General
It was very dry until the 13th when we had sufficient rain to settle the dust, we than had some heavy storms intermittently until the end of the month. Sufficient to send the wildebeest into the main Reserve and back into the Serengeti.
The Cabinet Secretary for Tourism & Wildlife, The Honorable Najib Balala, was in the Mara for four days from the 6th, promoting the Mara through Magical Kenya. He was joined by Governor Tunai and, for two days, by Eluid Kipchoge – the World Record holder in the Marathon, and the first person to run the Marathon in under two hours. They managed to watch crossings on two days and also collared a lion near Keekorok for research.
We worked with senior County staff for three days, from the 20th to the 22nd, to revise and update the Ten-year Management Plan for the Mara. Mr Rob Maplas, the consultant who has driven the process for the past 13 years agreed to facilitate the process and update the plan. We hope that this time we will have an acceptable and workable plan. The draft Plan will be presented to the Governor on the 1st September
Collaboration Agreement
We have spent an inordinate amount of time repairing vehicles and equipment. We had constant problems with the New Holland grader, first the fuel system, and then the agents locked it. However, we did also manage to achieve a great deal during the month.
· The approach to the bridge at Sand River was repaired and the bridge is now open;
· We graded the road to Ololamutia and opened up the drainage and culverts;
· We opened the culverts between Sekenani and Keekorok and also to Mara Bridge;
· We graded the road to Talek and opened up the drainage;
· We started on the causeways over Double Crossing;
· We rehabilitated a Land Rover, serviced all the vehicles and repaired two Land Cruisers;
· We repaired the compressor and redid all the electrics in the workshops.
COVID-19.
The number of new Covid-19 cases seems to be stabilizing, for some reason the virus does not seem to be as virulent as in Europe and the US. Kenya has had a total of 34,047 cases of Covid–19 from nearly half a million tests. A total of 567 people have died - a very small fraction compared with some other countries. It would appear that the number of new cases peaked by mid-August and that the number is declining by the day. We should commend the Government for their actions in containing the virus, and Kenyans for taking it seriously.
Tourism
August had all the very worst features of any recent high season – too many vehicles at crossings, over-speeding, litter (facemasks are the new litter) – in general, a complete disregard for any of the Park Rules and regulations. With no redeeming features and next to no revenue – see Figure 1. Yet again, as we do every year, we need to sort out the crossings – the best way will be to limit the number of vehicles and charge an extra fee, at least US$ 200 per vehicle to watch a crossing.
Staff
We have a report on all our staff appraisals and this will be analyzed. We still need to work on departmental goals, individuals understanding of their roles and responsibilities and being more critical in the appraisals.
Dogs
We purchased a new Springer Spaniel puppy called Buma, immediately changed to Boom, to replace Gage with a very kind donation of US$ 1,000 from Ms Airi Yamawaki of NGO Tears of the African elephant.
Wildlife
The wildebeest moved in very large numbers on the 1st, most of them came up from the Lemai Wedge and had crossed the Mara River in Tanzania. We had good crossings along the river, but probably only a fraction of the number that had crossed downstream in Tanzania. We then had some widespread rainstorms from the 17th and within days there was not a wildebeest to be seen in the Triangle – literally from around 200,000 to none in the space of 6 days. The importance of a camp in the Wildeye site was reaffirmed this year – thousands of wildebeest crossed there and hundreds died, estimates varied from 300 to 1,000. We lost none in the same place last year.
One elephant was treated by Dr Limo and the Sheldrick/KWS veterinary team on the 12th, It had a large abscess near the tail that looked as if it had been caused by a spear. This elephant became incredibly tame and would spend hours feeding around the Iseiya Headquarters, ignoring people less than 10 meters away.
Security
A total of 24 people were arrested for poaching in August, four of them on Oloisukut in Kenya. We recovered 1,241 wire snares – 23 of them in Kenya. The rangers rescued 21 wildebeest and three zebra, 23 wildebeest and one zebra had been butchered and eight wildebeest and an impala were found dead in snares.
The rangers collected 46 wire snares on the 31st July and another 21 on the 1st. Two wildebeest had been butchered, one zebra rescued and one wildebeest was found dead in a snare.
Seventy eight snares were collected along the escarpment on the 2nd and one wildebeest rescued. The Nigro-are team set an ambush on a dead wildebeest in the snares that they found and managed to arrest two people as they, and two others, came to check.
Another 47 snares were collected on the 3rd and one wildebeest rescued. We continued collecting snares and 131 more were collected between the 4th and 6th. Four wildebeest were rescued and one was found dead in a snare.
One hippo was found butchered near the island upstream from Lemai on the 9th. That day 20 snares were recovered and two wildebeest found dead in snares. We continued to collect snares on a daily basis and 112 were collected on the 11th by both teams.
