Participants: Isaac Maina (team leader) Mutua Koti (tracker) Jacob Dadi (tracker) Joseph (informer) 2 KWS Rangers

We made a revisit to Irima then progressed to the community recovering a total of 429 snares in this hot snaring spot.

A tour to Mackinnon road on the Southern part covering two ranches yielded 45 snares all targeting larger mammals. It was difficult to locate the hot spot here as we are not familiar with this spot. There was evidence of rampant snaring in this area. Testimonies from livestock owners (pastoralists) revealed loss of their livestock to snares. We saw one cow with a severely wounded leg that was the victim 2 days previously.

We also visited Mukuki and Mwananchi ranches located on the eastern side of Tsavo East, between Tsavo East and West. The area, which is a migrating corridor, hosts some Somali herdsmen whose livestock have fallen victim to snares. The herdsmen were very co-operative in offering guiding assistance and manpower to curb the menace. We recovered 158 snares and arrested 2 poachers with a dikdik that they had just slaughtered. Their hiding ground was unearthed by the herdsmen. Here the miners of jewel stones provide the game meat market for commercial poachers. Poachers were said to come from Kamutonga, a neighboring village.

In total 638 snares were recovered – the majority for large mammals.