July 2023

General

July was one of the driest months in the past 20 years, with only one heavy shower recorded at Serena on the 29th.  Despite the dry conditions, the migration has been very slow and weak, with a few herds crossing near Look Out and then returning to Tanzania.

The Chief Executive held several meetings with the Governor and lawyers on our Contract and retention of revenue.  We also provided the County Executive for Finance on a summary of all income and expenditure for the Financial year.

We have drafted an amendment to an existing Bill, “The Narok County Maasai Mara Community Support Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2023” that we hope will enable us to comply with the Law on retention of funds at source, and yet satisfy our concerns about control of our share of the funds collected in the Triangle.  This has been presented to the County Government, through the Governor, for review and enactment. 

H E Governor Patrick Ntutu visited the Mara on the 24th, to review progress on roads, infrastructure, anti-harassment and revenue collection.  He was very pleased with the progress and even managed to witness what goes on at a crossing.  The Governor was back in the Mara to see more projects and to celebrate World Rangers’ Day on the 31st.  The celebration was held at Mara Simba after he had visited projects at Olare Orok, Musiara and seen some of our new roads.

Collaboration Agreement

July has been a very busy month for us, with ongoing projects in several places at once.  We sent the road team off for a week at the beginning of the month and wanted to use that time to repair machinery, unfortunately it took longer to repair one grader and two tippers.  All are now working.

·   Drilled borehole at Look Out Hill.  This hole has a yield of 3,000 litres (33m) per hour.  A pump has been installed and we will complete work in early August;

·   Contracted Sasamwini to build a toilet block and staff housing at Look Out;

·   Contracted Grade A to construct a new road from Talek to Sekenani, work has started on the road;

·   Drilled boreholes at Olare Orok and Simba and installed solar pumps, both yield around 43m per hour;

·   Installed a solar pump at Keekorok and connected water to staff housing;

·   Built a toilet for staff at Talek;

·   Upgraded the road from Musiara to the Mara River and made a new circuit to Double crossing;

·   Graded Oloolaimutia to Keekorok and started grading from Musiara to Enompuai;

·   Started work on the ranger post at Olare Orok;

·   Touched up the Ol Kiombo airstrip;

·   Prepared for World Ranger Day at Simba;

·   Started installing road signs around Look Out Hill;

·   Supporting the Main Reserve with four anti-harassment vehicles.

 

Research

Drs Chris Dutton and Amanda Subaluski, together with members of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK ), spent time fitting 19 fish of different species with tracking devices.  They then set up three sets of receivers at different sites along the river from Purungat to Governors.  These receivers will then be used to monitor fish movement up and down the river to determining whether there is any migration upstream.

Tourism

The high season really kicked in by early July.  June itself was extremely busy and we virtually matched June 2019 – our peak year (7,096 NRA in June 2023 vs 7,126 in June 2019).  As always, too many tourists all chasing the best views or photographs cause a logistical and management nightmare – this year is no different.  We need to mount a campaign with tour companies and airlines on the importance of respecting wildlife and the environment.  Jonathan Scott has written about this in “Sacred Nature Safari Code of Behavior” – it should be widely circulated. 

We had one large group of 54 people that were given free entry by the County Government.  They were here for four days and took  this to mean that none of the rules applied to them.  They stayed in the Triangle until late at night; they tried to drive buffalo onto a pride of lions;  tried to wake lions up by throwing stones;  and even tried to get out of vehicles to be photographed with lions.

Our anti-harassment teams had a hard time controlling vehicles at crossings but worked hard on both sides of the river and we have definitely seen an improvement in vehicle management and driver behavior – at times there were over 150 vehicles at a crossing.

Staff

We implemented a 5% salary increase for all staff, with a few people getting a greater increase, based on their performance.

The County celebrated World Ranger Day at Mara Simba – we sent 20 rangers to join the celebration.

Wildlife        

The first herds of zebra crossed into the Triangle from Mara North on the 10th, they were met by a horde of extremely hungry crocodiles.   And several were killed at each crossing.  The wildebeest started crossing ten days later near Look Out and by month’s end we had a few herds scattered in the South Eastern corner of the Triangle.

A well known elephant that lived around Little Governors died on the 17th, she had been alone for a while before she died.

Security

A total of 26 people were arrested in July, four of them in the Triangle.  We collected 98 wire snares and found where a number of animals had been poached, these included three giraffe, two buffalo, two zebra and seven wildebeest.

The Ngiro-are rangers found where three giraffe had been snared and butchered at Limana in the Lemai Wedge on the 30th June.  They also recovered seven wire snares that had been specifically set for giraffe.

Our rangers went on a three-day patrol on the 1st, following up on a report of poachers with donkeys.  They joined forces with their TANAPA counterparts from Tabora B and set ambushes on four different routes.  The poachers walked into one of the ambushes, set by our Tanzanian counterparts and they managed to arrest one person from a group of four.  They were with four donkeys and were carrying the meat of 10 wildebeest.