We organized a joint patrol in the Northern Serengeti with rangers from Iseiya, the Main Mara and TANAPA and they left for Bologonja early on the 11th. The patrol managed to arrest one person, from a group if seven, at Itaro that night and the following night they arrested one more near Binamu, four others escaped. They had killed five wildebeest using machetes. The team managed to arrest three more people between Maji Machafu and Ngira on the 13th, they were part of a gang of 11. The following day they came across two people using a traditional poison to kill fish along the Mara River and managed to arrest them both.
The Nigro-are rangers continued with their routine patrols in the Lemai Wedge, recovering five snares on the 12th, another 24 on the 13th and rescuing two wildebeest. The Nigro-are team then collected 106 snares on the 14th – rescuing eight wildebeest and one zebra, another three wildebeest were dead in snares. That night the rangers managed to arrest one person from a group of three.
Our Tanzanian counterparts and the Nigro-are team recovered 24 snares on the 15th, they also rescued 2 zebra. They were fired upon with poisoned arrows when rescuing the zebra, no one was injured.
We continued collecting snares daily and collected 213 between the 16th and 19th – six wildebeest were rescued and four had been butchered.
The rangers crossed the river on the 19th and patrolled between Tabora B and Wogga Kuria, that night they set an ambush and managed to arrest two people, from a group of six, they had killed six wildebeest with machetes. We continued to collect snares and 158 were collected by the Nigro-are team while the Iseiya rangers were patrolling on the other side of the river. The Iseiya team had moved, joined up with the Nigro-are rangers on the 21st, and managed to arrest three, of seven, people who were hunting near Ngira, The poachers had killed six wildebeest with machetes.
Our Oloololo rangers joined up with Anne Kent-Taylor scouts and managed to arrest four people hunting on Oloisukut on the 21st, one snare was recovered. On the same day members of the Partikilat community on the escarpment reported that five of their cattle had been caught in snares near a building site. Our Angama rangers combed the area and managed to collect 22 snares – all made with new fencing wire. They were obviously set by one of the workers on the building site.
59 more wire snares were recovered in the Lemai Wedge on the 25th, one impala was dead in a snare and one wildebeest had been butchered.
The Iseiya team managed to arrest one person near the Lemai Airstrip on the night of the 26th – he was an employee of one of the up-market camps in the Lemai Wedge. He and a companion were on their way to hunt. Twenty two wire snares were recovered, 15 more were recovered the following day and one wildebeest rescued.
The Nigro-are team joined forces with their TANAPA counterparts on the 28th and managed to arrest one person at night. A total of 102 snares were recovered that day, one zebra was rescued.
The Iseiya team, then went on a two day petrol in the Lemai Wedge from the 29th and managed to arrest three people. They left at 4.00 am on the morning of the 29th and set up an observation post. They saw a group of six enter the Wedge at 3.00pm, followed closely by a second group. They managed to arrest two people from the first group – one of them resisted arrest and tried to cut Warden Lankas, after a half-hour stand-off he was subdued. That night, at 8.00 pm, one more person was arrested and then later the second group returned, after having hunted and killing two wildebeest – unfortunately they all managed to escape. A total of 58 snares were recovered in the two days.
Revenue and Accounts
Our July revenue was 5% of last year, sufficient to run the conservancy for about three days. August will be better but will probably be less than 10% of the amount collected in the corresponding month last year. Figure 1 amply shows our share of revenue collected each month last year against our monthly collections for this year to date (August is an estimate). At our current rate of expenditure and expected income we have sufficient funds to run through December 2020.
Repairs and maintenance
Our builder who is constructing the new staff housing reported sick for August and so the building was halted, hopefully we will be able to continue in September.
We spent weeks repairing the road between Cobra Corner and Nigro-are and then graded it, just in time for some heavy storms.
We resurfaced the road down to the border and then repaired tracks into campsites.
We managed to achieve a lot in the Main Reserve but were hampered by poor machinery and a lack of support from the person in charge of equipment and roads in the County.
· The grader was out of action and so was the excavator;
· We repaired all the potholes on the Ol Kiombo airstrip – essentially caused by heavy aircraft (Dash 7 and 8) braking hard to turn off into the parking area;
· We received one more Land Cruiser for the Reserve. There should be two more remaining.
Report on focus for August
Focus for September 2020
1. Hold Board meeting on 18th;
2. Finalize Ten-year Management Plan;
3. Work on Collaboration Agreement;
o Repair the Ol Kiombo airstrip;
o Complete the causeways at Double Crossing;
o Complete repairing the road between Talek and Musiara;
o Install solar in Chief Park Warden’s house;
o Assess and repair windmills; and
o Prepare a workplan for the next tranche of money;