ndege December, 2019 - February 2020 | www.ndegenews.com
NEWS
AIRKENYA EXPRESS, AEROLINK UGANDA & REGIONAL AIR INFLIGHT MAGAZINE
Amidst the Dust Devils with an Elephant Whisperer
Dressing Up to Spin the Dirt
From the
Kidepo Valley BOOK ONLINE
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DECEMBER 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
REGULAR 03
Welcome Note
04
Word From the Editor
06
Airkenya News Update
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News Update
15
Dates for your Diary
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FEATURES 16 A Walk in Nkueri Forest, Trans Mara 18 Helping Grevy’s Zebra Survive Drought in Kenya
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22 Dressing Up to Spin the Dirt 28 Amidst the Dust Devils with an Elephant Whisperer 32 Meeting the Laibon Meshuko 37 Searching for the shoe bill bird 40 From the Kidepo Valley
REVIEWS 44 Earth Friendly Gifts 46 The gods at Christmas 50 Kifaru the Film 53 Beer and food pairing at Dar es Salaam's oldest hotel 56 Adventure around Kenya
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51
WELCOME NOTE
Welcome on board ‘Unity is strength. Synergy is might. Teamwork is power’
R
Matshona Dhliwayo egional aviation has never airfield elevation of 5,000 feet with been more critical. It is 50 passengers. This has enabled foundational to the global Airkenya to provide competitive aviation industry. Without advantage to the passengers while it, there is simply no way that accommodating large groups of passengers could reliably travel passengers. There are only twelve to, from or between many safari Dash 7s still operational in the destinations, which would come at whole world, of which two are with a great detriment to the prosperity Airkenya. and quality of life for millions of In order to cater for routes that people. From Vintage to advantage, require an Aircraft that is capable over the years, Aviation has evolved of faster speeds and short field as an industry from aircrafts to performance, Airkenya acquired a ground equipment and even Dash 8 that takes approximately modernization of airports. 1hr to cover 300 nautical miles. Airkenya has always kept up with The Dash 8 has added passenger this ever changing industry from comfort as its engines are more the days when we flew the piston powerful hence enabling it to fly at DC-3 with radial engines, to modern higher altitudes; and it has modern piston aircrafts, as the Cessna 404 aircraft systems. Since acquisition to the Piper Navajo. As aviation in year 2006 the DASH8 operated moved from piston engines to Kenyan coastal routes but we have turbine engines, Airkenya acquired since reallocated the DASH8 to the Fokker 27s and later the Regional Air Tanzania and it now shorts 360 as their biggest fleet of operates the Serengeti-Zanzibar Aircraft. The twin otters were later Schedule flight. introduced to cater for the wider Synergy through Sharing. Book networks and lighter loads together with us. Enjoy open skies! We're with the Cessna Caravans. committed to leading the needs of In addition to the 2 (two) Dash the East Africa tourism circuit. We 7s that hold a seating capacity of understand what's at stake and have 50 passengers each, Airkenya is a made investments in our business leading operator to most tourists’ that allow us to move with the destinations. The Dash 7s are STOL shifts in a dynamic market and have Aircrafts with the capability to land products that will give premium and takeoff on very short runways service, flexibility and options of approximately 1000m with an and alternatives that can provide
Captain James Mureithi - (JR) Director of Operations / Chief Pilot, AIRKENYA EXPRESS A Captain in DASH7 and Twin Otter DASH6 and KCAA IR Examiner improved comfort to our traveler while achieving efficient operations. Our experienced and committed employees are our greatest asset and pride. For more info on the schedule and connectivity visit our websites www.airkenya.com; www.regionaltanzania.com; www.aerolinkuganda.com Thank you for choosing to fly with us and we take this early opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to flying with you and family, during this festive season.
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 5
WORD FROM THE EDITOR
Karibu
Editor Rupi Gill Publisher The Business Platform Ltd P O Box 103364-00101, Nairobi. Tel: 254-20-3587879 / 722-770367 Email: info@businessplatform.co.ke Advertising Peter Ondabu Cell: 0722-770367/ 0736-375111 ondabupeter@gmail.com Design and Layout Digital Colour Business Ltd. digitalcolourbusiness@gmail.com NDEGE which means aeroplane in Kiswahili is a quarterly Magazine publication of AIRKENYA Express Limited
A
s you soar above the towns, then villages turning into wilderness over the cradle of mankind, then land at your destination - I hope you’ll marvel at the facilities that our lodges can offer. Fresh food, linens and knowledgeable guides to enrich your experience. You’ll find that in this part of the world, things are used to adapting very quickly - droughts, floods and migrations are all part of life. Making the most of the sunshine and water resources, many properties are now using solar power and reverse osmosis technologies. There’s a lot of misleading information out there, often circulated for dubious agendas. Like about population not being a problem for Africa and how population growth is needed to consume and grow the economy to reach development goals. It’s easy to think that, when you look down on the hardly inhabited vast expanses. But this is a time for different schemes. Whilst reflecting on the past, there should be no doubt in your mind that reducing hunger cannot rely on land usage any more. But on methods that prevent deforestation, that grow nutritious 6 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
food without soil and rear livestock with precision, without waste; aided by intelligence, accessed via mobile apps. In Kifaru the film review, the extinction of Sudan - last male northern white rhino on earth is felt through his carers. Extinction of one species is extinction of all. Land and sea are inextricably linked in strong and stunning ways. Birds feed on sea fish then nest in native forests inland, dropping their nitrogen rich guano to feed the forest floor and soil. Trees, through their respiration create rain, which washes this nitrogen into the rivers that flow back to the oceans and feed the zooplankton on which whales and other marine animals, feed. We connect with elephants in the Amboseli, show you the Mara and the beauties of the Kidepo valley. From the marshes of Uganda in search of a rare prehistoric looking bird to a city in Tanzania where you may enjoy beer tasting with food. This season is one of connecting with family, old friends, new ideas and mother earth. Enjoy responsibly, Rupi Gill For the Editorial Team.
Wilson Airport P.O. Box 30357 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Reservations Tel: (254-20) 391 6000 Email: resvns@airkenya.com The magazine focuses on tourism, hospitality, travel, leisure and aviation related news in the East African region and beyond. The views expressed in NDEGE NEWS Magazine do not necessarily reflect those of either AIRKENYA EXPRESS, REGIONAL AIR SERVICES and / or AEROLINK UGANDA. © 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without permission from the Publisher.
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We regulate and oversee aviation safety & security; economic regulation of Air Services and development of civil aviation; provide Air Navigation Services, and train Aviation personnel. CONTACTS: Aviation House, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, P.O. Box 30163 -00100 Nairobi, Kenya +254 020 6827470 | +254 728 606 570 | +254 709 725000 | +254 728 606 586 | info@kcaa.or.ke
AIRKENYA NEWS UPDATE
Emarti School Excels in their first KCPE Exams
Emarti Primary School, situated in the heart of Masai Mara, is fully sponsored by Airkenya, currently admits 252 students from lower to upper primary. The pioneer class of standard 8 composed of 17 pupils who sat for their KCPE exams this year, made us proud.
This is the season to be jolly, to learn more about Airkenya CSR or to participate and contribute. Email: info@airkenya.com
..wishes you all safe, fun and enjoyable Christmas!
+254 20 3916000 8 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
resvns@airkenya.com / marketing@airkenya.com
www.airkenya.com
The • • • •
Madaraka Express Passenger Service is proud to introduce the below services: The long distance passenger service between Mombasa Terminus and Suswa station in Suswa town, Narok County. This shall run on Fridays and Sundays. The Madaraka Express Commuter Service which operates on Mondays to Fridays and links Ngong town and Ongata Rongai town via Nairobi Terminus to: Nairobi Central Business District via the Nairobi Commuter Rail Service Link train or; Mombasa City via the Madaraka Express Inter-county and Express Passenger trains.
