General
Two weeks of dry weather from the 10th was very welcome. The rains returned with a vengeance on the 23rd but, at least the dry period enabled us to catch up on road repairs to Ngiro-are – very much needed as it had been too wet to work on since December. One exceptionally violent storm knocked down two trees at Ngiro-are – these storms have been a characteristic of the rains this year so far.
We managed to burn a few areas in the short dry spell, the grass was very green and so it was a very cool burn.
We were visited by a team of Narok County Government officers and MCAs ( Members of the County Assembly) from the 13th. They were members of the County Assembly Committee for Tourism, Wildlife and Culture, and they visited work on both sides of the river. They were on the whole impressed by the developments in the whole Reserve but we could not get away without some political sniping from one or two of the MCAs. Essentially, they felt we should be: involving them more in decision making; doing more for the communities; and employing “their” people.
Governor Samuel Tunai lost his mother, our sincere condolences to him. Mr Tunai was the first Governor of Narok, was a founder of the Mara Conservancy and has always been a strong supporter of ours.
Collaboration Agreement
The road team took 10 days off from the 8th, leaving two graders working on the roads from Keekorok to Ololamutia and Sand River.
We have completed re-roofing the houses at Sand River, provided solar power and sorted out the plumbing on most have the houses. We have also renovated the toilets at the gate. Work should be completed in early April.
The Sekenani workshops have been renovated and the stores are now fully functional. Mains power was increased to three phase and the compressor now works, for the first time in many years. We still have a problem in maintaining our heavy machinery, major breakages are all too common. The Reserve management have not received fuel for four months and there is increasing pressure for us to provide fuel – on top of everything else we do.
The solar pump at Talek stopped working, bees had built a hive in the switchgear and it had to be replaced. It is now working.
We have completed one line of housing at Ngararu and will complete the second line in April. We have ordered two additional uni-huts and one steel house for the officer in charge and will also build a kitchen/mess area, as well as new toilets and showers. We have drilled a bore-hole and it should be operational in April – with a solar pump and header tank.
Grade A have started work again on the Talek bridge and we hope that it will be complete in early April. They have also completed repairs to the drifts at Double crossing and the two that were damaged on the Ol Keju Rongai in the Reserve.
Staff
One or two of our staff have waged a media war against the Conservancy, and in particular the Administrator, in retaliation for disciplinary action taken against them. These allegations of selective punishment and tribalism are totally unfounded but unpleasant.
A Seiya tractor driver was dismissed for theft of fuel – 80 liters were discovered hidden in plastic containers after refueling. He was directly implicated, but we are still investigating collusion with other Conservancy staff.
Joseph Naiminda, our mapping expert attended a four-day meeting on SMART in Namibia. It was attended by over 300 people from across the World and part of the meeting discussed integrating SMART with Earth Ranger – the system being pushed for the Mara and currently being used by the Mara Elephant Project . Earth Ranger will enable us to track movement in real time and tags have already been fitted in the rhino that were recently darted.
Wildlife
The multi-sectoral rhino notching and tagging exercise headed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) ended on the 12th, with 13 rhino tagged. We paid for the drugs, ranger allowances and contributed 40 hours of flying in the bat-hawk.
We saw seven different cheetah throughout the month. An issue of great concern is that six of the cheetah were males. On the 17thone young cheetah was found dead on our side of the river opposite Entim, Was it the last of Risasi’s cubs?
A new-born buffalo was being attacked by lions on the 20th and the mother took out her aggression on one of our new Suzuki Jimny’s. She punctured the radiators and broke the front grill. The vehicles are so new that there are no spares available.
Tourism
Tourist numbers have begun to drop after a record January/February. This is normal and numbers will be down through May. Hopefully it will give some of the heavily visited areas a chance to recover. It’s unfortunate, but the reality is that, the more visitors we have, the more restrictive and controlling we have to be. We have now closed the border area to off-road driving because of the number of vehicles using that area – you can see lions, leopard and cheetah within a very small area. The area became a magnet for every vehicle in the Mara and it was being trashed by irresponsible behavior.
Security
A total of nine poachers were arrested in March, all of them in the Northern Serengeti. The rangers also managed to recover 43 wire snares.
We arranged for three nights of ambushes in the Lemai Wedge and were successful on the 4th, when two groups of poachers came in. The Iseiya team managed to arrest one person from a group of four near Watu Kumi and the Ngiro-are rangers managed four, from six, near the escarpment. Both groups were hunting with dogs and torches but had not killed anything.
A total of 35 wire snares were collected in the Lemai Wedge on the 7th and another five found four days later.
We received a report of a giraffe killed near Miungu and we set an ambush. Two people were seen at 5.00 am but both managed to escape but dropped one Thompson’s gazelle.
The Iseiya team went on a three-day patrol into the Northern Serengeti on the 20th. They saw three people on the first day but all three crossed the river and disappeared. However, the Ngiro-are rangers managed to arrest one person on the same day in the Lemai Wedge. The Iseiya team managed to arrest three people near Serengeti Ndogo on the 22nd, they also managed to recover eight wire snares.
Revenue and Accounts
The Kenya Shilling appreciated and was trading at 142 to the US$ by the end of February compared to 160 a month before. It continues to appreciate and is currently at around 131. So, despite having another record month (we had more clients in February than any other corresponding month – 10,386, of which 6,905 were Non-resident adults. The previous high for February was in 2019 – 8,602 of which 4,705 were non-resident), we actually received less revenue – converted to Kenya Shillings - than for January, because of the appreciation.
Repairs and Maintenance
We have shaped a series of new roads between the main road and the Tanzanian Border in the hope that we can reduce off-road driving. This area has had the best game viewing these past few months and has been severely damaged by the number of vehicles visiting there every day.
We have been working on the road to Ngiro-are and managed to repair the worst damage before the rains returned, but the road is still in a terrible state. We have also managed to grade and repair the major roads between Iseiya and Purungat.
We replaced the roof at the Purungat gate house, it looks much neater now. The new toilets at Purungat have been completed and are operational.
We have completed the extension and renovations to the Wardens’ offices at Iseiya, we now have a dedicated Operations Room.
We flushed out the Oloololo borehole and replaced the pump. We also flushed out the Purungat borehole and serviced the pump.
We contributed 519 liters of diesel to the repair of the Kawai/Lolgorien road. This road was in appalling condition, it is at least motorable now.
Report on focus for March
Focus for April
· Hold Greater Serengeti Society meeting 5-7th;
· Hold Board meeting on 19th;
· Continue with road repairs;
· Start surfacing new roads with murram;
· Order repeater for Lone Tree; and
· Explore means of extending network to Ngiro-are .
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Hold a planning meeting for the next quarter;
· We should complete the renovations at Sand River;
· We will grade the roads to Talek;
· Complete the Talek Bridge;
· Start renovations at Keekorok;
· Start repairing new roads;
· Complete work at Nagararu; and
· Order mast for new Ops Room at Keekorok.