General
The rains stopped in early June, giving us an opportunity to repair most of the damage done to our roads. We are currently working on the worst road, the one to Kilo 2 and it should be completed in early July.
There were a series of peaceful demonstrations organized by Kenya’s youth who opposed a controversial Finance Bill being reviewed by Parliament. These culminated in Parliament passing the Bill on June 25th, and massive demonstrations across the country. The demonstrations got out of hand, culminating in storming of Parliament and the death of a number of people. The main objection to the Bill was the increase in taxation of a number of essential items – targeting the common person and the perception that poor people were being taxed to further enrich the elite. The President has declined to sign the Bill into Law and we hope that it will be taken back to the drawing board. The fundamental issues – high taxation, with little to show for it, the disparity between the rich and poor, flaunting of wealth by the elite and corruption are now highlighted and will need to be addressed. For the first time in Kenya there were no tribal or political connotations – it was the young, educated, seemingly disenfranchised youth who came together.
Collaboration Agreement.
We held several meetings with Governor Ntutu to work out priority repairs to infrastructure and roads. We have agreed to help support the County in providing fuel for critical road repairs outside the Reserve.
We had an issue with staff in the road team working in the Main Reserve. They were moonlighting – using equipment out of hours to load and carry murram to individuals and camps outside the Reserve. It took weeks of painstaking information gathering before we had sufficient evidence to remove four operators and foremen from the team on the 14th. They were collecting Ksh 10,000 per trip and dividing it out amongst themselves.
We replaced the Braithwaite water tank at Talek with a plastic 10,000 liter tank and relocated five uni-huts that had been flooded in the recent floods.
We worked on the three roads to Talek inside the Reserve. The volume of traffic is extreme, with dozens of heavy trucks servicing Talek and the camps through Sekenani every day. None of the roads can cater for such levels of traffic and they will be destroyed in no time.
We divided responsibility between ourselves and Grade A – Grade A, using County equipment were allocated the road from Talek to Musiara and from Sekenani to Oloolamutia. We worked on the roads inside the Reserve.
The concrete bridge over the Mara at Mara Bridge (Purungat) has virtually been completed and should be open by mid-July. We managed to piggy-back on the hire of a crane that Sala’s Camp was using to move containers. We used the crane for four days and recovered the Bailey Bridge that had been swept away in the May flood. We are now assessing the damage and hopefully will be able to repair it before re-installing it. There was considerable damage and it will probably take months to repair or replace all the parts..
We completed work at Ngararu. This project took longer than anticipated, was very difficult to administer – especially through the rains – and we are delighted to have completed it.
We have very nearly completed a block of five self-contained rooms for staff at Keekorok – they now want us to demolish three other blocks and build another, new one. We had built on a half constructed building for our own people working in the Reserve – this has now been commandeered for Wardens.
We connected water between Purungat and the ranger post across the river. The pileline had been destroyed when the bridge was swept away.
Mr A Nabala, the Administrator in the Main Reserve, locked our staff out of the workshops at Sekenani on the 27t,h and then set unacceptable conditions on us. This has been resolved for the time being.
Staff
We sent four members of senior staff on a course set up by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) on how to deal with disciplinary issues in the work place.
Mr Simon Matara was implicated in the misuse of County machines for personal gain in the Main Reserve and dismissed. He has made it into a political issue and we wait to see what happens next.
Wildlife
One elephant was found dead on the 19th, it had been dead for several weeks. One tusk was recovered.
Dogs
Shakaria was retired after giving birth to one surviving puppy. We have ordered four puppies from Lolomarik Farm and they will be available in July.
Tourism
The high season seems to have started early, it started picking up in late May and the Reserve was very busy throughout most of June. It created a number of logistical problems:
1. The campsites were in use before they had dried out sufficiently;
2. The Government agency responsible for the shortest route into the Triangle were slow in repairing the road from Ololunga, through Lemek and Aitong
3. Road traffic were unable to traverse through Keekorok and Mara Bridge, instead the majority used Sekenani, Talek, Musiara to Oloololo;
4. The roads were still being worked on inside the Reserve and not fully ready for the high season
5. We hadn’t managed to complete our burning program.
There was a directive that private cars would not be allowed into the Reserve, this has been quietly forgotten and there are currently no restrictions on private cars. The 10-year Management Plan talks of restricting two-wheel drive cars in the Low Use Zone, that will probably be implemented.
There was one other, slightly confusing, directive on clients flying on balloons who are not staying inside the Reserve. They were exempted from paying Park Fees – this needs further explanation and clarification before we implement it.
Security
Fifteen wire snares were recovered on the 2nd along the escarpment in Tanzania.
Charlie 5, one of our community scouts was severely beaten by members of the local community for reporting on illegal grazing – four people were subsequently arrested.
One person was arrested for stealing two goats at Kirindon, he was from the local community.
We set up an Observation Post along the border at the beginning of the month and on the 5th our rangers reported a large gang approaching the border. They were followed by a joint team from Iseiya and Ngiro-are and four people were arrested, but not before they had killed four buffalo near Nyati 1, in the Triangle. Sadly, those that escaped avoided an ambush set for them.
Two people were arrested by the Ngiro-are team near Lemai on the 8th and then on the 15th eight people were arrested along the escarpment – apparently they were looking for gold. They were taken to Lolgorien Police Station and charged with trespass.
The Iseiya team collected 11 wire snares on the 17th near Konyoike, the Tanzanian side of the boundary. That evening the Ngiro-are team arrested one person who was fishing in the Serengeti near Lemai. The following day a hippo was found butchered near Mlima Hotel in the Lemai Wedge. That night the Ngiro-are team set and ambush and managed to arrest three people.
The Ngiro-are team co0llected 10 snares on the 19th and then that night our Observation Point (OP) managed to see six people approach, but they disappeared into the swamp. The following night our combined teams set up an ambush and managed to arrest three of them, they had been hiding in the swamp all day but had managed to kill a buffalo calf and three Thompson’s gazelle the night before.
Revenue and Accounts
We are ready to implement the new Park Fees on the first of June, KAPS will hve the system in place by Monday morning the 1st of July.
Our management accounts for the first 11 months of the year showed that our income is up by 46% on. Expenditure was up by 25% on budget. The fluctuation in the Kenya shilling has made it difficult to predict. It devalued to Ksh 161 to the US$ before rallying to Ksh 128. We don’t know whether the recent unrest will have any impact but the consensus is that it is overvalued.
Repairs and Maintenance
We graded the road from Serena to Purungat. We then patched and graded the road to Ngiro-are via the salt-lick and then concentrated on the badly damaged road via Kilo 2. This is now motorable.
We patched the worst sections of new roads with murram.
We gave up on trying to repair that generator at Purungat and decided to go solar. This has now been installed and the borehole is functioning well, but only after we installed a new pump as well.
Our big project this month has been to get a bridge that links up to the Main Reserve. Work is progressing well and we should have the concrete bridge open by Mid-July.
Report on focus for June
Focus for July
· Work on the new roads;
· Hold Board meeting on the 1st;
· Purchase vehicles; and
· Complete bridge at Purungat.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Complete the block at Keekorok;
· Meet to plan for the next quarter;
· Repair roads to Mara Bridge and Oloolamutia from Keekorok;
· Patch up new roads;
· Possibly start on new block at Keekorok;
· Possibly start on borehole at Sekenani;
· Work on proposal for donore;
· Repair road equipment; and
· Continue with fuel for County.