The schedules for the above services indicating the departures and arrivals are as below: FROM NGONG TOWN TO NAIROBI TERMINUS TRAIN 1 TRAIN 2 TRAIN 3 TRAIN 4 NGONG 5:40 12:20 17:30 20:10 RONGAI 5:53 – 5:57 12:33-12:37 17:43 – 17:47 20:23 – 20:27 NAIROBI TERMINUS 6:20 13:00 18:10 20:50
FROM NAIROBI TERMINUS TO NGONG TOWN TRAIN 1 TRAIN 2 TRAIN 3 NAIROBI TERMINUS 10:00 14:00 18:50 RONGAI 10:23 – 10:27 14:23-14:27 19:13 – 19:17 NGONG 10:40 14:40 19:30
Customers using the Ngong/Ongata Rongai to Nairobi Terminus Madaraka Express Commuter service can: • Proceed to Athi River, Emali, Kibwezi, Mtitio Andei, Voi, Miasenyi, Mariakani or Mombasa using the Madaraka Express Passenger Service Inter-County train which departs Nairobi Terminus at 8:20 am • Proceed straight to Mombasa aboard the Madaraka Express Passenger Service Express train which departs Nairobi Terminus at 2:35 pm. • Proceed to Nairobi town using the Nairobi Commuter Rail Service Link service which is available at 6:35 am and 14:00 pm every day. • Customers who wish to use rail services to Ongata Rongai and Ngong towns from the CBD can use the Nairobi Commuter Rail Service link train which leaves the Central Railway station at 6:35 am, 12:00 pm and 17:30 pm • The Customers traveling via the Madaraka Express Passenger train from Mombasa to Nairobi can also connect to Ongata Rongai town on Mondays to Fridays and to Maai Mahiu and Suswa on Fridays and Sundays. FRIDAYS: COMMUTER SERVICE AND LONG DISTANCE PASSENGERS SERVICE TRAIN SCHEDULE On Fridays, the Madaraka Express Passenger Service shall combine the commuter service and the long distance passenger service. The Commuter rail service shall operate as per the normal schedule provided above. The long distance passenger service shall operate as below: NAIROBI TERMINUS RONGAI NGONG MAAI MAHIU SUSWA
FROM NAIROBI TERMINUS TO SUSWA TOWN 14:00 14:23-14:27 14:40-14:44 15:16-15:20 15:45
FROM SUSWA TOWN TO NAIROBI TERMINUS SUSWA 16:25 MAAI MAHIU 16:46-16:50 NGONG 17:26-17:30 RONGAI 17:43-17:47 NAIROBI TERMINUS 18:10
SUNDAYS: LONG DISTANCE PASSENGER SERVICE TRAIN SCHEDULE On Sundays, we shall only have the long distance passenger service between Nairobi Terminus in Nairobi County and Suswa station in Suswa town, Narok County. Customers using this service can catch the Express train to Mombasa or the Nairobi Commuter Rail service link train to the Nairobi Central Railway Station. The Schedule is as below: FROM NAIROBI TERMINUS TO SUSWA TOWN NAIROBI TERMINUS 09:10 RONGAI 09:33-09:37 NGONG 09:50-09:54 MAAI MAHIU 10:26-10:30 SUSWA 10:55
FROM SUSWA TOWN TO NAIROBI TERMINUS SUSWA 11:35 MAAI MAHIU 11:56-12:00 NGONG 12:36-12:40 RONGAI 12:53-12:57 NAIROBI TERMINUS 13:20
The fares to be charged for the above services are as tabulated below: FROM NGONG STATION ONGATA RONGAI STATION NGONG STATION RONGAI STATION ONGATA RONGAI NGONG STATION RONGAI STATION SUSWA STATION NAIROBI TERMINUS NAIROBI TERMINUS
TO RONGAI STATION NAIROBI TERMINUS NAIROBI TERMINUS NGONG STATION MAI MAHIU STATION MAI MAHIU STATION SUSWA STATION MAI MAHIU STATION MAI MAHIU STATION SUSWA STATION
Commuter services are not available on weekends and public holidays
ECONOMY 50 KSH 100 KSH 100 KSH 50 KSH 100 KSH 100 KSH 100 KSH 100 KSH 200 KSH 200 KSH
FIRST CLASS 100 KSH 200 KSH 200 KSH 100 KSH 500 KSH 500 KSH 500 KSH 200 KSH 650 KSH 650 KSH
NEWS UPDATE
Chinese boost farming to prevent poaching The Chinese Embassy in Tanzania has come up with an initiative to capacitate residents living around Mikumi National park with essential skills and equipment on smart farming so as to fight poaching and improve wildlife protection. Chinese ambassador to Tanzania Wang Ke said that experts from China will train the community on smart agriculture by using modern technology as well the importance of protecting wildlife. With the use of technology, farmers can also increase their productivity by doubling their yields, something which will encourage them to shun poaching acts The Chinese embassy has donated 2500 kg of maize seeds, sunflower seeds (150kg) and 800kg of peas seeds to enable the community venture into agribusiness to improve their income. Apart from the seeds, the embassy has also donated 13 pairs of security clothes, 13 pairs of boot shoes, a desktop computer and a television which will be used to train the residents in best farming practices.
Wang Ke, Chinese ambassador to Tanzania
China banned ivory imports last year. A survey of more than 2,000 people in China conducted by GlobeScan, a public opinion research firm, and funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), found that 72 percent of respondents would not buy ivory, compared to 50 percent when the poll was conducted last year, before the domestic trade ban went into effect at the end of 2017.
Partnerships finding Community Solutions Manyara Ranch is an age-old migration lane for elephants and other species. Manyara partnered with the Arusha-based Honeyguide Foundation, a community nonprofit known for its anti-poaching fieldwork. The partners trained a team of rangers and deployed them at the ranch, along with tracker dogs. Combined with regular patrols, the canines program has been effective. Just having a dog on the grounds deters poachers, who know the canine units can track down even those offenders who’ve fled to hide out in neighbouring settlements. To curb the overgrazing, Manyara started providing livestock extension services, including a breeding program. It buys high-quality Boran bulls from African Wildlife Foundation partner Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya and sells them to the communities at reduced rates to help improve herd quality. Manyara also employs a full-time veterinarian to serve the community, offering advice, vaccinating livestock, and treating the cattle during disease outbreaks. To address the human-wildlife conflict, Manyara turned to simple but effective new equipment: predator-proof, mobile bomas.
810| NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Craft Beer Revolution Beer is one of the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drinks in the world. Simply put, beer is a beverage made with malted cereal grains (barley, wheat, rye, rice etc.), hops and water that is fermented by yeast to produce alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide. The alcohol levels range from 2% - 15% alcohol by volume. There is more than one type and more than one style. Beer may be classified as Macro or Craft. Whereas Macro beers are mass produced in large breweries, Craft beer production lays emphasis on traditional and innovative ingredients that are used to produce beers with varying distinct tastes. Craft beer is freshly brewed in small batches to eliminate staling and skunking occurring due to long storage periods and exposure to sunlight as is the case with macro beers. Craft beer is handcrafted for the ever healthy conscious consumer through for instance low calorie beers, gluten free beers, organic beers, alcohol free beers, unfiltered beers, unpasteurized beers as well as a general lack of added sugar, chemical additives and preservatives. Most craft breweries have a taproom onsite to enhance the consumer experience by showcasing the brewery/dispensing equipment as well as allowing the consumers to interact with the brewing process visually, through guided tours, beer tastings, beer food pairings, beer classes, beer tapping games and participation in brew day activities.
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beer styles. These mergers arose due to automated production methods, accelerated packaging and better distribution networks. In some countries, it’s easier to trace the start of craft beer revolution i.e. US (1965), Netherlands (1981), Italy (1988) and Australia (1980). In South Africa the craft beer scene has grown tremendously while in the rest of Africa the revolution is underway with the first craft brewery in Kenya opening its doors in 2006 with three more outfits joining the fray over the past few years. The growth of craft beer can be attributed to demand for variety, increase in income, consumer associations e.g. CAMRA in UK, availability of technical equipment and capital that have allowed brewing on a small scale. Due to this growth, macro brewers have taken to craft brewing by producing craft-style beer, taking over craft breweries and infrastructure investment especially in the distribution chain denying craft brewers consumer access. Despite this, the revolution continues…
Read: Busting myths about beer in the next edition
Although mostly served fresh as draft (tapped from a keg or cask), it’s also canned and bottled. To a craft brewer, beer is not just about availability and alcohol content, but individuality, heritage, tradition, sustainability, exploration, artisanship, taste and smell captured in a glass. Craft beer revolution started in kitchens and garages, intensely local and driven by individual experiments. It was a natural reaction to the uniformity of beer as a result of efficiency led beer company mergers resulting to a rise of mass produced continental lagers that overshadowed classic traditional
Watch this space for the newest and most trendy Craft brewery in town…
Lion populations smaller than previously thought A recent report by Amy Dickman from the University of Oxford, says wild lions have vanished from 95% of their historic range. In countries like Malawi, the approximate wild lion population is five, 30 in Nigeria, 25 in Angola, 22 in Rwanda and 20 in Niger. Countries with larger populations include Tanzania with 8176, Kenya has 1825, Mozambique 1295, South Africa 2070, Zimbabwe 1709 and Zambia 1095. Kenya’s national population of lions was estimated at 2,749 in 2002 and 2,280 in 2004. The study notes how there are more wild rhinos than wild lions, 14 times more African elephants and wild gorillas than wild lions and nearly 350 000 people for every one wild lion. It finds that 40% of current wild lion range is in protected areas while 14% of wild lion populations don’t overlap at all with protected areas. The major threats to Africa’s lions are the loss and degradation of habitat, bushmeat snaring, and conflict with people when lions threaten them or their livestock.
