Participants

Wambua Kikwatha - team leader John Mungai Henry Lokochari Jacob Dadi Gerald Maghangha 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

During the course of the month we carried out patrols at Kishushe/The park boundary along Tsavo River, Maktau, Lumo community sanctuary, Jipe, Salaita area, Ziwani, and Muhoho farm.

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 72 TOTAL ARRESTS 11

Findings

Kishushe Park Boundary and Tsavo River

This is the second consecutive month we have been operating in this area. This area was patrolled by the Ziwani team along with the British army crew last month which resulted in a dramatic decrease of illegal activities. There has been an overall improvement when compared to the history of this area. This area was previously a hotspot for poachers of both large game including elephants as well as small to medium game for bushmeat. The team’s presence has drastically changed the activities here, after finding no snares within the park we patrolled the community area were we discovered a lot of poaching activities due to the abundance of wildlife found there. 37 big snares and 14 small snares were lifted in this region.

Two poachers were caught along the Mukuru River; they were booked at Taveta police station and are awaiting sentencing.

Maktau, Lumo Community Sanctuary During our patrols of the Maktau and Lumo areas we recovered 6 small snares, thus continuing the trend of the last few months were few to no snares were recovered.

This is a huge improvement to the beginning of the year when most of the lifted were from the area. This however does not mean that poaching is not taking place as the information we are given indicates that the poachers have changed tactics and are engaging in night poaching. This is far more difficult to control.

Jipe/ Salatia area This area hasn’t been patrolled by the Ziwani team for the last 3 months. The areas patrolled were: Vilima Viwili, Matta, Kachero, Mitakuja and Salailta. Vilima Viwili was clear of snares, whilst in Matta we recovered 5 big snares and 13 bird snares.

This area also had a lot of charcoal burning activities. We saw 4 charcoal kilns and 4 old charcoal kilns. Logging in this area is also very severe; we saw a lot of logging activities mainly for charcoal burning. A lot of cattle have also been coming into the park to be grazed by young Maasai boys who are used due to the fact that they cannot be arrested.

Ziwani/ Muhoho farm The team spent 3 days patrolling these areas, covering The Ziwani farm and park boundaries. Although neither snares nor animals were recovered, there were definite indications that both night poaching as well as bow and arrow poaching are taking place.

Another observation is the increase in logging for the purpose of charcoal burning that has been taking place at Muhoho farm.

Report by Wambua Kikwatha- team leader.