Participants

Patrick Mutuku Alex Macharia Henry Lekochere John Mungai Julius Mutamu Gerald Maghanga 2 KWS rangers

Area Covered

The areas patrolled this month included Maktau, Kishushe, the Lumo Wildlife Sanctuary, Salt Lick and the Mukulu area.

TOTAL SNARES COLLECTED 184

Findings

We returned to these areas after a month’s absence during which we carried out de-snaring operations in the Chyulu region. Upon our return we noticed that the residents in and around Maktau had started to deal in the bush meat trade. We found that bush meat was being sold in every area at all times of the day. For this reason a lot of our time and operations were concentrated in the Maktau region. Most of the snares

that we found and collected during the month targeted big game, with only a few being set for small game. A buffalo’s carcass was spotted in the Mbuyuni area. We feel that the buffalo’s death was due to an unsuccessful poaching attempt by some poachers in the area. We were able to arrest one poacher in the Lumo Wildlife Sanctuary, who was in possession of a panga, 3 knives, and an Impala skin. He was taken to the Taveta Police Station where he will await trail and sentencing. The other poachers who had been with him managed to evade arrest. Later in the month we were able to make another arrest, this time the poacher was arrested in the park, in possession of a panga and some Kongoni meat. He also had a dog with him which he used when out poaching for game meat. There was evidence of two snared Kongonis in the region who had been slaughtered. We carried out several night ambushes which unfortunately were unsuccessful due to the lack of cloud cover and the light of the moon which made it hard to remain unseen. These ambushes were carried out in areas bordering the park such as the Lumo Sanctuary. The purpose of this is to keep the poachers at bay by minimizing the routes that they can use to enter the park and set snares. Two poachers were able to evade arrest in the Kishushe area. In their effort to get away from us they left behind bush meat from two Impalas, which they had hung on the tree branches to be dried before being transported to market. This month our operations included aiding the vet in tracking down and treating a sick elephant in Salt Lick. The elephant had a leg wound which was suspected to have been caused by a bullet. We also had to track a lioness that had a wounded paw. After having assessed the lionesses’ condition the vet was able to ascertain that the wound was not very serious and would heal without treatment. We feel that there is the need to carry out continuous night operations in the Maktau region, as there is a lot of bush meat being traded in that area. The KWS personnel have been very helpful in all of our operations and we are grateful for they support. We hope our operations continue to be successful and our aim is to make more arrests in the coming months.

Report by Patrick Mutuku