General
We had a total of 1,111.87 mm (44.5”) of rain in 2023. January will go down as the wettest in recent years, with over 275 mm (>11”) at Serena. That was far less than other parts of the Mara and many places, including the escarpment, had at least double that rainfall. The whole Triangle was under water for most of the month, making any off-road travel extremely difficult. There was even severe flooding on our major roads and it will take weeks, if not months, to repair all the damage. Three vehicles drove into the Mugoro crossing when flooded and they were submerged. We had to use our heavy machinery to rescue the passengers. It became so wet that we suspended balloon flights on the 26th until the rains subsides.
The Kenya Tourism Federation has taken the County to Court over the increase in Park Fees and we await the verdict.
51o installed the LoRa network in the Main Reserve at our new repeater site and then installed it at our Iseiya offices. This is linked to Earth Ranger and will allow for real-time monitoring of vehicle and personnel movements as well as any key wildlife species that might be fitted with a device. We will build another tower and repeater site near Nyati 1 in the Triangle and this will give is excellent coverage throughout the Reserve and well into our patrol areas in the Serengeti.
We have held a series of on-line planning sessions for the Greater Serengeti Society meeting to be held in April at Mara Serena. This brings together senior personnel involved in conserving the ecosystem from both sides of the border.
Collaboration Agreement
We held a planning meeting for the next quarter’s work in the Main Reserve on the 14th. We have an extremely busy three months ahead of us and it will be difficult to complete all the projects in time. Our priorities will be:
· Complete the Sekenani to Keekorok road;
· Work in the road from Keekorok to Mara Bridge and then Olololamutia;;
· Repair damaged sections of our new roads;
· Complete the bridge over the Talek River;
· Fence and renovate the Sekenaki workshops;
· Renovate housing at Keekorok, and build one new section;
· Renovate housing at Sand River;
· Construct uni-huts at Ngararu.
We have had a number of theft issues with the Sekenani workshop, hence the urgency in erecting an electric fence and renovating the store section.
The ongoing rains have severely hampered road works and caused very considerable damage to many of the new drifts and culverts that were installed in the Main Reserve, it will take weeks to repair.
Staff
We conducted our annual staff transfers on the 15th.
Mr Samson Lenjrr reported on the 15th and will be working with the Conservancy and acting as an Advisor to Governor Ntutu. Samson is hoping to do a Doctorate at Liverpool University and we met with his potential supervisor, Dr Jacob Bro-Jorgensen on the 26th to discuss the proposed project.
Wildlife
One large bull elephant was found dead on the 16th, there were no visible wounds or signs of illness. The tusks were recovered and weighed 31.2 and 27.2 kg (68 & 60 lbs). Another elephant was found dead on the 23rd, the tusks were recovered (6 & 7 kg) and taken by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on the same day, together with the ones collected earlier in the month.
KWS trapped a leopard near Mara Simba Lodge on the 22nd. It was trapped for killing livestock and released it in the Triangle.
Kisaru, a well-known cheetah from Mara North was killed on the 21st, possibly by lions. She had a five month old cub which was rescued on the, 22nd and placed in our cheetah enclosure near Serena. We will look after the cub and hopefully return it to the wild when old enough.
Dr A Takita had a busy month; not only did she help rescue the cheetah cub; an eland bull and a zebra were treated for wounds along the escarpment, the zebra had two arrows in it. A giraffe died whilst being treated for dystocia - the removal of a calf and another giraffe was treated with a spear embedded in its flank on the 28th.
Tourism
We had a total of 171,478 visitors to the Triangle in 2023, the highest ever recorded (The previous high was in 2019 at 157,591). The breakdown is as follows:
The number of non-paying visitors visiting the Triangle was 78,180 or 43% of our Total. Non-paying visitors can be classified as those paying elsewhere – Kichwa Tembo or the Main Reserve; those in Transit or those issued with Complimentary passes.
We had a tragedy on the 10th, a client was killed in an accident on the escarpment when accessing Mara Engai. She and her husband had arrived in the afternoon with Natural World and changed into a Mara Engai vehicle at Kilo 2. The vehicle lost momentum, rolled back and then overturned, killing the lady instantly. This is the third fatal road accident in the Mara in the past year.
The above accident was not related to driver indiscipline but we have a serious problem with indiscipline and over speeding, we recorded 144 speed violations in December alone. The highest speed recorded was 97 kph, with numerous cases in the 70’s. This in a Park with a speed limit of 50 kph. We know of at least one hyena and a jackal that were killed by speeding vehicles.
We had very heavy and widespread rain on the 16/17th, cutting off sections of the Triangle. The border area, which is very heavily visited, was cut off to our small anti-harassment vehicles but accessible to larger Land Cruisers. It was extremely distressing to see the damage caused by uncontrolled driving and highlights in importance of our anti-harassment teams and a proper Code of Conduct for drivers.
We have been working with Jonathan and Angie Scott and their Sacred Nature Initiative to push for Safari Etiquette and a Code of Conduct for driver/guides. The draft Code is being reviewed by the county’s lawyer prior to be implemented. We would expect every driver/guide to sign the Code of Conduct and adhere to it when in the Mara. It is one thing for the guides to understand the need for good etiquette but they need to make their clients aware as well and we hope that they will understand the need for rules and the importance of adhering to them.
Security
There was very little sign of poaching in January and we only has one arrest .
There was a report on the 5th that a group of people were setting out to hunt hippo. The Ngiro-are team joined forces with their counterparts from Kinyangaga and set an ambush on a likely route and managed to arrest two people from the group.
Revenue and Accounts
Our Gross Margin, as shown in the Management Accounts for the first six months of this financial year was up by 20% on budget, primarily as a result of a significant increase in Park revenue (Ksh 246,299,186 against a budget of Ksh 184,192,371). Our expenditure was Ksh 174,156,076, up by 18% on budget. Overall, we had an excellent first six months, giving us a net income of Ksh 116,291,744. It is not surprising, we had the best tourism year ever and we were helped by the continuing slide in the Kenya Shilling against the US$ - From Ksh 142 in July to 157 in December. Revenue is always well down in the second half of the financial year and the indications are that the increase in Park Fees will have little effect on tourism.
Repairs and Maintenance
We have renovated and modified one of the staff houses next the our office. It will now be a Board Room, office and possibly a staff clinic.
We are adding to the Warden’s office, constructing a cell and increasing the size of our operations room.
Our road works have been severely hampered by the incessant and heavy rain and we have spent the month trying our best to keep the major roads open and motorable – a very difficult task given the amount of flooding and wash on the roads. However, we have managed to add a few culverts, open drains and repair the Sankuria bridge for the third time in as many months.
We have constructed a new toilet/shower block and Little Governors and added two more uni-huts for staff. The uni-huts have been covered.
We have built a water tower and installed a water tank for the new toilet block at Purungat. This will provide adequate pressure for the toilets once installed.
We have installed gun safes in all our outlying stations.
Report on focus for January
Focus for February
· Hold Board meeting;
· Undertake drone training for 10 rangers;
· Maintain roads;
· Work on toilets at Purungat;
· Complete offices at Iseiya; and
· Start on Wardens’ office.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Complete Keekorok to Sekenani road;
· Work on Mara Bridge to Ololamutia roads;
· Repair damaged drifts;
· Start on Sekenani workshops;
· Start on renovations at Sand River;
· Possibly start on renovations at Keekorok;
· Start on uni-huts at Ngararu;
· Start implementing Code of Conduct; and
· Prepare BQ and budget for Keekorok toilets