General
We have had reasonable rain (>110 mm), with green grass throughout the Triangle and the western portion of the Main Reserve. However, much of Narok County is still suffering from a severe drought. The situation is even more dire in other parts of Kenya, especially Kajiado, Central and Northern Kenya. Tens of thousands of livestock have already died, as have numerous wildlife, and many people have lost up to 90% of their cattle herd. We should raise the alarm over the state of the Mara River – it is extremely low, and we may have up to six weeks of dry weather ahead of us. These very low river levels are now a regular occurrence but this may be the worst yet.
I met with senior management of A&K on the first to strategize on upgrading the entrance gates and building a Visitor Centre. It was an excellent meeting and we have all decided on a an international design competition. We will work on a design for Oloololo Gate, but one that can be replicated throughout the Mara and expect to have a design within six months.
The County Government presented the 10 Year Management Plan to the Assembly from the 6th in Naivasha – 15 years after we started the process in 2007. The Plan, together with an Ecosystem and a Spatial Plan have all been adopted and gone through a process of Public Participation. This is a major milestone and all credit to the Governor for achieving it.
We held our Board meeting in the Mara on the 17th and welcomed Mr Nigel Shaw onto the Board.
Collaboration Agreement
We have installed a solar borehole pump in Talek and have contracted a plumber to connect water to the Warden’s and ranger housing.
We have paid a deposit on a drill rig and will start drilling for water at Keekorok on the 1st March. This will hopefully sort out a perennial water problem for County staff housed at Keekorok.
We have completed work at Osero Sopia. They now have adequate housing for 16 staff, running water and two toilet/shower blocks. They also have an office, kitchen and mess area. We also installed a barrier and simple gatehouse at the Reserve entrance.
We have provided assistance to the County to complete the Ten-Year Management Plan (including paying Ksh 120,000 towards the orienting od 360 draft copies of the Plan), this has now been ratified and should be Gazetted in early March. This is a major milestone and a great credit to the Governor – it is 15 years since we started the process and he managed to get it approved at all the required levels within two months. We made contact with Mr Rob Malpas who was instrumental in drawing up the Mara Management Plan. He assisted is in making the final edits and will probably help in drawing up a detailed three-year Action Plan.
We will now move to the Ranger Post next to Mara Simba and start the rehabilitation process in early March.
We held a Planning meeting on the 2nd to decide which were the most important game viewing tracks to upgrade into roads. The County Government has since loaned us two graders, three tipper trucks, two excavators, two shovels and two compacting rollers to expedite this work. Some of the equipment was faulty but we have managed to achieve a great deal in one week – some of the equipment will remain, the rest will leave at the end of March.
Research
Below are extracts from correspondence with Drs Amanda Subaluski and Chris Dutton who have been studying the River ecosystem for the past ten years.
“River discharge has been low throughout this year, and it has fallen exceedingly low throughout the month of February. By 15 Feb. discharge levels at Purungat Bridge had fallen below 1 m3/sec, and they have remained below that value for the last 13 days.
These declines in discharge are leading to significant declines in water quality. For the entire month (February), dissolved oxygen (DO) has been reaching 0% in the evening at the Purungat Bridge (when there is no photosynthesis). During the day, DO fluctuates between 0% and 160% saturation, indicating large algal blooms in the river. For the last week, DO has remained at 0% saturation during both day and night. The whole river is now hypoxic-anoxic, which is lethal for many forms of aquatic life.
These low DO levels create reducing conditions in the river which enables the formation of reduced compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, which are also toxic to fish. These conditions also result in more methane and carbon dioxide in the water column and more gases being emitted to the atmosphere from the river. Increasing concentration of nutrients and reduced compounds are evident in the specific conductivity values for the river, which have nearly doubled over the last month.
There have likely already been fish kills in the region, or there will be soon, after the first rain when all these reduced compounds are mobilized into the water column and washed downstream into the current fish refugia.”
Tourism
The early part of February was busy with overseas tourists, many of them retirees. Numbers have tailed off as we head into the low season.
Staff
Nature Kenya gave a talk to our rangers on the 19th about the poisoning of vultures and what to look out for. All vulture species are now critically endangered – largely as a result of poisoning.
Wildlife
The single lioness remaining from the Oloololo pride lost three of her four cubs to a male. This used to be a very healthy pride until the area was invaded by males from near Musiara. They wreaked havoc and drove most of the pride onto Oloisukut Conservancy. There one, probably two of the lionesses were killed in retaliation for killing cattle.
The Narok County Government have really clamped down on illegal grazing in the main Reserve, but it still occurs, albeit at a very reduced level. This illegal grazing has had a huge impact on wildlife, in particular lions. Prides have been displaced and numerous lions killed. In an incident during February a herder speared a large male and was in turn mauled on the arm. The lion was treated and the herder taken to Tenwek hospital.
