General
The rains continued until the 10th, flooding several areas, before the rains disappeared for ten days before returning with heavy storms causing extensive flooding. We had 175 mm of rain at the Serena airstrip, bringing our total for the year so far to over 750 mm (30”). The Mara has been fortunate with the amount of rain but many parts of Northern and Eastern Kenya will be facing a very severe drought and we can anticipate massive livestock losses, possibly even wildlife losses - especially animals like buffalo. It is likely that we will see food shortages and the war in Ukraine will probably compound the situation. We are already seeing a spike in commodity and food prices, some of which can be attributed to the war.
M/s Nicholas & Co completed their Audit on Internal Control Systems relating to revenue collection. It was an excellent report that highlighted a number of areas requiring improvement. Some of the points included:
· Vehicles are manually exited from the system resulting in many vehicles not being exited at all;
· The system does not automatically charge for a late exit;
· Some visitors are not ticketed at the point of entry and may be ticketed later at the Serena airstrip;
· There is inconsistent data on traversing vehicles;
· No ticketing at Little Governors. This was stopped during Covid;
· The vehicle registration cameras do not work.
Other points that were raised included:
· Annual stickers not in the KAPS system
· Balloon landing fees not captured in the system;
· Failure to maintain a system’s downtime log;
· Lack of Standard Operating Procedures;
· Inadequate separation of duties between Alpha Scouts and KAPS Revenue Clerks.
We held a follow up meeting on the 12th, with the Auditors, KAPS management and ourselves to discuss the way forward. Most of the recommendations have been adopted and are being implemented.
The campaign season has started in earnest and, as usual the Mara Conservancy has been in the crosshairs. It didn’t help that the County Government decided to extend our Management Agreement and combined it with trying to pass the 10 Year Management Plan for the whole Mara. The politicians had a field day trying to say that a “Private Company” was being given the Mara on a 35 year lease!!
Collaboration Agreement
We have completed the work we set out to do in the past three months. This included our work at Oloolaimutia and on the roads. We have tried, unsuccessfully, to hold a meeting with senior County staff on our work programme for the next months – the meetings have been postponed on at least four occasions. It is important that we hold this meeting as it will deal with the next phase of our work, some of it touching on enforcement of the rules. We had hoped that we would have this in place before the high season.
COVID-19
There has been an increase in the positivity rate, it was around 1-2% for much of May, but has recently risen to over 3%. Everyone had become very complacent about Covid in Kenya. Most people had stopped wearing masks and no longer saw the point in vaccinating. The Government is now advocating the use of masks in public places. We have now had 324,976 positive cases and 5,651 deaths.
Tourism
A Kichwa Tembo driver drove into one of our Suzukis on the 20th, the second such incident by the same company in the past few months. We are definitely beginning to see a resurgence in tourist numbers and with it all the issues relating to managing and controlling vehicles around key sightings.
Our burnt area is a magnet for wildlife, with large herds of buffalo, zebra, eland and topi; this in turn has drawn in numerous lions and both leopard and cheetah have been sighted on a regular basis. The wet conditions have meant that tracks have been destroyed and any off-road driving has led to the grass being churned up and new ruts created. We have seen a large number of vehicles coming across from the Main Reserve and our anti-harassment teams have had their work cut out – and it’s not even high season.
It is unfortunate that training given to our resident guides focuses so much on the ecology and behavior of wild animals, customer care, pleasing the client at all costs and not on the importance of protecting and conserving the environment and wildlife. It is amazing how often the best trained guides are happy to break the rules if they feel that no one is watching. We have had at least two recent incidents in which supposedly well trained and responsible guides have knowingly broken the rules and then played the client card. Apparently the clients must not be inconvenienced, even if a guide breaks the rules!
Staff
Twelve recruits completed their paramilitary training at Manyani and passed out on the 5th. Mr J Kinanta was awarded a prize for best recruit in academics – well done.
We held Occupational Health & Safety training for staff from the 16th for five days. The training was very well received and we have established committees to deal with health and safety issues.
Kipas Sairowa lost his son, aged 19 after a long illness. Our commiserations to him and the family.
Wildlife
A giraffe was treated with an old spear wound on the escarpment.
We believe that a cheetah has cubs near the border and suspect that she gave birth around the middle of the month. We also have a leopard with new cubs. Neither sets of cubs have been found but they are in an area with significant competition from other predators.
Security
A total of 13 people were arrested for poaching, four of them had killed a hippo in the Triangle. At least one hippo, one buffalo and five impala are known to have been killed.
