Locals where oldest hominid skeleton discovered want 'Turkana Boy' to come home
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00:00In the heart of Kenya's most remote region, this monument marks the spot where a 1.6 million
00:07year old skeleton was found.
00:10Known as Turkana Boy, the original remains are locked away in Nairobi, much to the dismay
00:16of locals who are frustrated nothing is being done to bring the skeleton back.
00:22When they built this monument in 2019, they promised more infrastructure.
00:27Five years later, there are no paved roads, no hotels, nothing.
00:31There needs to be more investment because it's very important to us.
00:35Nariokotomi residents had hoped their village would become a tourist destination.
00:40But years later, locals like Kevin are still struggling to access basic services.
00:45We wish that the skeleton will come here so that it may help us.
00:51The ones that the skeleton was taken from are not getting any benefits.
00:55So I wish that that skeleton will be brought back in the museum to be located in this place
01:01and that's where things will be OK.
01:04In 2023, President William Ruto promised to invest almost 200,000 euros in Turkana.
01:11Local politicians hope this money will be used to transform the region into the archaeological
01:16hub they've long been promised.
01:19This is just a small kind of discoveries that were made by researchers and not by government itself.
01:27Now that government is involved and is going to put a lot of money into research to make
01:32sure a lot of discoveries have been made so that we have a lot of what Turkana Lake Basin
01:39holds for the world.
01:41A task force is expected to publish a report in March 2025 to identify the best ways of
01:47attracting visitors and economic growth to the region.