One young elephant with a bad limp was darted on the 21st, there was little that could be done as it looked like a dislocation and untreatable.
Security
A total of 22 people were arrested in February for poaching – all in Tanzania. The rangers recovered 85 wire snares and found where 11 zebra, 13 Impala, four topi, three buffalo, two giraffe and a warthog had been killed. Most of it was in the form of dried meat and nearly all was recovered from poachers. One elephant was found shot dead in the Northern Serengeti – the rangers at Tabora B were informed.
Our rangers found 10 wire snares near Saiyari Camp in the Northern Serengeti on the 2nd, one zebra was dead in a snare. They were unable to locate a poachers’ camp and returned the following day. They managed to find the camp and arrest five people from a group of ten. The poachers had killed one warthog. It was decided that the remaining poachers could not have gone far and an ambush was set that evening – four more people were arrested soon after dark.
We resumed patrolling in the Northern Serengeti after a break of two weeks, during which we concentrated on the Triangle – without any signs of poaching. On the 17th the Iseiya team patrolled towards the Wogga Kuria hills and found two people carrying zebra meat at 10.00 am. Both were arrested. They continued their patrol and found a freshly killed elephant, with five bullet holes about 300 meters off a main road, it was a large bull with one broken tusk – the rangers at Tabora B were informed. The same night our rangers managed to arrest three more people with 15 wire snares and carrying zebra meat. There were reports of large numbers of zebra being killed by poachers from Loliondo – all quite close to Duma Camp along the eastern boundary of the Serengeti. The poachers then hire Maasai donkeys to carry out the meat.
The rangers set an ambush on the 19th near Maji Machafu in the Northern Serengeti and managed to arrest one person. He and two others were hunting with dogs and had not killed anything.
The Iseiya rangers then went on a two-day patrol towards Bologonja and Tabora B in the Northern Serengeti on the 22nd. They saw nothing the first night but managed to locate a poachers’ camp the next day in a place called Mkanda Dhahabu. They managed to arrest two people, one escaped. The poachers had killed two giraffe, one of them was fresh, the other had been killed a few days previously and the meat was drying. One of the poachers had been arrested by our rangers in 2017 – in the same area. They had 60 wire snares with them. That night the rangers set another ambush and managed to arrest four more people along the headwaters of the Grumetti River near Klein’s Camp. There were 12 poachers in all and they were ferrying dried meat with eight donkeys; all the donkeys were impounded. They had killed eight zebra, 13 impala and four topi. They had been there for several days and even had a 8 watt solar panel to charge phones.
We were receiving reports of a group of poachers who came down the escarpment to hunt buffalo along the boundary with Tanzania. The Nigro-are team were tasked to set ambushes and managed to arrest one person on the 25th near Konyioke – just across the border. There were only two people who specialized in immobilizing buffalo by slashing a hamstring – they had managed to cut one animal before the arrest. We subsequently found where two other buffalo had been killed and butchered.
Revenue and Accounts
January Revenue was on par with 2019 and we expect February to be the same, or slightly higher and all the indications are that 2023 will be a bumper year.
The Kenya Shilling continues to slowly decline in value, helping us as most of our revenue is in US$.
Repairs and Maintenance
We diverted the river, so that we have a slight flow past the hippo pool. It has recently stopped flowing past the hippo pool when water levels are extremely low. The river went even lower and the flow stopped again.
We shored up the river bank at the hippo pool with gabions, part of the bank had eroded away.
We patched up all the major roads and graded most of them.
We have graded two new roads – one in the rhino area and one along Maji Machafu. Both areas are very heavily utilized, with multiple tracks. We hope that this will limit tracking. It will take some time for the road team to complete surfacing these roads with murram.
We have renovated the kitchen at Oloololo. It now has better ventilation and the walls and floor have now been tiled.
We created a new partition for the sniffer dogs at Oloololo.
We managed to burn one block between the river road and Egyptian Goose, the recent rain should help with fresh grass growth.
We cut a number of the most commonly game viewing tracks.
Report on focus for February
Focus for March 2023
· Resolve contractual issues with the County;
· Develop a three-year work plan in line with the Management Plan;
· Continue murraming the new roads, weather permitting;
· Install culverts;
· Repair drifts;
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Continue with road works – weather permitting;
· Hire a 10,000 Litre fuel bowser for a month to supply fuel;
· Connect water to ranger housing and the gate at Talek;
· Drill a borehole at Keekorok;
· Start work at Mara Simba;
· Continue to maintain vehicles and equipment;
· Possibly receive radio equipment.