Two people were arrested by the Nigro-are rangers on the 3rd, between 3-4 am, after the rangers were directed into position by our Iseiya rangers. The Iseiya rangers were on a routine ambush when they saw torches near Konyoike – too far away for the Iseiya team. The Nigro-are team were alerted and managed to arrest the two as they returned from a night’s hunting. One of the two would not have been caught if it were not for Shakaria our tracker dog.
Our remote camera at Elengata Ol Tarboi was stolen on the 5th, a poacher deliberately looked for the camera, obviously he suspected one was there as he was recorded by the camera as he searched, found it and took it. It continued transmitting for several hours.
Our dogs are really coming into their own and Morani was instrumental in another arrest on the 9th . One of the remote cameras captured five poachers at 3.30 in the morning. The rangers were mobilized and in position at dawn. Morani followed the tracks for several kilometers and our teams managed to arrest four people who were on their way to hunt hippo along the Mara River, near Kogatende.
A routine patrol found where a buffalo had been speared and butchered at Ol Donyo Ol Paek, a few hundred meters inside the Triangle, in the 12th.
The rangers repaired the Kogatende causeway sufficiently for them to cross on the 22nd and that evening set up an ambush at Ngira. They observed five people cross the river downstream from their position soon after dark, and then as the poachers hunted with torches until around midnight. The poachers then came back to the river and waited on the opposite bank until around 4.00 am. They then crossed and our rangers managed to arrest three people – they had killed five impala.
A routine patrol along the BBC Lugga and Nyumba Nane in the Triangle on the 24th came across a hippo that had obviously been poached and butchered. The poachers’ camp had recently been vacated and an ambush was set along the escarpment. That night seven people walked into the ambush and four of them were arrested. They admitted that they were the group that had killed the hippo and were carrying the meat when apprehended.
Revenue and Accounts
We continue to see a significant improvement in visitor numbers over the same period last year, but until May, we were still some way off 2019 and our revenue was around 68-70% of pre-Covid levels. However, this month could possibly be our best May ever. It we can maintain these levels we should break even this year without any donor support. We certainly would never have managed without Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS) and their incredible support over the past two years. We will have to monitor the situation very closely and be prepared to make cuts if necessary. There is a resurgence of Covid in some countries, the war in Ukraine may impact travel and we hope that the elections in August will go smoothly.
The Management Accounts for the first 10 months of the financial year show that we increased income by 83% over budget and expenditure by 14% over budget. Park fees were up by 63% (from a budget of Ksh 81 million to 133 million). More importantly our share of park fees went up from Ksh 35million over the same period last year to Ksh 133 million. I can not overemphasize the role that Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS) have played in supporting the Conservancy. Without their support we would have had to either make very significant cuts, or even close down. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable role played by Dr George Powell, for his contacts and his support.
Repairs and maintenance
Our maintenance teams have been very busy working in the main Mara and little was done in the Triangle. However, we will bring back the teams at the beginning of June to ensure that everything is ready for the high season.
We graded the main road to Mara Bridge as well as the road along the river to Oloololo. We had heavy rain on the roads soon after grading and they were slightly damaged as a result.
Collaboration agreement
We have completed renovating three houses at Oloolaimutia, they were is a terrible state. We have connected water, rewired all the buildings, fixed major cracks, replaced all the ceilings and broken windows and repainted them all. We have also replaced the roof on one building and repaired the others.
Our big project at Oloolaimutia was to repair the water system. It entailed replacing 3.8 km of pipe, cleaning out the source and connecting water to the gate and to six houses. There had been no water in the houses for about 20 years.
We patched all the potholes on the road from Keekorok to Oloolaimutia and worked on the roads to Ashnil and between Keekorok and Talek. Both were in very poor condition. We found the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) working on the road to Talek, but all they were doing was grading drainage ditches. We used our grader to grade the road to Ashnil.
We continue to maintain vehicles in the Main Reserve, difficult -as these vehicles are treated very badly and we are having to do major repairs to keep them going. The County grader and tipper both had mechanical issues and the grader was out of action for most of the month. It has now been repaired and we have used it to grade the road from Keekorok to Mara Bridge.
Report on focus for May
Focus for June 2022
· Hold Board meeting on the 17th;
· Repair roads to Nigro-are; and
· Possibly cut grass tracks;
· Host the CEO of WPS on the 30th;
· Prepare campsites; and
· Implement Audit recommendations on revenue.
Work on Collaboration Agreement
· Hold meeting to plan work programme;
· Install barriers at Ol Kiombo and Keekorok airstrips;
· Start on remaining houses at Oloolaimutia;
· Rehabilitate toilets at Ol Kiombo and Musiara.
o Road works;
§ Keekorok to Sekenani;
§ Talek to Musiara; and
§ Grade airstrips.