GENERAL
The Mara Conservancy completed 25 years in the Triangle on the 12th June. We have five members of staff still here from the day I arrived and we were reminiscing about the changes over 25 years. We should be proud of our achievements. It is very difficult to imagine what the Triangle, Greater Mara and Northern Serengeti were like in 2001 – more importantly, what they might be like now without our presence. We have the foresight and vision of our local leaders to thank: HE Samuel Tunai, Mzee ole Kijabe, the current MP for Kilgoris Hon J Sunkuli, the late Willie Roberts and the team of people he pulled together to establish the Conservancy. Sadly, some of the people who were there at the beginning have passed on: John Naiguran, Willie Roberts, Dr Mark Stanley-Price and Allan Root. We have lost touch with some people but will never forget their contribution: Leslie Roach, Alison Jones, Dr Chris Thouless and Giles Davies amongst others. The people mentioned above were there for us at the beginning but there have been numerous other people who have made a considerable contribution to our success.
Twenty-five years ago:
There were no roads to speak of;
There was no infrastructure, vehicles or machinery;
Only 30 staff in the Triangle, 27 of them rangers – no one had been paid for up to six months;
Less than a third of the Triangle was considered safe for tourists;
Patrols were unheard of. Poaching and cattle theft were out of control – it was estimated that up to 100,000 wildebeest were poached annually and our Maasai neighbors were losing hundreds of cattle a year;
Not a single tourist in the Northern Serengeti and very few in the Triangle.
How different it is today!
We are sad to record the death of Mr. Gideon Kochellah. He was a long-term Member of Parliament for Kilgoris and one time Cabinet Minister.
June has to rank as the driest month we have had in 25 years, and it looks like we are in for at least two more weeks of very little rain. Is this the lull before the storm, all the predictions are for a major El Niño event later this year. We have started seeing the first herds of wildebeest in the Triangle, obviously crossing the Mara in Tanzania and we ended the month with a few thousand animals. The first animals also crossed Sand River into the Main Reserve on the 28th.
I held a meeting with Ian Sanders and Roberta Vasnic of Void Studios, the architects for the Visitor Centre, on the 29th. It was a good meeting, and I believe that we have a clear way forward that will enable us to complete the project on time and within budget.
COLABORATION AGREEMENT
We completed a draft of the proposed new Collaboration Agreement with our lawyers and sent it to the Governor on the 10th for review and comments. I met with the Governor on the 17th to discuss the Agreement and we both agreed to:
A five-year agreement starting 1st July 2026;
To reduce monthly spending in the Greater Mara by 30% to Ksh 35,000,000 (Thirty-Five million);
This means no new uniforms this year;
Cutting back on infrastructure and renovations;
No new boreholes;
All work that we have been doing to repair and maintain County machinery outside the Reserve will stop. This will enable us to make a significant saving;
The Mara Conservancy charge for Administration should not change from the one that was set when monthly expenditure was limited to Ksh five million; down from 20% to 3.4%.
There has been a problem with water at Sekenani, essentially way too many people drawing water from a limited source; not only staff, but ongoing construction and an ever-expanding township. We are working on an independent source and pipeline to serve County housing, facilities and areas of importance to the wider community, such as schools and hospitals.
We installed a solar back-up system for the Wardens’ offices at Sekenani and another for the workshops.
We completed the road between Simba and Talek and then repaired the roads in within Talek township.
We have started on a small toilet for visitors at the Simba barrier.
We have started on a new drift over the Ol Keju Rongai stream, the original drift was deemed beyond economical repair.
We held our quarterly planning meeting on the 27th, We have cut down on new projects but will focus on completing existing projects and our routine work.
STAFF
The Board approved a 5% salary increase for all staff in July.
Drs Jake Wall and Rebekah Karimi held a two-day workshop on Ecoscope and Earth Ranger from the 25th at the Conservation Centre, funded by the Safari Collection. It was well attended by senior staff and rangers, and we hope it will improve the reporting.
WILDLIFE
Senior officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) visited the proposed roan paddocks at Partikilat from the 8th, were happy with the paddocks and have said that we may receive the first two or three males from Ruma in July.
One young lion was severely injured by buffalo near the Kichwa airstrip and had to be euthanized.
A dead elephant was found on the 8th. The tusks recovered and weighed 1.8 Kg each. The following day two bull elephants were fighting, and one broke a tusk, the pieces were collected and weighed 14.8 Kg. A second dead elephant was found near Kilo 2 on the 22nd, it had been dead for several months, the tusks were recovered and weighed 27.2 and 27.3 Kg (60lbs) each. Another elephant was treated for an infected spear wound on the 19th near Purungat.
The Tanzanian Government has released a report on the recent wildlife census –
National Census of Medium and Large Wild Mammals in Tanzania 2026.
