Participants

Wambua Kikwatha – Team leader Boru Okicha Henry Lekochere John Mungai Adan Abdi Gerald Maghanga

Area Covered

During the course of the month we carried out patrols at: the Ziwani area, Lumo and Taita, Kishushe, Oza ranch, Maktau and Lake Jipe.

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 37 ARRESTS 3

Findings

Maktau Area De-snaring at Maktau yielded no snares. All the areas that used to yield snares were patrolled without any snares being found. Previously, drift fences extending as far as ten kilometers, full of snares, were a common occurrence but now no drift fences or snares were found which attests to the success of the de-snaring team. However, night poaching is still taking place, albeit in low levels due to our continued presence in the area. Most of the notorious poachers from this area have been arrested over the past months.

Another activity taking place at Maktau is mining. We have arrested many miners from the mine but it is becoming more popular with people coming from as far as Mwatete and Voi to mine there. Following information from our informers we laid a night ambush and arrested three miners.

The offenders were booked at Mtito police station.

Lake Jipe Patrols at Lake Jipe yielded no snares. This is another area that has shown a decrease in the snaring activities in the past few months.

However, charcoal burning is very common in the area and we were able to arrest two charcoal burners who were booked at Taveta police station.

Kishushe At Kishushe, 9 snares were lifted. During our operations in this area we were able to arrest a poacher in possession of 9 snares. The poacher was booked at Taveta police station. We found that there was a decline in the level of snaring taking place at Kishushe.

Other areas that were patrols included Oza ranch which yielded 9 snares targeting big game. No arrests were made despite the team spending a lot of time following a set of footprints.

At Taita Hill, 10 snares targeting large game were found and lifted. This area had not been patrolled for a while and the poachers felt that they were now safe enough to carry out their snaring in the area. The other areas patrolled yielded no snares.

Report by Wambua Kikwath