The Ngiro-are rangers found where a buffalo had been poached right on the border next to Ol Donyo Olpaek.

The rangers found three snares at Lempise on the 5th, one zebra had been butchered and another was dead in a snare.  They set an ambush but no one came in.  Fifteen more wire snares were recovered on the 6th, five of them had been set for giraffe.

One person was arrested from a group of four on the 7th, they had killed a zebra.  The following day an Angama guide reported seeing a person in the Triangle near Nyumba Nane.  The rangers immediately investigated and managed to arrest four people.  They said that they had chased lions off  a buffalo and had dried meat  - 158 kg and would have left that night.  One of the poachers had been arrested twice previously – once in the same area in 2008, and then again in 2021.

The Ngiro-are rangers went on a three day patrol, starting on the 10th, they managed to arrest one person on the first day at Binamu in the Northern Serengeti.

The Ngiro-are team managed to arrest five people on the 14th and early morning of the 15th.  They arrested two people who had been fishing where one of the streams joins the Mara River – they had been there for three days and had two sacks full of dried fish.  That night they set an ambush in response to a report of poacher activity the previous night and managed to arrest three, of a group of four. They were hunting with spears and torches and were probably after buffalo. 

A total of nine wire snares were recovered on the 15th, poachers had killed and butchered a waterbuck.  It is interesting to note that there are far fewer traditional snares (ones made from the steel wire in tyers) than normal, and it would appear that the Tanzania authorities have clamped down on the manufacture of these snares.

A three-day patrol to the Northern Serengeti ending on the 19th only resulted in the arrest of one person.  Amazingly, there were no signs of poaching in the first two days.  The one person they did arrest was part of a group of seven and they had each killed a wildebeest – 10 snares were recovered.  On that same day, the 19th, there was an attack on a local village and three people were injured – Ksh 200,000 (US$ 1,400) was stolen.  We were asked to send the dogs but the whole area had been seriously contaminated by hundreds of people.

We began to see more signs of poaching in the Lemai Wedge and three people were arrested on the 21st early morning and on the 22nd – one on the 21st  and two on the 22nd, near Kasarani, seven wire snares were recovered.  Two others were arrested at Ngira, in the Northern Serengeti. 

Three more people were arrested near Maji Machafu in the Northern Serengeti on the 24th, they were part of a group of five who were on their way to hunt.  That same day the Nigro-are rangers recovered eight snares near Maji ya Bett in the Lemai Wedge.

Two more people were arrested on the 28th near Lempise in the Lemai Wedge, they were part of a group of four who had already killed two wildebeest.

One person was arrested by the Nigro-are rangers near Lempise on the early evening of the 28th.

The Iseiya team caught one person grazing his cattle illegally in the Northern Serengeti on the night of the 29th, he was arrested and his wife called to return the cattle.  On the same day the Nigro-are team recovered 25 snares and arrested one person near Lugga ya Ngiri in the Lemai Wedge.  Fourteen more snares were recovered on the 30th.

Revenue and Accounts

The County deployed nine revenue clerks in the Triangle to monitor all our ticketing, this was up from the three that had been agreed to by the Board.

Our Management accounts for the year ending June 30th are summarized below.  Our total income was up by 49% on last year, with the only donations coming from the Angama Foundation which continues to support our rhino team and pay for livestock compensation.  We managed to keep our expenditure to 24% above last year – 14% above budget.  Our staff related costs continue to take up most of the expenditure at 69% (Ksh 173,525,103 of the total Ksh 251,368,026).

Repairs and Maintenance

We have received two new Toyota Land Cruisers and an Isuzu tipper truck.  We will sell one Land Cruiser and the Tata tipper.  One land cruiser will be modified to replace the CMC Suzuki that was used to carry visitors.  We have sold the CMC Suzuki.

We completed the expanded store at Iseiya, this will be used for hardware and cement.

Completed expanding the kitchen, mess and store at the Iseiya staff camp.

We graded all the roads in the Triangle and then sent the grader across the river to help shape the new roads for Phase II.

We have virtually completed the new roads in the rhino area, the last section will be completed in early August.

Report on focus for June

Focus for August 2023

·       Complete road in the rhino area;

·       Start on new staff housing at Iseiya;

·       Possibly start on replacing asbestos roofing at Iseiya;

·       Start Annual Audit;  and

·       Receive new Cheetah vehicles;

Work on Collaboration Agreement

·       Complete Olare Orok;

·       Complete Phase II of the road network;

·       Start on toilets at Look Out;

·       Provide water to the Keekorok airstrip;

·       Possibly extend water supply to community at Mara Simba;

·       Oversee the construction of a new road from Talek to Sekenani;

·       Install additional culverts on roads constructed in Phase I;

·       Complete installing new signs;

·       Continue supporting anti-harassment;  and

·       Possibly start on improving ranger housing in Narok.