Rutto's story

When Rutto saw those footprints in his grandmother’s hut, he knew there was something more to discover and learn. This sparked Rutto’s interest in footprints.  

February 2003: Rutto’s grandmother and village elders and neighbours looking at old footprints. Rutto says these were his first field explorations outside his grandmother’s house.

“I redrew the outline of the footprints with paint to help my camera to capture it. They were the footprints of two antelopes and a large bird.”

When Rutto was in Primary 7 at school he learned about the origins of mankind and about Dr Richard Leakey who had found ancient human fossils in other places in Kenya such as Lake Turkana. He began to wonder, 

 

“If there are human fossils, where are the footprints?”

Rutto read what he could on the Leakey family and their fossil finds. He was absorbed by the idea that it was possible that ancient man had once lived where he now lives.

 

“During my free time, wherever I walked, I looked out for human footprints” he said.  

 

He always looked carefully at the ground as he walked.

One day, as he was walking along a dry stream bed, he spotted some unusual footprints. On closer inspection, he realised that these were not ordinary modern-day human footprints. No one would have been walking on this land barefoot and, furthermore, these prints were unusually large. On that day in October 2008, he had found a first series of footprints on an ash rock that had once been under the stream.

He then found a second set  of prints a few metres away in the thorn-filled scrub. He was extremely excited. He informed some of his friends of his find and many people went to see ‘’Rutto’s footprints”.

The first set of footprints that Rutto found shows three people walking — five prints, eight prints and five again — walking close together and headed in the same direction. The next set of prints on higher ground consists of three steps and then another two. They measure roughly 26 centimetres in length and the average stride measures 76 centimetres. They may have been fleeing from a possible volcano eruption on the lake behind them. This could explain the large strides they took.  Looking further, he discovered a large number of other footprints, including those of lion, antelope, birds, and some of unknown creatures. This was near Lake Baringo. 

From the moment Rutto found these footprints, he decided to look for a copy of Dr. Leakey’s books. In September 2010, Rutto found this book to learn more about the hominids and the origin of mankind.

Between 2012 and 2015, he reached out to different experts and the Kenyan museum, for more advice on how to proceed with his discoveries.

In June 2015, an author from the National Geographic magazine visited the site and posted an article on the Baringo footprints site in the national geographic website: “Footprints found in Baringo dry stream”. The late Dr. Richard Leakey read the information about the new discoveries in Lake Baringo, on the National Geographic website. He informed the Kenyan museum and urged them to visit the site to see the new discoveries. In May 2016, a team of experts from the National Museum of Kenya, led by Dr Emmanuel Ndiema, Head of Archaeology at the museum’s Department of Earth Sciences visited the site  to see the discoveries. Their findings were as follows:

“It’s an exciting discovery,” said Dr Ndiema. “There is no doubt that the footprints are ancient.”

Dr Ndiema suggested that the footprints belonged to Homo erectus (upright man), a hominid that lived between 70,000 and 1.9 million years ago. Dr Ndiema said that they could have belonged to a more anatomically modern ancestor of Homo sapiens, a first version of modern man, because of the spaces between the footprints which suggested someone walking – or running – upright.

“This presents tremendous potential for research, especially in linking them to the previous footprints reported further north at Ileret near Lake Turkana,” said the researcher.

As usual, during on his days off, Rutto continues to explore his area. In June 2018, he discovered a fossil in the walls of a dry river, exposed by erosion. At first, he thought he had finally managed to find some of the hominid fossils that could belong to his footprints. When he started to remove some of the soil, huge bones appeared. He thought he had found a dinosaur. But later after contacting the fossils expert, Dr. Louise Leakey, she confirmed that the fossil bones were those of an elephant.

Elephant fossils before excavation

June 2018

Elephant fossils during excavation

June 2018

Elephant fossils after excavation

2 years later – June 2020

How did Louise Leaky find out about Rutto’s fossils ?

In May 2021, Rutto carried out further excavations of the elephant fossils and built a shed to protect the fossils from rain. In July, he reached out to the Nation magazine author, Rupi Mangai again, asking her to kindly write an article in the Kenyan magazine for people to read about another discovery in Baringo.

August 28th, 2021, Dr Louise Leakey, daughter of the late Dr Richard Leakey, after reading the article in The East African magazine about the existing Elephant fossils, birds and hominids footprints in Baringo, decided to visit the site to see the discoveries for herself. She was so excited with the discoveries and with Rutto’s work. She confirmed these were fossils of an extinct elephant. She then flew Rutto to Ileret, a field school of research on the north-eastern corner of Lake Turkana.

When Dr. Louise Leaky flew Rutto to Turkana, Ileret, the object was to give Rutto the opportunity to learn more on how to become a fossil hunter. He learnt four major things: 1- how to look out for fossils in the field, 2- how to find out and separate fossils from the sand, 3- how to clean fossils using machine, and 4- how to take care of the fossils, in consideration of the environment and the importance of fossils to the community. 

Sadly, no one has come to do any further research on “Rutto”s footprints” or to protect the site, and any donations he has received have not been enough to build a roof to cover the footprints and protect them from the environment. Rutto has just done what he could. He no longer grazes his livestock on this piece of land and made the decision to preserve the site himself as best he can and has named and registered the site as the “LUNG’OK COMMUNITY PREHISTORIC SITE”. 

Nevertheless, thanks to the donations Rutto did receive, he was able to build a roof over the ancient elephant fossils.

Rutto is therefore appealing to well-wishers for help to support him to protect this prehistoric site.