Large Scale Fishing 70% of the planet that has been sidelined in the news is the seas. Here, life is collapsing even faster than on land. The main cause, the UN biodiversity report makes clear, is not plastic, pollution, climate breakdown, or even the acidification of the ocean, although they are hugely damaging too. It is fishing. Commercial fishing is the most important factor. Huge ships from rich nations mop up the fish surrounding poor nations, depriving hundreds of millions of their major source of protein, while wiping out sharks, tuna, turtles, albatrosses, dolphins and much of the rest of the life of the seas. Coastal fish farming has even greater impacts, as indiscriminate trawlers dredge up everything including fish and prawns. What makes all this so frustrating is that regulating the fishing industry is both cheap and easy. If commercial fishing were excluded from large areas of the sea, the total catch would be likely, paradoxically, to rise, due to what biologists call the spillover effect. Fish and shellfish breed and grow to large sizes in the reserves, then spill over into surrounding waters. Where seas have been protected, catches have grown dramatically. As a paper in the journal PLOS Biology shows, even if fishing was banned across the entire high seas – as it should be – the world’s fish catch would rise, as growing populations would migrate into national waters. George Monbiot for The Guardian Newspaper
12 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
“If I had to pick a school, I would send them to Pembroke”
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hat do an international rugby player and an emotional intelligence strategist have in common? The answer is that they both went to Pembroke House School, a small boarding preparatory school in the Rift Valley, Kenya. Toby Francombe and Nandi Kegode are two alumni of the 90 year old school, both from very different backgrounds and with very different jobs and aspirations. “I don’t think I would be the person I am today, if it weren’t for Pembroke”, Nandi waxed lyrical about her time at school. Nandi is an emotional intelligence and cultural strategy consultant with her own business, Hisia Intel Solutions. “By the time I left, I was more adventurous, with a strong identity of self and a can-do attitude, which made me more resilient [during the tougher times of her teens and early adulthood]”. Pembroke allows children to be children – to run around in the mud, make dens, climb trees and appreciate the natural beauty of the Kenyan countryside – but [it] also helps to give them confidence and character; don’t ever underestimate what kids can do”, Nandi said. “We were taught manners and we are able to talk to anyone, of any class or creed. International schools appreciated that; Pembrokians were renowned for being reliable team members”. “Pembrokians have such a strong bond – the Pembroke Spirit – and race or colour has no place in that. I have had people come up to me recently to say “hi”, who were five years old when I was in the upper school, asking “Do you remember me?”. The friendships that you
make when you are there are still friendships now- and you pick up exactly where you left off, no matter how much time has passed… My favourite memories were in the dorms, sharing tuck, talking after lights out and on the sports field, with hours dedicated to sports”. Toby Francombe is an international rugby player and was selected to play the position of hooker in the 2019 Kenyan Rugby Union team. He is now in Scotland, playing for the Boroughmuir Bears in Edinburgh. Toby went to board at Pembroke aged six, because his father went there but also because they lived near the Maasai Mara and there were no schools in the area. When asked about Pembroke’s strengths, Toby said, “Pembroke was a caring school – when I first arrived, I was shy and hadn’t really spent time with lots of other kids. The older
kids really looked after the younger ones… The other thing that I think also helped me was the manners Pembroke taught us – I am grateful for that as this training has stood me in good stead and gave me the confidence to meet new people and travel to new places. The opportunities to play sport were also phenomenal and my passion for rugby was spurred on by the dedication of the coaches there”. Toby also spoke warmly about the friendships he had made at Pembroke. “Boarding made for much stronger friendships because we spent every minute of every day together. There was so much time after school for us to play and do sport and get to know each other. Everyone looked after everyone else and we had a special bond that we still have today”.
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 13
NEWS UPDATE
Marmanet forest under stress A 71-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant on Friday in Marmanet, Laikipia West subcounty, prompting residents’ protests. The forest is a key elephant migratory corridor and water catchment area. Following the eviction of illegal settlers from Maasai Mau, the government has set its sights on other gazetted forests such as Marmanet. The forest has the same scenario of encroachment and overgrazing - as it borders the drier part of this country. Herders take large numbers of cattle into the forest reserve. The exact area of encroachment has not yet been assessed. The depletion of Marmanet has caused water shortage downstream, subjecting the areas to constant conflicts — some instigated by cattle rustlers —over the resource. The National Prison Service and Safaricom have expressed interest in partnering with Kenya Forestry to rehabilitate the forest. Some of the five million seedlings committed by Safaricom over the next five years will be used to restore the forest reserve. In the Mau after evictions, four million trees were planted by aerial seeding. They include pencil cedar, Nile tulip, black ironwood, parasol tree, Meru oak, African satinwood, Cape chestnut, muringa and African redwood.
CO2 bigger plants and less water
Without massive reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades, the global average temperature will rise between 4 and 6 degrees Celsius, with a near doubling of atmospheric CO2 by century’s end. Those hotter, CO2-rich future conditions are akin to turning up the heat and pumping CO2 into a greenhouse. The likely result, assuming no other limiting factors such as lack of nutrients, is an explosion of plant life. But that will leave considerably less water for people to use. Climate change affects the growth of plants in three ways. First, as CO2 levels increase, plants need less water to do photosynthesis. This well-documented effect was long thought to mean that there would be more fresh water available in soils and streams. But a second effect counters that: A warming world means longer and warmer growing seasons, which gives plants more time to grow and consume water, drying the land.
14 | | NDEGE NDEGE NEWS NEWS DECEMBER, DECEMBER, 2019 2019 -- FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 2020 2020 12
Wildlife Preservation Crucial for Forests A new study shows that a decrease in the fruit-eating animals that disperse tree seeds leads to a reduction in carbon storage in tropical forests. The complete defaunation, or loss of these species, from a forest can result in the area’s carbon storage capacity dropping by up to 3 percent. Wildlife is being hammered by overhunting and snaring for bushmeat, traditional medicine and the illegal pet trade as well as habitat loss.
NEWS UPDATE
Conde Nast Readers’ Choice Awards 2019 Sirikoi Lodge in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya came first.
Other camps in East Africa that were listed amongst Africa’s best 30 include: Richard's River Camp Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya Elewana Elsa's Kopje Meru National Park, Kenya Oliver's Camp Tarangire National Park, Tanzania Ol Jogi Home Nanyuki Town, Kenya Elewana Elephant Pepper Camp Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya Mahali Mzuri Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya Elewana Tarangire Treetops Tarangire National Park, Tanzania Thanda Island Thanda Island, Tanzania
andBeyond Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp Masai Mara, Kenya Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp Moru Kopjes, Tanzania Angama Mara Great Rift Valley, Kenya Governors' Camp Collection Masai Mara, Kenya
Reducing Waste in Livestock Rearing Right now, there is a long and disintegrated supply chain in the Kenya livestock industry. There is no formal way to access livestock and livestock products for buyers, and no delivery of inputs such as vaccines for smallholder farmers in rural areas. This results in wastage of resources – expensive and time consuming access to livestock markets and quality products. Farmers as well as retailers rely on middlemen to buy, transport and process livestock products before they reach the markets. The produce changes hands several times which results in loss of and damage to produce as well as a reduction in profit at every step. A new online company m-nomad, has sought to help pastoralists in arid and semi arid lands who suffer at the hands of preventable climate based calamities like drought, hunger and disease. M- nomad is a social enterprise for Kenya's informal livestock sector. With web and mobile solutions which provide pastoralists with a guaranteed market for their livestock and livestock products, and a simple, hassle free marketplace for buyers in Kenya and abroad. They are also bringing last mile distribution of vaccines to pastoralists in rural Kenya as well as linking them to government initiatives, donor agencies, financial and insurance organisations to access timely and responsive services.
andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge Ngorongoro, Tanzania Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti Serengeti, Tanzania Singita Sabora Tented Camp Grumeti Game Reserve, Tanzania
NDEGE NEWS NEWS DECEMBER, DECEMBER, 2019 2019 -- FEBRUARY FEBRUARY 2020 2020 | | 15 13 NDEGE
NEWS UPDATE
Elephant Queen Film Elephant Queen, released by Apple TV, explores well known themes like the ability of elephants to distinguish between human languages. In Amboseli, Kenya, they know, which tribe to ignore and which tribe to flee from. Elephants prefer eating oranges and tomatoes to stripping the bark from trees. As agriculture expands into their home ranges, some turn to crop-raiding. Elephants know where they are safe. Elephants fitted with GPS collars have been tracked leaving National Parks at night to raid crops. Just before dawn, they ran back to the park—only stopping once inside the park’s invisible boundary. Today, migration routes are truncated—gradually becoming blocked by railways, embankments, roads, farms and fences. The more that elephants lose the ability to range, the more destructive their impact on the environment. Allowed to roam, their presence increases biodiversity. The trees they feed on, and the branches they break will recover once the elephants move on and in the meantime provide extra habitat for insects, amphibians and reptiles. If elephants are confined, then the vegetation doesn’t have time to recover before their next visit. As a result,
biodiversity decreases and localized desertification follows. The same happens if elephants are attracted to areas by the provision of permanent water: the habitat suffers, the trees go first, then the bush, then the grass. You see it around almost every safari-lodge waterhole in Africa.
Solar Energy in Africa The IEA, or International Energy Agency, predicts that solar energy will play a big role in supporting the continent’s growing population and industrialisation over the next 20 years. Africa has less than half the solar power installations seen in the UK, despite the sunnier conditions, but the IEA is predicting a solar boom in countries across the continent, which could give hundreds of millions of homes electricity for the first time. People are expected to turn to cities and towns at a rate never seen before, where the demand for new houses and infrastructure will ignite an energy-hungry industrial revolution. Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said Africa had a “unique opportunity” to leapfrog the fossil fuel dependency of other industrialised regions and host the first economic transformation that did not contribute to the climate crisis. He said some fossil fuels, such as natural gas, would be needed to support Africa’s heavy industries as they build the towns and cities needed to house the continent’s growing population. But the increase would be insignificant in the wider global climate effort, according to the IEA. 16 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 14
NEWS UPDATE | CLIMATE CHANGE DIARY
5th - 7th December The 11th edition of Lake Turkana Cultural Festival in Loiyangalani, Marsabit County. Tis festival was rescheduled from June and its initial dates in May due to prevailing drought. Lake Turkana, in the Northern Kenya, also known as the Jade sea is regarded as the world’s biggest desert lake situated in what anthropologists think is the cradle of mankind. Besides celebrating and helping to preserve the cultures of the almost extinct El Molo, the Samburu, Gabbra, Rendile, Watta, Dasannach, Pokot and the Turkana, the festival also focuses on the economic development of the region and participating communities.
