General
We had a few days of rain from the beginning of the month, this confused the wildebeest and for a few days we must have had half a million of them in the Triangle. However, a heavy storm on the 8th had most of them head South and back into the Serengeti for a short while. It then dried off for a week before another 10 days of rain, with some very heavy storms flooding large areas of the Triangle.
We held our Board meeting on the 24th and approved the Audited accounts for the period ending 30th June 2021. The Board also approved the drilling of a borehole at Oloololo, subject to funding.
We held a meeting with the management of Angama on the 28th, at which we agreed to disband the ranger post at Angama and strengthen the new post at Partikilat.
Research
The Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife launched their National Wildlife Census 2021 report amid great fanfare in late August and it was interesting to do a comparison with published data using census figures analyzed by Joseph Ogutu et.al in 2011. The major declines reported by Ogutu have continued through the last 10 years for many species, particularly those less iconic and more prone to bushmeat hunting. With the exception of elephant, every species has declined drastically since 1977; when the censuses began and hunting was banned.
[1] Source: Continuing wildlife population declines and range contraction in the Mara region of Kenya during 1977–2009 (2011). J. O. Ogutu, N. Owen-Smith, H.-P. Piepho & M. Y. Said. Journal of Zoology
[1]Source:Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.National Wildlife Census 2021 Report
Not surprisingly Thomson’s gazelle and impala have been hardest hit; their habitat has been destroyed or taken over by livestock and fencing, and they are the perfect size for hunting with dogs and small-scale bushmeat poaching. Thomson’s have declined by 92% since 1977 and impala by 85% - these species are crucial to the survivability of such endangered species as cheetah and Cape hunting dogs, and yet they are seen as “of least concern”.
It is unfortunate that the Ministry report did not include livestock numbers, it would have been very interesting to compare them with 2011. We had already seen the trends – a slight increase in cattle numbers but over 200% increase in the number of shoats (sheep and goats).
Collaboration Agreement
We have been asked to prepare a budget for some project funding in the Main Reserve and will concentrate on roads and buildings. We are also assisting the Chief Park Warden in establishing an anti-harassment team and have started on some basic training. This team will work together with the ticket monitoring unit being established by KAPS, in conjunction with Seiya. In the meantime:
· We graded the road from Mara Bridge to Sekenani;
· Completed repairs on the Musiara, Sand River and Sekenani water supplies;
· We purchased 40 tyres for ten vehicles and the grader;
· Rebuilt the engine on a damaged vehicle;
· We repaired the Rhino vehicle;
· We got quotations for a solar system at Keekorok, for the anti-harassment team.
COVID-19
Kenya were taken off Britain’s Red List on the 21st, loosening quarantine restrictions for those travelling to Britain from Kenya. However, they have not yet recognized vaccination certificates for those who have had two vaccinations. It is too early to assess the impact but hopefully we will start to see Britons travelling again. In Kenya we have had a total of 248,770 confirmed cases of Covid-19, from a global total of 230 million. 5,116 people have died from the virus. More than 2.5 million tests have been undertaken and 3.7 million people have been vaccinated in Kenya – including all our staff, they should receive their second dose in October.
Tourism
In the high season it is difficult to not to believe that things are returning to normal, the Park seems very busy and the camps are nearly full. However, if we look at the figures, this year was far better than last year in August but still only a fraction of the good years in 2018/19 (this year we had 5,121 non-resident visitors, compare this with 292 in 2020, but with 15,396 and 14,550 in 2018 and 2019 respectively).
Dogs
Sopia, one of our dogs is still very unwell as a result of liver damage caused by trypanosomiasis – she is in Nairobi undergoing treatment and will probably never work again.
We have completed training the puppies, we will retain one and the others will go to their owners at the beginning of October.
Staff
Three members of staff were dismissed for theft – they had found a loophole in the ticketing system and were exploiting it to collect cash from drivers and supposedly pay mpesa. They found that they could pocket the money and still issue a ticket with a fake mpesa code. They are being prosecuted and the drivers are being made to pay back the missing funds, as they were definitely colluding on the scam.
We received ten new rangers from the County Government to replace staff who had left over the past two years.
Ms Margaret Mumbi, our Administrator in the Nairobi Office, has just started her maternity leave. She had a baby girl on the 27th.
