Participants

Wambua Kikwatha - team leader John Mungai Henry Lekochere Adam Abdi Gerald Maghanga 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

During the course of the month we carried out patrols at the Maktau and Lumo Community Sanctuaries, the Kishushe park boundary, Oza, and the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 136

TOTAL ARRESTS 2

Findings

Kishushe Park Boundary and Tsavo River

The operations at the Kishushe park boundary and along the Mzima springs pipeline began with a combined operation between the Jipe section and the de-snaring team. This operation took place due to the sighting of an elephant carcass at the Ngulia sanctuary. The area along the pipeline and the park boundary was thoroughly patrolled however no footprints or other evidence of poachers were found, resulting in no arrests. During conversations with our informers we received information about a poacher operating at the Wanjala Mining at Kishushe ranch.

We laid an ambush and were successful in arresting him. He was booked at the Taveta police station.

Maktau, Lumo and Oza Community Sanctuary

The Maktau area has shown a substantial decline in snaring activities since we began our de-snaring efforts in this area. Niche poaching is still being practiced although not as often as I n the past. Cases of night poaching have been reported at the Lumo Community ranch but our attempts to arrest the offenders failed as we did not have sufficient information to carry out successful ambushes. No snares were found at the Lumo Sanctuary. During our daily patrols we were able to arrest a poacher who was in possession of Lesser Kudu meat.

Upon interrogation he confessed to having killed a monkey, although we were not able to find any evidence showing this. The poacher was booked at Taveta police station

Taita Hills and Saltlick Wildlife Sanctuary

Patrols at the Taita hills sanctuary, which were carried out in conjunction with the Taita Hills scouts, yielded 17 big snares.

This area has been found to be very active especially in the poaching in big game. We have found that the poaching activities are concentrated along the community borders and at the dam sites where the animals come to drink. A poacher was sighted in the area but was able to evade arrest. We carried out an ambush near to the set snares but no arrests were made.

Report by Wambua Kikwatha