1st-16th February Lamu Painters Festival Workshop All over Lamu, artists will be painting plein air. 15th February - 6th Shela Hat Contest and soul concert on Manda island, Lamu 16th February - Mad Hatters Dhow Race and DJ on the beach, Lamu 13 - 16 Februray Sauti za Busara, Zanzibar Busara means wisdom at the Sounds of prominent songwriters and musicians will be performed in the old Fort of the Stone Town. 31 bands including African, contemporary, electronica and hip hop will be played on three stages.
19th - 20th December Rusinga Festival, Lake Victoria, Kenya Two days of music, fashion, film, food, artistry, literature and sports from the Suba culture. 30 Jan 2020 - 2 Feb 2020 Nile River Fest, Jinja Uganda Four days of water sports on the nile. Kayaking, rafting, mountain biking, stand up paddle-boarding, parties, big air ramps and live music, all along the world’s biggest whitewater.
NDEGE NEWS NDEGE DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | | 17 17 NEWS JUNE - AUGUST 2019
CONSERVATION
A Walk in Nkueri Forest, Trans Mara
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he plains stretch out before us in the sunlight, recent showers and the air below the rainbow’s arch is golden, rich with petrichor - the smell of wet earth. This is what the Eurasian steppe must have been like in the medieval warm period when nomadic tribes still migrated and traded along it. Our own nomadic pastoralists are also beginning to settle down. We leave the national park and visit the workings of the Anne K Taylor Fund which supports projects that aim to balance conservation and community development within the Maasai Mara ecosystem. As we walk around Nakueri forest, we are skipping over chopped wood and stepping through a great gap in the trees. They haven’t been pushed down by elephants. This new area has been demarcated for the use of the newly settled, younger Maasai population. The mud cob manyattas have been replaced by mabati - zinc roofs and lime plaster. Only the young man’s stance gives him away, he leans on his stick as if he were about to spend a whole day out watching his flocks. He is a young Masai, but wears jeans and it is his boma we are walking around. His wife sits close by with five little children curious but huddled around her. High bomas or enclosures are supplied by the Anne K Taylor project, who bear 70% of the cost, to protect livestock and reduce retaliatory killings of animals by humans. These are made of chain link to reduce the reliance on hardwoods such as the African olive which is traditionally used here. To stop honey badgers from digging into them, the fence goes into the ground for a foot and half. As we step through the gap in the
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trees a great smouldering heap stands before us. It’s a charcoal kiln. And whilst it remains illegal to make charcoal it is not illegal to sell it or use it. And so, chopping down hardwood croton trees for charcoal remains a lucrative business. Land here is being cleared for burning, agriculture, livestock and house building. There are no corridors left for the animals as all the land around here is fenced. Nakueri forest is an elephant maternity area and nursery. Recently an elephant was seen very distressed as it gave birth on the exposed plain, in full view of predators. Whilst the Mau forests have gained attention as important water towers, there are many such as Nakueri that are being ignored. We move along to the de-snaring unit. A large mkokoteni or cart stands before us, barbed wire hoops heaped over it. Some have coloured ribbons indicating ownership of the snare. The communities who come with their expertise in building, fencing and making charcoal also eat bushmeat which is taboo to the
Maasai. We see a spear made from vandalised iron. A hippo can carry a poisoned spear for a few days and so it had a plastic bottle attached to it, to float above the river water, so that the animal can be tracked. The good news is that the fund has managed to find the snares, treat injured animals and empower women by providing them with work which is not just traditional beading but also soap making and to build schools for the kids.
MAASAI MARA, via Kisumu, Kenya
Daily
Mara - Entebbe
Mara - Entebbe - Minimum 2 pax To Entebbe Mara Kisumu Mara Entebbe Kisumu
Depart 0845 1215 0845 1355 1030 1215
Arrive 1130 1430approx 0950 1430 approx 1130 1315
• Routes via Kisumu for immigration. • With possibility of daily connections from Mara to Serengeti
From Entebbe - Minimum 2 pax From Entebbe Entebbe
To Kihihi (BINP) Kasese / Mweya (QENP)
Semiliki Bugungu Pakuba / Chobe (MFNP) Kidepo (KVNP)
Tel: +254 20 3916000 Email: resvns@airkenya.com marketing@airkenya.com
www.airkenya.com
Fare USD Mara - Entebbe Entebbe - Mara
One way
340
Mara - Kisumu Kisumu - Mara
One way
200
Kisumu - Entebbe Entebbe - Kisumu
One way
150
One way One way One way One way One way One way
Fare USD 613 613 613 592 592 742
From Entebbe Depart Arrive 1245 1355 1245 1435
From Entebbe - Minimum 4 pax Entebbe Entebbe Entebbe Entebbe
via Entebbe, Uganda
Fares
Daily Flight Schedule From Mara Entebbe Mara Kisumu Kisumu Entebbe
BWINDI,
1245 1200 1200 1230
1435 1315 1315 1445
Mara-Kihihi (BINP) Mara- Kasese / mweya (QENP) Mara-Semiliki Mara-Bugungu Mara- Pakuba / Chobe (MFNP) Mara-Kidepo (KVNP)
Tel. +256 317 333000 Email: info@aerolinkuganda.com
www.aerolinkuganda.com
Tel. +255 (0)753 500300 Email: resvns@regional.co.tz
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 19
www.regionaltanzania.com
CONSERVATION
Helping Grevy’s Zebra Survive Drought in Kenya
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uring 2019, Laisamis, in Marsabit County in northern Kenya, experienced a prolonged and severe drought because of the failure of the short rains in 2018 (October to November) and long rains in 2019 (March to May). One of the most important yet least protected populations of the endangered Grevy’s zebra is found in Laisamis – at least 4% of the national population. Prolonged droughts can severely reduce water and pasture availability which, coupled with overgrazing of remaining grass by domestic livestock, can negatively
20 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
impact Grevy’s zebra, particularly lactating females and foals. Grevy’s zebra can go without water for up to five days but lactating females need to drink water at least every other day. As forage declines, these females must travel longer distances in search of pasture and yet must return to water more frequently than other Grevy’s zebra classes in order to produce milk to nurse their foals. This places severe stress on the both females and foals and results in high foal mortality and in some cases the death of the mares. Since 2011, supplementary feeding with grass hay has been used in
drought situations to alleviate the impact of droughts on Grevy’s zebra. Supplementing the natural diet of Grevy’s zebra with hay helps to prevent starvation and allows them to maintain body condition so that they can better withstand the effects of drought and disease. The national Grevy’s Zebra Technical Committee (GZTC) chaired by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), has developed specific guidelines on supplementary feeding which state: ‘The decision to intervene should be made based on an assessment of current forage and water availability and the time remaining to the
CONSERVATION
next predicted rainfall event, rather than waiting to observe a decline in body condition.’ After becoming increasingly concerned about the declining forage situation in Laisamis through monitoring by our Grevy’s Zebra Warrior team, the Grevy’s Zebra Trust (GZT) carried out a forage assessment over five days in early June 2019 and based on the results of this received permission from KWS to start an emergency response supplementary feeding program. GZT established two supplementary feeding sites in Laisamis in July 2019 and a further site in September 2019. The location of sites was based on assessments of pasture availability, livestock densities and Grevy’s zebra abundance and distribution. Sites were set up in corridors used by Grevy’s zebra to move between water and grazing areas. Community
members living near to each site were employed as hay monitors, and together with the GZT team, were responsible for estimating how much hay was to be used each week and putting the hay out each night. Both sites were monitored with camera traps which were put out each night by the hay monitors to monitor which species were eating the hay. Prior to starting supplementary feeding, local communities were introduced to the approach and need for supplementary feeding during meetings held by the GZT Laisamis Regional Coordinator and the Grevy’s Zebra Warriors, which helped ensure the security of the camera traps and prevented livestock being taken to feed on the hay. Towards the end of the drought, the pasture in Samburu (SNR) and Buffalo Springs National Reserves (BSNR) which are normally dry season refuges for Grevy’s zebra, became
extremely depleted. GZT was extremely concerned about the health of the Grevy’s zebra lactating females and foals, and with support from reserve management and tourism partners, initiated feeding in September 2019, with a dedicated vehicle and team putting hay out daily. GZT is still in the process of analysing the many thousands of images from the camera traps and so it is difficult to estimate with certainty how many Grevy’s zebra have benefited from the intervention, and how many mortalities have been avoided. However, hay uptake was high, and ongoing sorting of camera trap images has shown that vulnerable demographics, such as lactating females and their foals, made significant use of the hay. – Belinda Low Mackey
'One of the most important yet least protected populations of the endangered Grevy’s zebra is found in Laisamis – at least 4% of the national population'
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 21
Equity Group Kickstarts A 35 Million Tree Planting Campaign The Group has dedicated Kshs. 350 Million for the nationwide cause to conserve the environment
E
quity Group recently announced plans to implement an ambitious project to plant 35 million trees across the country within a year. The announcement was made on the Bank’s 35th Anniversary and comes on the backdrop of a brand refresh that saw the financial institution reveal a new identity. Led by the Group CEO and Managing Director, Dr. James Mwangi, Equity kick-started the project by planting 3,500 indigenous tree seedlings in Miotoni Forest Block which is part of the Ngong Forest Complex and 40,000 indigenous and exotic tree seedlings in partnership with Meru University of Science and Technology. Equity Group CEO and Managing Director, Dr. James Mwangi indicated that Equity is very keen on promoting sustainable finance by concentrating on People and Planet it conducts its business. In an effort to conserve the environment, Equity has partnered with Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to promote Farm Forestry Initiatives – this spirit of public private partnerships (PPP) is from the fact that 77 % of deforestation and land degradation is caused by agriculture activities, hence the need to work closely with Forest and Farm Producers to encourage them to adopt sustainable solutions for preserving natural environments. Equity Group has partnered with Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in this noble initiative. KFS will provide technical support including; the Identification of hotspots that
22 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Dr. James Mwangi, Equity Bank CEO, in a tree planting exercise
require urgent tree cover and/or rehabilitation of degraded forests; mapping out agro-ecological zones and identification of suitable tree species for planting; identification of high-quality tree seedlings stocks across the country; and support by KFS officers and staff at local levels to supervise the proper planting and maintenance of the trees. Equity also supports transition to clean energy that reduces reliance on wood fuel, charcoal and fossils fuels like kerosene as a source of energy. This has a direct impact on health outcomes through reduction in household air pollution, positive impact on the environment, reduction in carbon footprint and climate change mitigation. To date over 100,000 clean energy products has been financed and distributed, benefitting over 300,000 individuals. To reach a larger scale and create
more impact, the Bank also created the world’s first energy loan dubbed Eco- Moto Loan available digitally via mobile network, Equitel. This has supported the SDG 7 of access to clean and affordable energy for all. Equity has other initiatives in the Energy and Environment space ongoing that have seen it plant more than 1 million trees in the Mau Water Tower. Presently, Equity Bank Kenya has over 180 branches across the country, 46,000+ agents, 16,168 beneficiaries of the Wings to Fly program, 14,524 scholars and alumni in university, 6,000+ staff members and over 14 million account holders including corporates. Equity will run a sensitization and mobilization campaign to use this massive force to run a tree planting and maintenance exercise sustainably.