Wildlife
The rains disrupted the migration, sending the wildebeest back into Tanzania for days at a time. However, a reasonable population remained along the border throughout the first half of the month, we then had a small concentration in the idle of the Triangle for the remainder, but even they were moving off by months end. The trend over the past few years has been for the migration to stay in Kenya for shorter and shorter periods of time. This year is no exception; the migration arrived late and has left very early. Gone are the days when we could expect the migration to remain in Kenya for four months, this year we hardly made two. Rainfall is certainly a contributing factor, the past few years have been exceptionally wet, but we can’t overlook other factors. This year the majority of crossings took place in Tanzania, where controls are far more stringent and there are at least 14 recognized crossing points. Time after time we saw animals want to cross below Look-out hill, only to be stopped by too many and uncontrolled vehicles. Animals then moved away and crossed in Tanzania.
We monitored an ostrich nest until the chicks hatched and the Raptor Project monitored a number of eagle and vulture nests.
One zebra was found with a snare around its neck on the 19th. Dr Limo from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT)/Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) came and removed the snare. A few days later he returned to treat an elephant with a broken leg, there was nothing he could do and the elephant was euthanized. Suddenly we had a spate of animals requiring treatment – another zebra had a snare removed on the 26th and an elephant had an arrow removed from its leg on the 27th. The snares were probably from the Lemai Wedge and the arrow from the escarpment.
Security
We arrested a total of 24 people for poaching in September – all of them in the Northern area of the Serengeti. We collected 762 wire snares and managed to rescue 24 wildebeest, two zebra and a topi. Six wildebeest were found dead in snares and a further 35 had been butchered, as was one eland. We were able to get one of the large Flir cameras working after a year and are awaiting spares for the second camera.
Thirty eight snares were collected in the Lemai Wedge on the 1st; four wildebeest were rescued, three had been butchered and four more were found dead in the snares. Then on 2nd the Iseiya team went towards Lobo, to join forces with their Tanzanian counterparts and follow up on information that poachers were operating between Lobo and Tabora B. It seems that the informant sent them on a wild goose chase, there were no fresh signs of poaching in any of the areas they were shown. After three days they gave up and returned. In the meantime the Nigro-are rangers managed to recover 53 wire snares, rescue two wildebeest and find where three had been butchered. They also managed to arrest one person who was setting his snares at 7.00 pm on the 3rd.
The rangers continued to find and collect snares and on the 6th they found 159, probably the most in a single day this year. Only one wildebeest had been caught and butchered. On the 8th 56 snares were collected, one wildebeest was rescued and one zebra broke the snare as our rangers were trying to rescue it, it escaped, but with part of the snare tight around a leg.
The teams went across the river at Kogatende on the 9th and patrolled the bank until after nightfall. Soon after dark they saw poachers near Nyamburi, managed to position themselves and arrest two people at around 9.00 pm; not before four wildebeest had been killed by the poachers using machetes.
Four more people were arrested the following night when our teams joined forces in the same area. They were arrested between 9-11 pm, but not before they had killed an eland.
One person was arrested by the Nigro-are rangers late evening on the 12th at Naykita Tone, 25 wire snares were recovered. The following night two more people were arrested from a group of seven, by the Iseiya team. They had found 25 snares and rescued one wildebeest during the day, that night the two who were arrested had a further nine snares.
Forty five snares were collected on the 14th and a further 83 on the 15th. The rangers found where 13 wildebeest had been butchered. That night we set an ambush in the same area – Lempise in the Lemai Wedge – and managed to arrest two people. The following day our teams returned to the same area and recovered 104 snares – nine wildebeest were rescued, as was a zebra, three wildebeest had been butchered and two were found dead in snares. That night another ambush was set and four more people arrested, one of them had been arrested last year and he was with his 12 year old son.
We continued to collect snares and on the 17th and 18th 81 were recovered – nine wildebeest were rescued, as were a zebra and a topi, eight wildebeest had been butchered and two wildebeest were found dead.
The Iseiya team went on a late patrol on the 19th and managed to recover four snares and rescue three wildebeest before setting an ambush at Lempise. Two people were arrested at 10.00 pm as they came in to hunt. On the same day the Nigro-are rangers managed to recover 13 snares, rescue two wildebeest, and find where three had been butchered, a zebra and wildebeest were dead.
More snares were collected on the 21st and again on the 23rd – 59 in all. One wildebeest was rescued, as was one topi. One wildebeest was found dead in a snare.
