General
The rains continued into February with some heavy storms through the middle of the Reserve in the first half of the month. We then had a few days of sunshine before the rains returned with a vengeance. In total we had 117 mm (4.6”) at Serena, other parts of the Reserve had far more rain.
We managed to burn a few sections of the Triangle in the short window with no rain, The area around Oloololo burnt well – this had not been burnt for over 20 years and there was a lot of old, rank grass.
Collaboration Agreement
We have completely resurfaced the road between Sekenani and Keekorok, a major task given the rains and the volume of traffic. This road is now in better condition than it has ever been, but over-speeding and the volume of traffic will ruin it in no time.
We have graded the road between Keekorok and Mara Bridge and will resurface the first section as far as the Ashnil turnoff. We are currently working on the roads to Ololomaitua and Sand River.
Work at Sand River is progressing well and we should complete rehabilitating all six houses by the end of March. We have decided that the old borehole is slowly filling with silt and will drill a new hole and put in a solar pump. We have already installed solar power at the gate and completed two houses.
We have erected an electric fence around the workshops at Sekenani and now lock the gates at lunchtime and after work – no one is allowed in during those times. We have put in a new roof over the store section and made space for a proper store room and office. Vehicles that were not working for months have finally been fixed and all the heavy machinery is working.
The team working on the paramilitary camp at Ngararu in Trans Mara have leveled the ground, erected 20 uni-huts and are working on covering the huts. As much as possible, we are using local suppliers and equipment to give business to locals and cut down on transport costs. There has been a flare up of insecurity and clashes over a land dispute between to Maasai Clans – several people have been injured and killed in these incidents.
We are repairing two drifts on the Ol Keju Rongai river and will do minor repairs to the roads, they have held up remarkably well, given the amount of rain. We have contracted work out on the drifts at Double Crossing, these have been damaged several times in these recent rains.
Work on the bridge over the Talek has been delayed by the constant rain, the pillars supporting the bridge itself are in good condition but one approach was completely washed away.
Staff
Our staff received additional training on Occupational Safety and Health for four days by the Ministry of Labor, who also did an audit to check on compliance.
We sent 10 rangers to the Mara Elephant Project for a week to undertake training in flying drones.
We held a party on the 29th to thank staff for all their hard work last year and to wish all the best to two staff, Joseph Konchella and Joseph Kipteng, who are retiring.
Wildlife
A giraffe was treated for an arrow wound on the 13th by Dr Njoroge from the KWS/Sheldrick vet team, assisted by Dr A Takita. On the same day Dr Njoroge treated two elephant with spear wounds, one on Siana and one near Talek. One elephant was speared to death in the Nyakweri forest at around the same time.
There was a social media storm over the apparent killing of two well-known lions in the Main Reserve.
The cheetah cub rescued last month is doing well, we are trying to keep it as wild as possible and will increase the size of the compound by around one hectare in March. Risasi, appears to have had cubs, they are still hidden.
Dr Takita removed a snare from a juvenile hyena in the Main Reserve on the 28th. The animal was emaciated and the snare wound had cut deep into its neck, unfortunately it died the following night.
Tourism
The first half of February was extremely busy but we expect March to June to follow the normal pattern and visitor number to drop off.
The new camp being constructed opposite our Kiboko campsite has made our site unusable and we have found a new site downstream and will close Kiboko. This is the third time that one of our campsites has been rendered unusable by the construction of a new site on the opposite bank.
The Board has agreed that the Wildeye site should be put to Tender as a seasonal campsite, open only between July and November. We will start the process and the Tender should be awarded for the 2026 season.
Security
We arrested four people during the month.
We were beginning to see the odd hippo killed with one on the 2nd and another on the 9th. We know of at least five that were recently poached in the Lemai Wedge.
The Ngiro-are team arrested one person in the Lemai Wedge on the 5th and then on the 9th, at 4.00 am one of our remote cameras recorded two people who appeared to be hunting hippo near Daraja la Mzee in the Lemai Wedge. Our patrol didn’t manage to catch up with them but the Ngiro-are rangers managed to arrest two people near the Lemai airstrip – they were also hunting hippo.
We continued to get reports of people hunting in the Lemai Wedge and another hippo carcass was found on the 18th, the problem was difficulty in moving around after the rains. However, one person was arrested on the 24th by the Ngiro-are rangers.
Revenue and Accounts
The new Park rates appear not to have any impact on visitor numbers, and hence revenue. In fact, we have more overseas visitors in January than ever before (6,098 vs 4,885 in 2020). The trend continued into February and we can expect this to be a record month as well.
Repairs and Maintenance
We have graded and patched the most heavily used roads between Oloololo and Purungat, and will now concentrate on the roads to Ngiro-are. They have been badly damaged by the heavy and constant rain, not helped by the six-wheeler vehicles used by Mara Engai.
Digital Radio Systems (DRS) and 51o have installed a mast at Nyati 1to service Earth Ranger and the LoRa system being rolled out in the Mara. We need to install a repeater and possibly a Safaricom booster so that we can get network at Ngiro-are.
The toilet block at Mara Bridge is progressing well and we hope will be useable in time for Easter. We are using this opportunity to re-roof the gatehouse but, in time would like to design and build a completely new gate.
We have re-roofed and extended to Wardens’ office at Iseiya, to accommodate the monitoring system being set up by 51o
One of the staff houses was completely refurbished into an office for the mapping team. We also have provided for a possible staff clinic and Board room.
We have had a problem with the new solar borehole pump at Oloololo, it has just been repaired.
Report on focus for January
Focus for March
· Create new game viewing roads;
· Continue maintain roads;
· Complete Warden’s offices;
· Complete toilet block at Purungat;
· Complete re-roofing the gate house at Purungat; and
· Possibly fence the boreholes at Oloololo and Little Governors.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Complete repairs to Ololaimutia and Mara Bridge;
· Repair drifts at Double Crossing and on the Ol Keju Rongai;
· Grade road between Mara Simba and Talek;
· Complete renovations at Sand River;
· Complete renovations at the Sekenani workshop;
· Start renovations at the Keekorok staff quarters;
· Continue work at Ngararu; and
· Try and complete Talek Bridge.