Nairobi Arboretum Nairobi’s richest living collection of trees
In the days of old when trains used wood-fired steam engines, foresters in Kenya became concerned that indigenous trees that the railway relied on were getting depleted faster than they could regenerate. They needed to find other tree species that could grow fast enough to meet the railway’s fuel needs… Established as a trial site for exotic tree species in 1907, the 30-hectare Nairobi Arboretum now hosts the richest collection of exotic and indigenous tree species in Nairobi. The arboretum also has over 100 species of migrant and resident bird species in addition to sykes and vervet monkeys.
Located off state house road, approximately 2km from the city centre, the arboretum is good for individuals seeking to learn about trees, watch birds, enjoy serene moments within the forest or walk along its trails. The Central Lawn and other areas are available for your special events.
Kenya Forest Service Tel: (254) 020-3754904/5/6, (254) 020-2020285 Fax: (254) 020-2385374 P.O Box 30513-00100 Nairobi Email: info@kenyaforestservice.com
www.kenyaforestservice.org
RAPORTAGE
Dressing Up to Spin the Dirt By Hunter Nielson
T
radition dictates we meet up in Karen at the Tin Roof Café and leave promptly, two hours late. From there, we gamble our lives through the snarl of traffic, potholes and road works to Ngong and Kiserian where we fuel up and find out which bike is misbehaving this year. There’s always at least one. Once past Kiserian, we can relax and start enjoying the ride
24 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
and the spectacular scenery. At Cona Baridi, on the southern shoulder of the Ngong Hills, we catch a glimpse down to the valley where the lonely Magadi Road snakes its way through the Olorgesailie basin where our ancient hominin ancestors roamed a million years ago. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride - DGR - is a global fundraiser where guys (and gals) with vintage/ classic/cool one-off bikes get
together once a year, dress up and do a loop of their city in the name of prostate cancer research and men’s mental health. The DGR, as it’s also known brought together over 116,000 riders in 678 cities in 2019, and raised nearly six million USD for the cause. It’s a chance for classic bike fanatics to dress snazzy, show off their rides, and have a good time for a great cause.
RAPORTAGE
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride - DGR - is a global fundraiser where guys (and gals) with vintage/classic/cool one-off bikes get together once a year, dress up and do a loop of their city in the name of prostate cancer research and men’s mental health. NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 25
RAPORTAGE
A typical DGR ride starts at a central point in a city and makes its way around the main streets, stopping periodically at cafes and restaurants along the way. In Kenya things don’t always work out the way they’re expected to. So, rather than saddle up on Sunday like the rest of the planet’s DGR riders to putter carefully from café to café, we like to head out on Saturday, ride 100km to Magadi, one of Kenya’s hottest, driest places, stay the night at the Lake Magadi Tented Camp and return the following day. Roaring past Olepolos, the fantastic nyama choma joint perched high above the plains, we descend along the southern flank of Mt. Esakut to our lunch spot under a now familiar roadside thorn tree. It’s a chance to doff jackets, check bikes and chow down. The support cars open up and sandwiches and drinks pour out. Appetites sated, it’s usually a straight shot to Magadi after lunch. The mercury rises steadily with 26 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
every kilometre as we descend to our destination at 600 meters, so barring mechanical hiccups, we keep the throttles open and eat up the kilometers. By the time we see the lake, it’s usually well over 40C and we are all very keen to hit the swimming pool and bar at the TATA sports club. Having cooled off, a sub-set of bikers splits off from the main group to continue the ride. Heading south from Magadi town, we explore the dried, salt encrusted flood plains and climb the ragged, dusty hills before pausing at an overlook to watch the evening sun burn itself out over the Nguruman Escaprment in the distance. Flamingos dance on the mirror-still lake below and Mt. Shompole becomes a silhouette on the horizon. We always return in darkness, following the bobbing of our headlights (if they’re working) in pitch blackness to the distant lights of camp, the bar and a hearty meal. This year, the Magadi Tented Camp organized a real feast for us with Indian dishes and roast mbuzi. It was a great way to end the day. Sunday is the actual start of the DGR, so up with the birds and having broken the fast, we head over to the Magadi Total station to add go-juice to our steeds. Rumbling out of town, spooking flamingos feeding in the acrid ponds, we head for Oltepesi, a dusty place half way back to Nairobi where the official DGR begins and we meet up with anyone who didn’t partake in the overnight part of the ride. From there, the group begins the
Eric Hallard AirKenya Flight Operations Training Manager Fleet Manager Dash 7&8
steady climb back up to Cona Baridi. This becomes another test for the equipment as some of the hills are very steep, and stopping to let the oldest bikes cool before setting off again is not uncommon. Dressed in fancy - but not overly protective gear, we take it easy on this section
and claw our way back through the manic traffic of Rongai on our way to the Ngong Racecourse where bikes and riders make an appearance at the Concours d’Elegance, the official end-point of the ride. Pulling in dusty and happy after another hot, sweaty ride is a fantastic way to end the DGR, Nairobi-style.
