Participants

Henry Lekochere –team leader John Mungai Abdi Adan Boru Okicha Gerald Maghanga 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

During the month of March we carried out patrols at Maktau, Murka, Kishushe and Oza ranches and the Lumo Wildlife Sanctuary.

ARRESTS 2 TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 114

Findings

We started our patrols at Maktau. We had received information that the bush meat trade was rampant in this area. We decided to lay to early morning ambushes along various poachers’ tracks. We were able to successfully arrest two poachers on two separate ambushes.

The poachers were booked at Taveta police station where they are awaiting sentencing. Snaring in the area appeared to quite low in comparison to other months; however this was to be expected due to the fact that it is the rainy season. We lifted a total of 79 snares in the area. Our operations were hindered due to the heavy rains being experienced in Maktau and its surroundings.

During our patrols at the Lumo wildlife sanctuary w e lifted 11 large snares. There has been a drastic decline in the level of snaring taking place in this area. Sadly this does not mean that poaching is taking not taking place as we have found out that the poachers have changed their tactics and are currently using the lamping method and are carrying out their illegal poaching activities at night. This makes our desnaring efforts harder as the poachers are working at odd hours, which also makes it more difficult to arrest any of the perpetrators.

Kishushe and Oza ranches were both patrolled at the end of the month’s operations. No major illegal poaching activities were observed. The team did however lift 24 snares targeting small game.

Report by Henry Lekochere