Their report compares species in 2014 and then 2025 and it makes for very interesting reading. elephant, greater kudu, buffalo and black rhino are all up. There is no significant decline nationally in all other species though puku, resident wildebeest and topi show slight declines. Everything else shows a stable, or slightly increasing population. A far cry from Kenya, where there are very significant declines in all species apart from maybe elephant and rhino. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare wildlife numbers in the Serengeti and Mara ecosystems. See the Table below, note the comparison is 2014-2025 in the Serengeti vs 2021 -24 for the Mara.
We should note with concern the significant reductions in giraffe, topi and waterbuck populations throughout the ecosystem. There is certainly room for an in-depth study. Is it poaching, predation, habitat loss, climate??
A large python was killed by herders in the Triangle on the 16th. We allow access to the Saltlick every Tuesday in the low season and this python caught a sheep. The herders ganged together to rescue the sheep and kill the python – it must have been nearly 5 meters long. We have since banned people from along that section of escarpment from entering the Reserve.
Dr Ashif removed a snare from a giraffe on the 28th. This animal was found near Kampi ya Mungu, well inside the Triangle.
TOURISM
KAPS now give us a clearer breakdown on the number of non-paying visitors to the Triangle and where they come from. On average 50% of the visitors to the Triangle are classified as non-paying - complimentary, transit or have paid elsewhere. For example, in May we had a total of 8,169 visitors to the Triangle, of those 4,118 were classified as non-paying.
Of the 4,118 non-paying visitors 2,132 had paid elsewhere (either Kichwa or the Main Reserve), 1,080 were in transit and the remainder (906) were either students, researchers or complimentary.
This year we will be enforcing controlled off-roading in the area along the border, cross-hatched in pink on the map below. Drivers will only be allowed off-road in this area under the following conditions:
If the vehicle is fitted with a Masai Mara tracker;
If they are authorized and supervised by one of our anti-harassment teams;
If they follow normal Park Rules on crowding etc.
The area cross hatched in pink is a controlled off-road area
SECURITY
Our rangers received information from our Tanzanian counterparts that suspected poachers had entered the Lemai Wedge on the 7th. Our patrol managed to find two people and arrested one of them, they had been fishing along the river.
The Iseiya rangers went on a three-day patrol in the Northern Serengeti on the 9th and managed to arrest two people, one of the rangers, G Kirui was cut across the head with a machete – fortunately not too seriously. The following day one more poacher was arrested.
Another three-day patrol in the Northern Serengeti from the 13th resulted in five more people being arrested, all in the Zonzo area. Our Iseiya rangers followed it up with another patrol for two days from the 16th and managed to arrest three people from a group of seven that night. They were hunting with machetes and had killed two wildebeest when apprehended. The following day two more wildebeest carcasses were found. The Ngiro-are rangers also managed to arrest two people in the Lemai Wedge on the 16th.
Fifty-two wire snares were recovered along the escarpment in Tanzania on the 23rd, another eight were collected on the 28th and three more on the 29th.
We received a report of poachers along the Mara River in the Serengeti late on the 29th, the Iseiya rangers went and managed to arrest two people who were fishing with nets.
REVENUE & ACCOUNTS
Our revenue for the first 11 months of the year was down by 5% on the same period last year (Ksh 691,057,338 vs Ksh 730,175,720) but up by 23% on our very conservative budget.
Expenditure was up by 4% on last year (Ksh 480,924,928 vs Ksh 459,994,335). Once we factor in KAPS’ commission, promotional items and Tax charges we have an operating surplus of Ksh 85,247,925. This is less than half what we require to complete the Visitor Centre. Hopefully we can add this to the amount carried forward from last year and create a similar cash surplus in the coming year.
REPORT ON FOCUS FOR JUNE 2026
We have managed to cut all the grass, game-viewing tracks and grade all the major roads in preparation for the high season.
The borehole pump at Hippo Pools shorted and had to be removed, we transferred a temporary pump from Oloololo to keep the tank full.
We have completed renovating the first two houses at Oloololo and will now start on three more. We have re-designed the interiors and the ranger houses will now have four rooms instead of two. The warden’s house, previously occupied by the GSU, will now accommodate the Warden and two senior NCOs.
We have renovated the kennels at Oloololo and constructed three incinerators; we have also constructed a small trough for the zebra that live in camp.
The foundations for the Visitor Centre are virtually complete. The floor slab for the main part of the building is complete, as is the slab for the cafeteria. This has been a monumental task and we now look forward to seeing things moving a lot faster.
FOCUS FOR JULY 2026
Hold Board meeting on the 17th;
Hold a staff party to celebrate 25 years in the Mara Triangle
Start on new road along the escarpment;
Possibly start on drift over the Sabaringo;
Continue with Visitor Centre;
Continue renovating houses at Oloololo; and
Install new signs;
Work on Collaboration Agreement
Continue with roads around Musiara;
Complete drift on the Ol Keju Rongai;
Complete parking area at Wardens’ offices;
Start Audit of camps and lodges in the Mara;
Start on revising Park By-Laws;
Install new signs;
Complete new water supply to Sekenani; and
Complete toilets at Simba.