chosen to relocate overseas for better work opportunities.
Additionally, there is opposition to fossil science by some Kenyans on religious grounds.
“Even with educated people, we still have to convince them evolution really took place,” says Mbua. We show them the evidence and they tell us, ‘hide it away!’”
As both a Christian and an evolutionist, Mbua believes there is room for both schools of thought.
“You know, I go to church and I believe there is God because there are many things that science is not able to change,” she says. “I believe there is that power that drives the biological change. That’s where I put God. In fact I never call it evolution anymore, I call it biological change,” she adds with a laugh. “It’s more acceptable.”
Nevertheless, Mbua believes that academic course development is essential to growing evolutionary sciences in Kenya.
“Palaeontology and palaeoanthropology is quite important in this country,” observes Mbua. “If we will not offer it to a degree level, we can at least offer it at a diploma level. Nobody has really focused on developing course structures.”
Mbua is looking at creating a diploma programme which would give graduates the qualifications to work as curatorial assistants with specialised knowledge and skills for handling fossils.
Kenya has some of the oldest hominid remains ever discovered, but outside a small circle of scientists, the fascinating story of mankind’s origins remains little known among Kenyans. One challenge may be the location of many prehistoric sites in remote places with difficult access. “Whenever we talk about early humans we talk about Koobi For and Turkana. So people are not able to conceive it,” explains Mbua. “They’ve never been there. So they have never been able to interpret it properly.”
The discovery of fossils so close to Nairobi could be a huge opportunity to enlighten people on human evolution and to diversify Kenya’s tourism product. Once excavation works are complete at Ongata Rongai, and if the location can be gazetted as a national site, Mbua hopes to work with NMK to create a tourist attraction complete with fossil replicas and displays. “People should be encouraged to ‘come and see your origins, ‘come and see the first city dwellers’. Nobody was here 3.5 million years ago,” says Mbua. “This is unique; you can’t find it anywhere else.”