At the crack of dawn
last Friday, Timothy ole Mosiany (red t-shirt), our Operations Manager, and I
headed off on the 600 kilometre drive to the Kenya Wildlife Service Law
Enforcement Training Academy at Manyani in Tsavo National Park.
We went to see 9 of our conservation
Rangers under the command of Corporal LenisaLolojuu (kneeling, left) at passing
out parade. Their very smart new uniforms had been kindly supplied by the
African Wildlife Foundation, who also sponsored their course fees.
William Kiprono, Director of KWS reviewed the Parade, and Dame Daphne Sheldrick
was guest of honour.
They had been on an intensive 3-month
Ranger training course learning about conservation and anti-poaching
operations, and covering specialist subjects such as first aid, GPS navigation,
conservation marketing, and wildlife law.
The parade, passing out a total of 68 conservancy
Rangers from all over Kenya, was an impressive display of drill, accompanied by
the KWS brass band, on the Academy parade ground in the magnificent heart of
Tsavo West National Park.
The men have now arrived back on duty at Ol
Lentille with huge enthusiasm and new skills, ready to transfer their learning
to our other 18 Rangers.
The Rangers play a vital role at Ol
Lentille, responsible as they are for preventing poaching, livestock theft, and
illegal grazing. At Ol Lentille, we have had only one elephant killed by
poachers in 7 years. This compares with 36 at a nearby Conservancy, and 298 in
our wider area in 2012 alone. At this, our sole poaching incident, we were able
to mobilise very quickly and prevented the poachers from removing the ivory
from the elephant they had killed, even though night was closing in. The
following morning we called in bloodhounds, and tracked the culprits to a
distant village where, unfortunately, scent was lost. The ivory was safely
handed over to the Kenya Wildlife Service for secure storage.
Pictured L-R: Back Row Rangers Lemasian,
Leparkiom, Lesootia, Lokitama, Meshame, Sinore. Front Row Corporal Lolojuu,
Rangers Mayiani, Morongo
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