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 27
Olare Mara Kempinski
Luxury Tented Camp…Small and Beautiful
B
eautifully-set in the heart of Olare Motorogi Conservancy, and bordering Africa’s greatest reserve, Masai Mara, is the stunning Olare Mara Kempinski, a luxury unfenced tented camp. Experience the ultimate in African luxury in unparalleled class and comfort. The award-winning camp is surrounded by riverine woodland on the banks of the Ntiakintiak River where hippos and other wildlife crowd to quench their daily thirst. The Camp boasts of twelve luxury deluxe tents overlooking the Mara plains along the river Ntiakintiak. Family & Honeymooners Tents Each tent bears a Masai name with a special meaning relevant to the region, and as the guests are ushered to their tents, they are briefed on the meaning of their tent name which corelates to the surrounding ecosystem or bears an interesting fact about the natural habitat. These tents are divided into three categories:
28 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
• Two family tents. These are two sets of two adjacent tents that share a common wooden deck. One has a choice of booking two families travelling together or a family that requires two tents for accommodation. Each family tent accommodates four people (2 adults and 2 children or 4 adults with no children) • Seven luxury tents - Each tent is aesthetically designed and is generously furnished with intricately woven rugs, large wooden four poster cozy beds,
unique furniture pieces from which guests enjoy resplendent views over the scenic rolling hills from the comfort of their tents. The tents feature en-suite bathrooms with rain showers, bath tubs, electric shaver sockets, hairdryers, intercom telephones and safe boxes for guest valuables. Some tents also feature outdoor showers. • Honeymoon suite – This tent has a private plunge pool as a unique addition to the facilities in our luxury tents
Fly direct from Serengeti to Zanzibar on board the Dash 8
(Airstrips to be serviced are Lobo, Kogatende, Fort Ikoma and Seronera)
Daily departure at 1100hrs from Seronera airstrip
Book now online Cell: +255 (0) 784 285753 / (0) 754 285754 Hotline: +255 (0) 753 500 300 Email: ops@regional.co.tz or resvns@regional.co.tz
www.regionaltanzania.com
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 29
FEATURE
Amidst the Dust Devils with an Elephant Whisperer
28 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
FEATURE
'The African spring has filled up the underground rivers that feed the plains. Water sprays up from the sides of the Landrover, it’s wheels almost submerged. We can just about tell where Lake Amboseli’s edges meet the swamp'
Amboseli flooded
T
he African spring has filled up the underground rivers that feed the plains. Water sprays up from the sides of the Landrover, it’s wheels almost submerged. We can just about tell where Lake Amboseli’s edges meet the swamp. On one side, in Tanzania, shines the snow capped summit of Kilimanjaro. The sacred volcano’s base stretches some eighty kilometres along the Kenya Tanzania border. Rising almost six kilometres into the sky, the highest
peak of the dormant crater - there are two more extinct, shines brighter than the clouds this morning. Which, waft away into the sunshine. The baby elephants, knee deep in sludge, stick close to their mothers and pull out the wettest reeds from the swamp to feast on. The white Egrets, too are having their fill on skin parasites and insects unearthed by the elephants. They raise the alarm by taking flight as we approach to a halt. The elephants blink, they have already seen us, are uninterrupted in their feeding, so
the egrets settle back on them. We are here to talk to the elephants. Whilst observing their slow, unperturbed trunks furling and unfurling, a calm spreads amongst us. Liz is an elephant whisperer and guides the four of us to connect our energies with the elephants. My other companions are ahead of me - they spent the whole of last afternoon with a large herd. I’ve just arrived and my mind is still scattered from the weekend’s activities and the journey from the city which started at the crack of
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 31 NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 29
FEATURE
dawn. I chide my cynicism and begin to relax. For now I am content to breathe the air, observe and frame a few pictures. Prompted by Liz, Willson aka Senteu, our guide and driver tells us that he hails from a long line of Laiboni. But, he nor any of his siblings have filled their grandfather’s footsteps. A Laibon is a Maasai seer. Seers have been venerated in every society. They are extraordinarily sensitive human beings able to feel the elements, read animal behaviour, predict where migrations would flourish and as sages use ancient wisdom and medicine together with shamanic divination to heal psychological and physical wounds. Wilson aka Senteu has chosen to come back to his ancestral lands as a guide. He struggles out an explanation about money and
lifestyles, promising to find out more about his people and their legacy. Later, he tells me he has only one wife but that he knows there are more women in the world than men and to look after all of them, one could consider polygamy. Settled lives have brought education, science and christianity; which have on the one hand removed backward practices, yet on the other, lost people’s deep connection and reverence for nature, which could be the reason for our detrimental treatment of the earth. A haze moves over the mountain slowly shrouding it as we head back to the lodge for lunch. Clouds are gathering over the high montane forests which sequester carbon dioxide and trap water from the clouds to create rain. On the other side of the mountain is Tanzania,
'On one side, in Tanzania, shines the snow capped summit of Kilimanjaro. The sacred volcano’s base stretches some eighty kilometres along the Kenya - Tanzania border. Rising almost six kilometres into the sky, the highest peak of the dormant crater'
Communities
Fish eagle pair; TOP: Amboseli flooded
where the rivers are drying up. Climate change and wildfires due to rising temperatures are destroying these forests rapidly. The glacier iconic white cap - researchers have long been will be gone in ten years. Tanzania also relies heavily on Mount Kilimanjaro and the national park which surrounds it, for tourism. Back at Tawi lodge, we spend an hour all together in a guided meditation that is designed to connect us with each other’s energies. I quieten once again the skeptic in my head, and find myself drifting into an ethereal world. Imagining ourselves as conduits for energy fields, we begin to develop a heightened consciousness in
FEATURE
matriarchs large adult bulls in their 40s and 50s which is unusual in other parts of Africa.
Male ostrich
which we sense things. Intuition we are told is a muscle that improves with use. And now we can use our sharpened sixth sense to connect with the elephants and off we go for the evening game drive. The sky is darkening. The matriarch grumbles and the herd form a tight ball, walking fast to cross the road. There are too many cars all speeding up to them which parked shoulder to shoulder across the road, block us. One car overtakes us at considerable speed, and parks half way up the mound on the side of the road, in a bid for the best view. We fall back and wait behind the flurry of vehicles. The herd crosses quickly, rumbling all the while, the calves surrounded, in their midst. Elephants know that they are not in immediate danger in the Amboseli as no hunting or culling is allowed here and poaching has been reduced to a minimum. Yet they are unmistakably nervous.
As soon as they cross they slow down, spread out and resume their foraging. The vehicles move in disarray and through a gap we leave slowly, unable to do our connection exercise. It is the work of the Elephant Trust under the guidance of Cynthis Moss, that has ensured healthy populations and the reign of elephants in a relatively small area less than 400 square kilometres. In 1968, she and Harvey Croze, found the conditions in Amboseli National Park were far better than anywhere else because of the swamps, forests, plains, salt licks, biodiversity and the pastoralist nomads who prevented the land from being degraded. Her work remains the most authoritative and in depth study of elephants in the world. In Amboseli the elephant age structure has not been skewed by human interference and the population spans the whole range from newborn calves to old
On the plains, frolick zebras and Thompsons gazelles. Jackals scurry past us, a dikdik freezes and darts away. We spot a serval cat walking close to tall grasses by the roadside and a lone young male lion sleeps under a tree. Hyenas disappear into a den whilst others walk in single file beside us. In the distance rises a dust devil, empusial in the Maa language, meaning whirling salty dust which gives Amboseli its name. Male elephants form bachelor herds. The matriarchs ensure this. There’s a male in a small herd with calves in the swamp. Wilson aka Senteu points out the secreting gland at his temple, he is in musth and in search of a female in oestrus. The calm is disrupted once more. A family of hippos has a challenger. He is driven away, not just by the alpha male but his ally too. He flees from savage teeth, bleeding by the leg. It begins to rain and we must head back to camp. As we leave Amboseli, by the airstrip and the gate, there are Maasai women selling their beadwork. Beads still have spiritual and cultural significance to them. Yet to criticise their sale to tourists as mere souvenirs would be unjust. It is a worthy occupation, keeping traditional crafts appreciated, alive and ensuring a livelihood for women who would normally be excluded from monetary exchange. There is no misappropriation in wearing these. I haven’t become a shaman just yet. But what’s more important, is the groups willingness to reflect on our disconnectedness and to give nature and animals a useful power. Rupi Gill
31 NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 33
FEATURE
Meeting the
Laibon Meshuko By Stuart Butler “I’m one hundred and nine years old”, claimed Meshuko Ole Mapii, who has more children and grand-children than he can name. The old man was sat on a roughly hewn wooden chair. In one hand he held a cow tail fly whisk and in the other an ox horn, plugged at its base with a leather stopper. His short hair was a sparkling silver grey and when he smiled, which he did frequently, one large tooth jutted out of his mouth. He wore a red shuka (the classic Maasai robe) wrapped like a Roman toga around him. His sandals were made from old truck tyres. He carried with him the air of a man who had seen and done it all and who was certain of his future. That he should have this air of certainty was hardly a surprise. After all, Meshuko is one of the last of the great Maasai Laibon. What, I hear you ask, is a Laibon? That’s a little hard to answer. A Laibon is someone of great importance in a traditional Maasai community. They are someone gifted with the power to see the future. They’re not really a fortune teller and they’re certainly not a witch doctor. They’re more like a seer, but some also have the power to cure illnesses. A Laibon is the one who advices the community as a whole on the best course of action to take in a given situation. For example they can use their powers to say where the community’s cattle 32 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
FEATURE
CLOCKWISE: Homestead; village sunrise; Early morning