The rangers joined forces with their Tanzanian counterparts at Ngira, South of the Mara River, for an ambush on the 24th. The rangers managed to arrest four people from a group of five. They were first seen with the Flir camera as they approached the area. They then disappeared for a while before they were seen again. In the meantime the poachers had killed five wildebeest, by slashing their spines. Whilst setting the ambush our rangers recovered four snares and rescued one wildebeest.
Fifty four snares were recovered on the 26th – near Kokamange, the following day 31 more snares were collected in the same general area on the 28th.
Two people were arrested on the night of the 30th in a joint patrol with TANAPA across the river. No signs were seen during the day but the poachers came in after dark. One slashed a ranger on the hand as he resisted arrest.
Revenue and Accounts
We followed up on a report that mpesa payments were being misappropriated and on the 10th one of the revenue clerks absconded, just abandoning his post at Purungat. An in-depth investigation managed to unravel and work out what had been happening and how the scam worked. One of the senior revenue clerks discovered that he could input any mpesa code on the ticket, whether money had actually been paid or not. He informed one of our Alpha Scouts at Oloololo that there was a loophole in the ticketing system and that they could input a code, without actually paying in money. They could then pocket the money and generate what appeared to be a genuine ticket. We arrested the three suspects involved and questioned them before referring them to the police. Two of them admitted the scam, said it started on the 20th July and admitted misappropriating approximately Ksh 1.2 million (US$ 11,000). They required the cooperation of drivers and shared the money between themselves and the driver.
We continue to run at approximately 40% of the revenue collected in 2019, far better than last year but well below a level that will sustain the Triangle. Total Park revenue in August amounted to Ksh 56 million, well above July, at Ksh 42 million. This will have been the first month in a year and a half in which our share of revenue exceeded expenditure. Our management accounts for the first two months of the financial year show that we have managed to keep expenditure on budget and that revenue is well up on our projections. This is a good sign but we have already experienced a significant drop in visitor numbers in September and we will have to maintain very strict cost-cutting measures.
Deloitte completed the Annual Audit and the accounts were presented to the Board on the 24th. The key points in the Audit were:
“The Company’s cash balances decreased from Sh 85,061,726 to Sh 41,529,327 mainly because the Conservancy utilized the savings to run operations owing to the decreased revenues in the period.
Trade and other receivables increased significantly from Sh 23,680,921 to Sh 31,239,740 and this is attributed recovery in Park Fees receivables for the month of June 2021 and VAT recoverable.
Without qualifying our opinion, we draw attention to note 3 in the financial statements, which indicates that the company incurred a loss before tax of Shs (67,532,588) during the year ended 30 June 2021 (2020: Shs 22,481,084) and, as of that date, the company’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets by Shs (34,740,896) (2020: Shs 9,426,939 ) and it had a surplus of Shs 2,412,292 (2020: Shs 69,950,079). These conditions, along with other matters as set forth in note 3, indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
Having made an assessment of the company’s ability to continue as a going concern including assessing the impact of Covid 19 on the business as disclosed under note 21 to the financial statements, the directors acknowledge that the continued existence of the company as a going concern depends on the success of the various strategic measures that the directors are pursuing as well as continued financial support from stakeholders including donors to enable the company to continue its operations. The directors are of the view that once these measures are fully implemented, the company will continue to operate and remain solvent for the foreseeable future. The directors therefore consider it appropriate to prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis.”
There is no doubt that we would not have survived the last year without significant donor support and we can not thank our supporters enough. Last year was an extremely difficult year and we are certainly seeing an improvement this year – but, we are a long way from full recovery.
Repairs and maintenance
We spent the month repairing the main roads – mainly by filling small potholes.
We have started making uniforms for all our civilian staff, the uniforms are being made on-site by a contracted tailor.
Collaboration agreement
· Serviced windmills at Musiara, Sekenani and Sand River
· Graded road to Keekorok and Sekenani.
Report on focus for September
Focus for October
· Disband the ranger post at Angama and redeploy the rangers;
· Work on providing toilet facilities at Eluai campsite;
· Complete concrete section on new road up the escarpment;
· Continue with minor road repairs;
· Provide new uniforms for all staff; and
· Start on store at Iseiya.
Work on Collaboration Agreement – funds permitting;
o Fit tyres on vehicles;
o Grade roads:
§ Keekorok to Ololomutia
§ Sekenani to Talek;
§ Talek to Ol Kiombo;
o Complete overhaul of one vehicle at Sekenani; and
o Provide water and Solar to housing at Keekorok.