GENERAL
The rains continued through the first half of the month.
We held a site meeting with Void and Mwanzoni on the 7th and discussed some of our concerns about potential cost overruns and delays in construction of Visitors Centre. It was a good meeting, and I hope that we resolved some of the issues. We followed it up with a visit to timber and steel suppliers in Nairobi and then went to see samples of rammed earth. A most interesting day. A final meeting was held with them on the 27th to discuss budget and workplan, we hope that we have now agreed on a final budget.
We met with Dr Scott Miller of the Smithsonian on the 8th. Scott has vast experience in museums and gave us very important and valuable insights into the layout and displays.
We held a Board meeting on the 29th to approve the Annual Work Plan and budget. The key points in the work plan were;
The above-average rains and overdevelopment of camps almost certainly contributed to the reduction in both numbers and time that wildebeest spent in the Mara;
There are concerns about the war in the Middle East impacting tourism, at present the impact seems minimal and has been factored into the budget;
We will focus on renovating staff housing and don’t anticipate any major construction projects, apart from the ongoing Visitor Centre and possible a drift over the Sabaringo lugga;
We will replace two Land Cruisers; no other equipment or vehicles will be purchased;
We anticipate that we will have reserves of Ksh 51 million remaining at the end of the current financial year and that the County will owe approximately Ksh 80 million – this will be recovered in July/August;
We anticipate gross income to be over Ksh 662 million;
The Gross margin, after commissions, to be Ksh 561 million;
Recurrent expenditure to be Ksh 485 million;
There will be a balance of approximately Ksh 16 million at the end of next financial year, having taken into account the cost of completing the Visitor Centre, and minimizing County debt.
The Board also discussed the Collaboration Agreement, and it was agreed that our lawyers would draft anew agreement for presentation to the County.
It was noted that the Conservancy would have been operating in the Triangle for 25 years come the 12th June. We agreed to hold a celebration for staff, Board members, founders and supporters of the Conservancy on the 17th July.
COLABORATION AGREEMENT
Governor Ntutu opened the Wardens’ offices at Sekenani before visiting Talek and the Keekorok airstrip on the 8th.
We hope that we will have a new Agreement in place by the end of June this year. This will enable us to continue with the routine work that we do, as well as implement the special projects determined by the Planning Committee.
In the meantime, we completed the road between Keekorok and Ololamutia, resurfaced and graded the roads in the village of Ololamutia and then worked on the road between Simba and Talek. We have had issues with the grader and have requested a replacement from the County.
We will cabro brick the parking area at the Wardens’ offices at Sekenani.
STAFF
The Board approved a 5% salary increase for all staff; this will be implemented in July.
WILDLIFE
The areas we burnt in April attracted large numbers of Thompson’s gazelle, Topi, Zebra and even herds of wildebeest, making for excellent game viewing.
The young elephant that was treated last month with a dislocation was found dead on the 5th.
TOURISM
An article that appeared in the East and Southern African Tourism update talked about a massive decline in the number of tourists visiting the Mara since 2023 from 420,000 in 2023 to 213,000 in 2025.
https://www.tourismupdate.com/article/maasai-mara-at-a-crossroads-as-numbers-drop
When I ran some numbers on visitors to the Mara. Last year we had 68,313 paying visitors to the Triangle, up from 64,000 in 2024. If we extrapolate, given the number of beds in the Main Mara compared to the Triangle, we would expect somewhere in the region of 500,000 visitors to the Mara not the 213,000 reported for 2025.
We saw a drop in visitor numbers in April but nothing very significant. Overseas numbers were not much different from last year but citizen numbers were well down. This did not adequately explain the 36% drop in revenue between April last year and this year.
The second half of May has been very busy, probably busier than the same month last year and at looks as if June will be even busier. People who were fortunate enough to visit in May were treated to excellent weather and unparalleled game viewing. This bodes well for the high season.
SECURITY
A total of 12 poachers were caught in May, all of them in Tanzania.
Four people were arrested on the 30th April in two different operations by the Ngiro-are rangers. Two people were arrested by the Lemai airstrip during the day; they were carrying spears and were hunting hippo. One of the two was tracked and found by one of our tracker dogs. That evening two more people were arrested from a group of five who were also hunting hippo.
One hippo was found poached on the 7th and then on the 16th our Tanzanian counterparts reported that an elephant had been poached near Lugga ya Ngiri in the Lemai Wedge – the tusks and meat had been taken.
Our teams joined up with our TANAPA counterparts for a three-day patrol in the Northern Serengeti from the 23rd. They started near Tabora B and over the three days managed to arrest eight poachers in four different incidents between Serengeti Ndogo and Binamu.
REVENUE & ACCOUNTS
April revenue was well down on last year at Ksh 24,997,963 compared to Ksh 39,197,645 last year. This is somewhat surprising, given that there was little change in the number Non-Residents. Our share of the total revenue at 45% doesn’t even cover salaries, let alone other expenditure and has resulted in a significant draw down on our reserves.
REPORT ON FOCUS FOR MAY 2026
We completed the uni-hut camp for the GSU (para-military police) based at Oloololo. This frees up the Warden’s house, and we will start renovations in June.
We have repaired and graded the roads around Oloololo and also along the border, we will now concentrate on the roads to Ngiro-are and do minor repairs where necessary on the main roads.
We have started cutting game viewing tracks and have completed the Oloololo sector.
Work is now progressing well with the Visitor Centre, and we hope to have the slab poured by the end of June. Preparations for the wood works, steel and rammed earth walls are going ahead, and we hope to have the building complete in time for the high season next year.
FOCUS FOR JUNE 2026
Complete foundation for Visitor Centre;
Continue to cut game viewing tracks;
Prepare camp sites;
Maintain roads to Ngiro-are;
Construct one new drift; and
Start on renovating housing at Oloololo.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
Start on toilets at Simba;
Cabro brick parking at Sekenani;
Maintain airstrips;
Maintain roads; and
Finalize Collaboration Agreement.