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Tusuja and Wanjala had a brief strength testing exercise soon after leaving the stockades. Tusuja wasn’t keen on taking the pushing game too far and so decided to quit, leaving Wanjala wondering what to do next as he clearly wasn’t in the mood for browsing quite yet! Malima and Sattao settled to share food from the same shrub before parting ways. Malima later joined Musiara in scratching on some rocks they had come across. 

The sky was clear and this left everyone wondering, as we have always known this time of the year to be a time of rain! Perhaps we will have to wait a bit longer as climate change seems to be changing everything. The vegetation is still a little green from the rain we randomly had a few weeks ago, so the orphans are still happy, and they still get their supplements. 

Ex-orphan Kilaguni joined the orphans on the way to the mud bath and later joined them for the afternoon to browse. Later the dependent orphans met with the senior ex-orphans in Yatta’s herd and they browsed together until three o'clock when Ishanga decided to take the orphans for a roadside mud bath when the temperature became so unbearable. 

When it was time to return to the stockades, Siangiki, Olsekki, Oltaiyoni, Tusuja, Barsilinga and Naseku decided to stay for longer with the ex-orphans and returned back to the stockades later after they had enough interaction with their seniors. The five orphans are in the ‘final class’ and are trying to gather as much information as they can before making their final decision on when to seek their independence.

Ex-orphans Wendi, Wiva, Wema, Naserian, Galana, Gawa, Tomboi, Chaimu and Ishanga were at the stockade compound in the morning. The dependent Ithumba orphans joined them once they were let out. Naseku, Esampu and Oltaiyoni played nanny to Wema as the frisky Wiva engaged in some pushing games with the orphans. Shortly later, Sattao spotted guinea fowls ahead of him and decided to turn this into a game; he trumpeted and charged as he ran towards the guinea fowls. Other orphans joined in the race as they tried to drive away the birds. The guinea fowls didn’t wait around to be trampled by the elephants and so they flew away. 

Wendi and her group followed the orphans for some time and since she knew that the Keepers keep a wide berth from her as she can be quite naughty, she took the opportunity to split the orphans into two groups before walking off into the bush. The Keepers gathered the orphans together again after Wendi left with her group. 

At mud bath time, the orphans were joined by four wild bulls who shared water with them before parting ways. 

In the afternoon, the orphans as usual headed to the western slopes of Ithumba Hill where they settled to browse. In the evening, as the Keepers were preparing to take the orphans back home, all over sudden there was stampede and the orphans scattered. The Keepers couldn't establish the cause of panic as all they could hear was other elephants breaking branches close by. The Keepers gathered their orphans and realised that Roi, Naseku, Oltaiyoni, Siangiki, Mteto, Mundusi, Ndiwa, Malkia, Maramoja, Sapalan, Esampu, Malima, Dololo and Sattao were missing. The search began immediately. As the Keepers were searching for the missing ones, again they ran into Wendi and her herd. Wendi blocked the Keepers from passing and sent them back to use an alternative route to continue with their search. Unfortunately darkness fell before locating the missing ones but the tracks showed that they were heading towards the Ithumba Eco Lodges in the company of the ex-orphans. The Keepers were forced to return back to stockades hoping that the ex-orphans would bring them back, but by eleven o'clock at night nothing had happened and we still continued to wait.

As the orphans prepared to leave for browsing, ex-orphans Wendi, Wema, Wiva, Lenana, Lapa, Ukame, Tumaren, Kalama, Galana, Gawa and two wild elephants arrived. The orphans had a brief interaction with the ex-orphans before Mapia led everyone out to browse for the day. Naseku and Maramoja competed who among them was best suited to have Lapa in their care. Maramoja, who is younger than Naseku, had to concede and allow Naseku to spend time with Lapa.

The ex-orphans followed the orphans and with Wendi around the Keepers remained very vigilant as she is mischievous and loves intimidating the Keepers; putting road blocks up to block them from following the dependent orphans. The Keepers are wise to her ways however and carefully maneuvered themselves in the bush, and managed to outwit Wendi who later showed up at the mud bath. 

Kauro teamed up with Wanjala to browse while Lemoyian, who has temporarily abandoned his group apparently for the dependent orphans, teamed up with Pare. At the mud bath the orphans just had their milk bottles and some water then interacted with the ex-orphans again for a bit, before parting ways. 

The orphans settled to browse along the western slopes of Ithumba Hill, but the afternoon suddenly warmed up, so the elephants decided to head for the mud bath along the road to cool off. Later, Malima, Sattao, Jotto, Sana Sana, Pare and Mapia had fun by rolling on the ground in a soil bathing exercise. Karisa picked on Lemoyian for strength testing exercise but ended up losing to the more experienced Lemoyian. Kauro engaged Olsekki in a pushing game which he lost terribly to Olsekki. This annoyed Kauro who moved to vent his anger by riding on Jotto who was standing close by, perhaps in the effort to show off and demonstrate his prowess in light of losing to Olsekki. 

Barsilinga and Tusuja were back early in the morning to share Lucerne with their friends. As soon as the orphans finished their Lucerne supplement, Ndiwa led the way out, where upon Barsilinga formed his team consisting of Tusuja, Naseku, Olsekki, Siangiki, Rapa and Galla, and managed to sneak off with them. 

Shortly before mud bath time, Kithaka, Orwa and Garzi were spotted at a distance, but then they disappeared again. This wasn't good news because it meant that they were up to no good, since they didn't want to be spotted by the Keepers. After mud bath time everything was going on smoothly until Kithaka, Orwa and Garzi, without the Keepers knowledge, hijacked Sana Sana, Mundusi, Pare, Malima and Mteto and left with them. The Keepers were surprised to find the five missing when they were gathering the orphans to walk them back to the stockades! Barsilinga brought his little group back early, while the Keepers continued to look for the missing orphans with Kithaka and co until dark. 

At around 7.30pm, the Keepers heard rumbles along Kanziku Road and they kept on calling the missing orphans. Finally, they met and brought them back to the stockades. An hour later, the mischievous Kithaka, Orwa and Garzi showed up from the same direction as the others. This confirmed our suspicion of who had made away with our five orphans!