should be taken to in order to find better grazing when there’s a drought. They are the ones who can pronounce when the time is right for important ceremonies, such as the initiation of a new set of moran (Maasai warriors), to be held and they can also advise an individual in the community on personal matters. Historically there is no more respected member of the Maasai community. Today though, as Maasai culture changes so the role of the Laibon is becoming reduced and in some areas no more Laibon remain. Therefore, when Lazaro, a Maasai friend I’d met while on safari in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park, told me that there was a famous Laibon, named Meshuko, not more than an hours drive from the edge of the national park my interest was instantly piqued and a plan was hatched. I would go and stay the night in Lazaro’s boma (Maasai farmstead) and from there he would take me to meet Meshuko. In the days leading up to my visit I asked any other Maasai I chanced upon what they knew about Meshuko. All replied with the same mixture
of amusement that I was going to meet him and awe at the thought of him. He was, it was universally acknowledged, a very powerful man and not just from a spiritual sense. It seemed he also had considerable power in the bedroom… It’s common for important Maasai elders to have a number of wives and many children and over the years I’d frequently interviewed old Maasai men who had been unable to recall the names of all their children (although to be fair to them I seem to be increasingly suffering
from this problem as well and I only have two children and one wife), but Meshuko seemed to take the spreading of his genes to new highs. He had, so everyone I spoke with claimed, forty wives and three hundred children. In fact, he had so many children that rather than bother with the expense of paying school fees for each and every one he instead just had a school built in his village, which, so everyone said, was populated only by his children, grand-children and their spouses. The night before my meeting with NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 35 33
FEATURE
the Laibon I’d met Lazaro in the nearest town where we’d stocked up on the gifts he’d said I would need to present to the Laibon: a bag of sugar for his favourite wife and, for the big man himself, twenty or so small plastic sachets of ‘Valeur Superior Brandy’, which as a statement was one I doubted. We’d then ridden together on a motorbike to a wide open plain scattered with brown eyed cattle and the collection of smoky, mud and dung huts that made up Lazaro’s village. As a thunderous rainstorm pelted the sides of the hut we’d sat up late into the night, drinking tea and trading stories, with the dozen or more other villagers who’d piled into the hut to meet the foreign guest. The following morning the sky was once again clear, but a low mist clung to the ground and muffled the sound of the mooing cattle who’d spent the night in the protection of a high fenced corral. As the women busied
Divination
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themselves milking goats and cows, stoking the embers of fires and tending to the children, I sat with the men and drank tea until Lazaro announced that it was time for us to go. Set halfway up a low forested hill topped with a red and white radio mast, Meshuko’s village has views across to the flamingo-filled Lake Manyara and is a large and orderly place far more permanent in feel than Lazaro’s village. We found the Laibon sat under the shade of a tree outside the only bricks and mortar building in the village. He was busy treating a thin and quiet lady for “fertility problems” and as we arrived he merely glanced up and nodded a quick hello. Speaking in Maa, the language of the Maasai, Meshuko asked the lady questions and she murmured back short one word replies. As his interrogation into her condition continued he laid out a white goat skin at his feet
and started to vigorously shake the ox horn that he held. This, he said, was his ‘oracle’ and when he was satisfied that it had been shaken enough he carefully removed the leather plug and asked the lady to spit into the horn. He then turned it upside down and allowed a stream of small, polished stones (as well as a random ball bearing and some kind of small seed pod) in whites, browns and speckles to fall onto the goat skin. These were then arranged into three neat piles from which the Laibon was able to ‘read’ the ladies future by looking at the patterns of the stones and work out what she needed to do to cure her infertility. As all this was taking place two assistants stood to the side chopping up an orange tinged root vegetable that Meshuko had found in the surrounding forest. This was then pounded into a thick paste using a heavy, dark wood pestle and mortar. This was the medication the
FEATURE
Treatment
lady needed to consume in order to become fertile again. She could either mix it with her food or swill it down like tea in hot water. Either way with what must have been two kilos of the stuff ready for her to consume I didn’t envy her. As the consultation finished Meshuko turned to me saying how the lady would recover from her problem in a few months and go on to have children. He then invited me into his house so we could talk in peace. It was clear that a person of such importance as Laibon wasn’t born in the same way as the rest of us. So, I wanted to know, where exactly did the first Laibon come from? Every remaining Laibon probably has his own version of this tale, but this one, which has its equivalent in many cultures and religions, is the version Meshuko told. The Laibon might be a direct descendent of Enkai (the Maasai God although nowadays Christianity is taking over from Enkai), but life for the first Laibon started in humble
ways. One day two Maasai warriors were walking in the forest when they came across a small child. One of the warriors wanted to leave the child. It was after all just a small boy who would likely be a hindrance to them. The other warrior though, who was from the Ilaiser clan (there are seven main Maasai clans plus other sub-clans and the Ilaiser are one of the most powerful clans), picked up the boy and said he was going to take him home and bring him up as his own. The warrior named the boy Kidongoi. As the years progressed it became clear that this boy had special powers. The cattle he tended were always plump and healthy, even during times of drought when everyone else’s cattle were starving and dying. Other Maasai had even observed him calling into the Heavens for rain and immediately rain would pummel the ground around him and the grass become lush and green. Acknowledging his unusual powers the people made him their spiritual leader or Laibon.
Ever since then all Laibon have been from the Ilaiser clan. Meshuko paused in his story, stood up, walked slowly to the door of his house, loudly cleared his throat and spat onto the floor. Wiping his mouth he returned to his seat and continued to explain how although the position of Laibon is hereditary a person must still train to be a Laibon. When training begins (normally after the wannabe Laibon has served his time as a moran or warrior) the father, who is himself a Laibon, consults his oracle to identify a suitable ox which the trainee must then negotiate for. The ox is slaughtered and the hide and right-horn shell removed. The father then places his own oracle, pebbles and medicines on the new hide and blesses the hide and the horn. This transforms them into oracles. The trainee heads into the forest to gather any pebbles which take his fancy. They can be unusually shaped ones, pretty ones, perfectly round ones or just plain looking chips of rock. He keeps these inside the ox NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 37
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horn and, as I’d seen earlier, it’s by reading the patterns that these pebbles make when they’re emptied onto the floor that the Laibon makes his divination. However, another Laibon whom I’d once met in Kenya, had told me that not all pebbles can be trusted and as the trainee Laibon becomes more experienced and knowledgeable at divining he might start to notice that there are always one or two pebbles who make false divinations. These pebbles are discarded and replaced with better behaved stones. Conversation moved onto the moran. Almost every visitor to East Africa will encounter a so-called Maasai moran at some point during their travels, but knowing already that Maasai culture had changed enormously in the past two decades or so and that ‘real genuine’ Moran were now rare, I was curious to hear what Meshuko, who’d been a moran for around twenty years (this will have been a guess as years and the passing of time means little to most older Maasai – as was likely demonstrated when he had told me he was 109 years old) thought of todays moran. He laughed at the question, “When we see these so-called moran, we elders think of them as children. They don’t live in the bush for long. They don’t get to kill many lions. They’re always looking at their telephones and they shave their heads like a woman. When I was a moran men had long hair and women had short hair but now it’s the other way around. They are not real moran anymore”. I could see that Meshuko was starting to tire and in the breaks in conversation his eyes were becoming heavy and closing for ever longer periods. He was nearly ready for a mid-morning nap and so I asked him one final, personal, question. “Rumour has it that you have forty wives and three hundred children. How many do you really have”? Meshuko sighed. It must have 38 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
The treatment horn
been a question he’d answered a thousand times. “People say this but I don’t. I have a few wives. Eight of them. Each of these wives has about eight, nine or ten children, but I’m too old to remember exactly. When people come here though they see all these children and women but they’re my daughters-in-law and other relations and my grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, but people see them all and they go away and say I have three hundred children but this is not true”. Before the interview was complete Meshuko turned the tables on me and asked why I only had
one wife and two children. My reply about it just not being necessary to have more children didn’t seem to cut the ice and then Lazaro gave his opinion on why people in the West and urban Africa didn’t have more children, “It’s all to do with the chemicals you put on your foods. You don’t eat fresh foods that you’ve grown yourself like we do and all these chemicals stop you having more children”. It was a good point, and as I thanked Meshuko for his time and left him to sleep, I made a mental note never to buy bio-food again…
FEATURE
Searching for the
shoe bill bird By Harriet James
I
n Buganda, there’s a proverb that goes, “Okutambula kulaba, okudda kunyumya”-Traveling opens your mind to the unknown, turning you into a story teller on your way home”. Before my recent trip to Uganda, I read lots of books and blogs on the shoebill and with my curiosity roused, I set off. Tourists travel from all over the world to Uganda just to take its photo. My sight
watching began in Mabamba swamp, a famous birding site situated in the west of Entebbe on the northern shore of the largest lake in Africa: Lake Victoria. Through a motorized wooden boat, we rode through the maze of trails that cut through the thick marshes eagerly anticipating a glimpse of the shoebill. The area is covered with water lilies and papyrus where over 300 species of birds
reside. The black heron, African fish eagle, Brown and grey parrot, Grey woodpecker, great cormorant, goliath heron, African pigmy goose, grey crowned crane and many others can be spotted here. This is not the only place to spot the spoonbill in Uganda. It’s also commonly found at the Murchison falls parks on the banks of the river Nile, lake Edward, Rugogo swamp, and Lake Mburo. On our way, we
'The Baganda believe that meeting a Shoebill bird as they fish, would mean a poor catch that day and this has consequently resulted in the birds being hunted and killed in great numbers.' NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 39
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also met a couple of fishermen casting their nets. This swamp is rich with lung fish - the shoebill’s favorite meal. This brings a conflict between the two hunters-the fishermen and the shoebill-who heavily rely on the fish for their survival. The Baganda believe probably due to its frightening look, its whale head or shoebill, to spot one, is a bad omen. Our tour guide told us, “They (Baganda) believe that meeting one (Shoebill bird) as they fish, would mean that a poor catch
