Category: Poachers | Date: Apr 24 2008 | By: Kimojino

The patrol team went out this morning along the border towards Mara Bridge, it was a routine patrol without any prior information. They continued their patrol on foot for 6 kilometres along the drainage line and caught up with three poachers near the river.

The poachers were relaxing in a hide-out, and Ranger John Ntoika saw one of the poachers seated and first wasn’t sure if it was a human being or an animal. He called Ranger Jackson Singai, and just before Singai came he saw another poacher appear in a thicket.

The three poachers here at Serena Station

Immediately a chase ensued, with Singai and Ntoika running towards the poachers. Before the seated poacher was able to react and runaway, Singai had him within his grasp. The other poacher quickly ran away, and was followed by Ntoika for about 300 metres and then caught. The third poacher had covered himself in grass and was hidden in a bush. He was found and arrested by Ranger Alfonse Saris.

The three poachers are from Tanzania, and they had come to hunt warthog. As they were caught in Kenya, they will be handed over to the Kenyan authorities in Kilgoris.

9 responses so far

Category: Poachers, Sponsor a Ranger | Date: Apr 09 2008 | By: Kimojino

This morning I went out on my routine patrol, and when I was driving along the track taking me to the border I noticed some footprints in the dirt. I stopped the car, alighted, and checked closely to discover the footprints of five different men.

I called back to the main station at Serena, and reported the same to the patrol team. They came straight away and I showed them the footprints.

Rangers coming back from today’s patrol.

They started tracking the footprints at 9am, and followed the trail for 13, 14 kilometres over the border into Serengeti. At around 1pm, the rangers found dried hippo meat hidden in a drainage line. They immediately searched the surrounding area and fortunately managed to find and arrest three of the poachers. They were unable to find the location of the other two poachers.

The three poachers, and the dried hippo meat.

The poachers had come in from Tanzania, through the Mara Triangle to the Narok side, and had camped there for no less than seven good days. They had killed a hippo, dried the meat, and were today heading back to their village.

This brings the total number of poachers arrested this month of April to five. Well done to the Serena and Ngiro-are patrol teams!

Ngiro-are and Serena Patrol Teams.

I would also like to thank all of those who have contributed through this blog, and to those individuals and organisations who have sponsored a ranger; it is your support that has kept our men motivated during this time of uncertainty.

A successful day. More photos at flickr.

Please, if you can, help put out the word that we urgently need to find sponsorship for 34 more of our rangers.

Asante sana.

12 responses so far

Category: Poachers | Date: Apr 05 2008 | By: William

Kenyan law allows rangers to pursue poachers after they have left the park. Following the arrest of a poacher on the 28th of March, there was good information on the whereabouts of other men who were poaching in the same area, and so rangers from Serena have spent the last couple of days tracking the men down. I’ve just spoken to Edward Nkoitoi, who is the Warden of operations, and this is what he told me:

“Day before yesterday, rangers went to around Lolgorian because there was information that someone was seen with game meat in their house, believed to have come from Mara Triangle. We went straight to the house where the meat was, and in the house there were three men, three old men, not very old actually, some Kijana, some Mzee, three women, and then there was some meat.

“We looked at the dried meat, and there were five pieces, big pieces, about the size of two laptops, We arrested the four men - the two women looked a bit new, like guests to the house, so we left them. Then we took the four; one women three men, we took them together with KWS officers to the KWS offices in Lolgorian at around midnight.

“They spent the night there, and yesterday morning we went back to the village, to talk to more people, but none of them knew where the meat came from. Finally at the KWS station we interrogated the four people, after which we released three people because they were not owners of the house and did not know who brought the meat there, and so it was decided that they were innocent. We arrested the owner of the house, which evidence suggested was the owner of the meat, and we took him to the police station. If found guilty, he will either be given a fine or two months in prison.

“Yesterday and today, the rangers have been sent to the same area of the Triangle as the poacher caught on the 28th as we believe there is still illegal activity in that area.”

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Category: Poachers | Date: Mar 28 2008 | By: William

I’ve just been talking to Jackson Semeiyoi, the latest ranger to be sponsored in our campaign. He has been guarding the poacher all of this morning, until he was taken to Kilgoris Police Station.

He was caught late yesterday afternoon, with one machete and four snares, and he was on his way to hunt so had not yet killed any animals.

Rangers also found out from the man that he was part of a group of five, and they will lay an ambush for the remaining men.

The poacher is Kenyan, and it is probable that he would have eaten some of the bush meat and the rest he would have sold commercially on the local market, maybe even in Kisumu.

Poacher taken to Kilgoris Police Station this morning.

Other news:

I’ve also just been talking to Janet Kabue who is the Corporate Affairs Manager for Celtel in Kenya.

For those of you not in Africa, Celtel is a huge mobile phone network that covers fourteen countries, which you can apparently roam at no extra cost - pretty amazing really (although my Congolese Celtel sim card would never work here in Kenya). Their brand colours are red with some yellow, and at the end of last year one of their billboard adverts was a stunning image of Maasai men in traditional dress.

I’ve searched everywhere for the image online but unfortunately can’t find it, however to give you an idea of how well the Maasai fitted in with their branding, here is a photo I found in Flickr, taken by neku2:

I’ve also just found some of this Maasai/Celtel branding left over on their website.

Anyway, because we are in the Maasai Mara, and most of our rangers are Maasai, and because we work closely with the Maasai communities up on the escarpment, I spoke to Janet this morning about the Sponsor a Ranger Campaign, thinking that they would be quite interested in taking part. With regards to Celtel and sponsorship, Janet told me the following:

“We are not interested in animals or conservation, we are only interested in music and young people.”

Well, at least she’s honest.

And it made me wonder; are young Kenyans also not interested in animals and conservation?

Do any of you Kenyan bloggers out there think Celtel’s interest in conservation is a fair reflection of your own?

23 responses so far

Category: Poachers, Sponsor a Ranger | Date: Mar 27 2008 | By: William

We now have four rangers sponsored. Big thank you to Sunworld Safaris and Paws Africa who were very quick to respond and help out. You will be hearing more about the two of them shortly.

I’ve also just heard that rangers have caught a poacher, I’m not sure of the details yet and the electricity is due to go off soon, so I’ll have to update you all later on tonight.

Until then.

5 responses so far