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that day and this has consequently resulted in the birds being hunted and killed in great numbers. They were nearly extinct in this swamp” he finishes. When the wetland was designated a Ramsar site in 2006 it began offering protection for the remaining bulwes. A ramsar site is a wetland that is specifically set aside to be of international significance under the Ramsar convention which was established in the year 1971. The Ramsar identifies wetlands that are of international importance specifically,
those that offer a home species of birds facing extinction. By 2016, 2231 ramsar sites had been created to safeguard 214,936,005 hectares of wetlands all around the world. Some of the ramsar sites in Kenya include Lake Bogoria, Elementaita, Naivasha and Nakuru due to their birdlife fame. The many tourists who visit the Mabamba swamp have also contributed in sensitizing the fishermen who earn a living by renting out their boats. Some
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fishermen have also trained as tour guides specialized in bird watching. Our trip was almost cut short by the dark clouds which were gathering in the sky but we wore our raincoats and braved the rain, till the guide shouted, “Over there, the bird is over there!” A fisherman had just passed by our boat and cautioned the guide - he had met a shoebill whilst fishing. He commanded those of us who were noisy to keep quiet as the legendary bird loves hushed places. In the Ugandan culture, when a shoebill approaches you, one is supposed to take a deep bow, and then shake your head side to side. Next, one is supposed to lower their head and make a soft low voice to connect with the bird, which in turn makes it respond to your greetings. It all sounded like yoga when we were asked to do this – its impression – for the first time. There are approximately 12 shoebills in the swamp. Shoebills are masters of patience. They will stand in water, large patches of high grass, and other hiding places for hours on end. They know that if they wait long enough for the right moment, they will find their next meal. The Shoebill will leap suddenly and quickly from cover, lunging forward with its sharp bill, scoop up their prey, devouring it whole. Roughly 60% of their attacks are successful. We only managed to find one. The first thing I noticed were its huge eyes and its massive beak. If we were to do a starring contest, I think this bird would emerge the victor as they can stay motionless with their bills down against their necks. They do this, to be on guard while a fish or other prey passes by, so that they can attack them with speed and find a meal. They also feed on water snakes, turtles, monitor lizards and even young, baby crocodiles. Another interesting thing is that these solitary birds nest alone, laying just one to three eggs in a
large flat nest which is constructed in the midst of sedges and swamp grasses. Their elusive and antisocial behavior occurs throughout, except during the breeding season. Our guide tells us that even when two siblings hatch, there is usually rivalry amongst them which results in only one surviving. The bird is so ruthless that the largest chick in the hatch will end up committing fratricide without a moment’s hesitation. The mothers will also eventually eject the last bird standing after the chick has learnt basic survival skills. They have an average life span of 25 years, especially in the wild. Both the male and female participate in rearing. It takes 140 days of nest-attendance to get from new-laid egg to independent offspring; and it takes three to four years to get from newly independent
offspring to mature adult. I was shocked to find out that the bird practices urohydrosis - defecates on its legs to lower its temperature. This is what made them to be confused with storks, since they too use their droppings to cool off! We stayed for 20 minutes. Gazing. Then our guide informed us that it was time to head back home, lest the death stare haunts some of us in our dreams. Frankly, I was scared of the thought of having a nightmare with the big eyes staring at me at night, in a hotel room all by myself. Beastly or terrifying as it looks like, it was an amazing experience learning about this legendary bird or bulwe and I feel that the world is a better place having such impressive creatures to astound us.
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FEATURE
From the
Kidepo Valley By Pamela Kertland Wright PHOTOS©WILDPLACES AFRICA
'Kidepo is indeed blessed with tremendous beauty, and even in inclement weather, when the storm clouds hang low over the jagged Lomej hills and the diffused light seemingly bounces off the kopjes, the splendour is still undeniable.'
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FEATURE
A
s a child growing up in Canada, I had an image in my mind of what ‘Africa’ would look like. And then, in the late 1990s we moved with our young children to Uganda. As a family we explored the beautiful, verdant western areas of Fort Portal and the jungle of the Semliki Valley which made me feel like an intrepid explorer. We ventured into the dramatic south-west region of Queen Elizabeth and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We boated on Lake Victoria, I clapped eyes on the Nile for the very first time. We settled into life in Kampala and visited friends in Kenya. But I felt unsettled. I had still not seen the Africa of my childhood dreams. Did it even exist? A year later, my husband decided we needed to get up to Kidepo. Virtually unreachable by road at that time and not serviced by any scheduled flights, we chartered a small plane, packed up enough food for the next few days, kissed the babies goodbye and headed up to the most north-easterly reaches of Uganda. Accustomed to the population density of central and western Uganda, the vast expanse of nothing was a revelation: the ribbon of the Nile, the amoebic shape of
Lake Kyoga, and then nothing. Just nothing. The tell-tale circles of kraals, far below on the dusty ground, was the only evidence of humanity below. We flew over a range of jagged mountains, so close you could see the fissures and practically touch the weathered rock, and then suddenly emerged above the vast expanse of the Kidepo Valley National Park. We landed, off-loaded, and as the plane took off, leaving us on the airstrip, I remember feeling a vague sense of unease, of trepidation. Despite spending summers going on long canoe trips into the Canadian bush, this was probably the most remote I had even been, the furthest away from ‘civilisation’ I had ever felt. But all of this disquiet disappeared as soon as I looked around. This was it. This was the Africa I had seen in my dreams, only better. Kidepo is listed among Africa’s best parks by experts, guidebooks and safari aficionados. Accolades pile up, adjectives run to the superlative, and adverbs are liberally dolloped on top. Kidepo is indeed blessed with tremendous beauty, and even in inclement weather, when the storm clouds hang low over the jagged Lomej hills and the diffused light seemingly bounces off the kopjes, the splendour is still undeniable.
The park also has fantastic game. Does it have the volume and numbers of more popular areas like the Masai Mara or Ngorongoro? Probably not. But nor does it have the number of people and the throng of safari cars and mini-buses chasing after the wildlife. The park boasts 86 mammal species, nearly a quarter of which are not found in Uganda’s other parks (ie: cheetah, aardwolf, bright’s gazelle, caracal, for starters…) and nearly 500 bird species - including over 50 birds of prey. Personally, I think it’s worth the trip if only just to see the abyssinian roller or the near-endemic rose-ringed parakeets who frequent the same tree year after year. After our first visit to Kidepo we were hooked. We were committed. We rebuilt the abandoned Apoka Safari Lodge and started welcoming guests 15 years ago. Other lodges are now cropping up on the outside of the park and increasing numbers of visitors are coming to see for themselves what all the fuss is about. But still there is a sense of remoteness and isolation that is not easy to find in this increasingly hectic world. Not long ago I was sitting with a coffee on top of one of the many rocky outcrops that dot the landscape. We’d climbed up just before sunrise and faced
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the dawn, wrapped in Karamajong shukas to stay warm. My companion was a seasoned traveller, a tour operator who had travelled the length and breadth of sub-saharan Africa. Holding our steaming coffee, we gazed down at the zebra below, the giraffe in the distance and the thick dark herds of buffalo in the wet grasses of the river valley. She burst out laughing: ‘Why would anyone go anywhere else? Why go to the Mara when you have all this (she flung an arm out), and you have it all to yourself?” I couldn’t agree more. Later that night three young lions killed a young warthog right outside her room. And so it goes. Apoka Lodge was a rehabilitation project. Built on the site of the old lodge which had lain abandoned for a number of years. Where the original lodge had motel-style small, airless cottages, these were repurposed into staff accommodation and offices and rooms were built anew: not quite tents yet not quite bandas, the big, thatched canvas-walled chalets on stilts are built around the kopjes, offering space and a rustic, refined
elegance. With huge open-screened windows, the vistas are spectacular. Wildlife roams freely around the camp (lions have been known to climb up onto the thatched roof, or lie in the shade under the rooms and elephant have come up to scratch their backs on the thatch) and guests have a true ‘touch the wild’ experience. The main lodge, open aired and breezy, looks out over the well-populated water hole (zebra, waterbuck, warthog and buffalo are the main regulars at the bar) and the golden-green savannah beyond. Meals are taken at the massive rough hewn tables, coffee (or a single malt whisky) is served while lounging in the over-stuffed armchairs. Decor is simple, natural and classic, allowing the scenery to take centre stage. The supporting role in this play, however, goes to the swimming pool. Built into one of the rocky outcrops, literally carved out of the rock face, this pool brings out the child in everyone. Deep and cool, and blue as a tropical lagoon, the Apoka Lodge pool is magical. In the heat of the dry season, it is a
necessity and the perfect place to while away the afternoon before heading out into the bundu for sundowners. The lodge has its own open-topped game-viewing vehicles and the guides, based on-site, know the park like the back of their hand. In such a remote location like Karamoja, local knowledge is valuable and the Apoka guides are from the local communities. (As is virtually all the staff at Apoka). The park is vast and there is much to learn from these men. At nearly 1,500 square kilometres, the park is dominated by a rugged savannah landscape, punctuated by numerous outcrops and kopjes, which rise like islands out of the grasslands. Mount Morongole dramatically dominates the Eastern landscape, recognisable in any photo. The park is blessed with a permanent water source - the Narus River - which means that the Narus Valley is a hub for all the gathering animals, year round. Zebra, giraffe, elephant, waterbuck, reed buck, warthog, thousands of buffalo (possibly the largest herds
'Wildlife roams freely around the camp, lions have been known to climb up onto the thatched roof, or lie in the shade under the rooms and elephants have come up to scratch their backs on the thatch and guests have a true ‘touch the wild’ experience. '
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of buffalo ever recorded). Cross the Kidepo river into the Kidepo Valley towards South Sudan and the landscape changes. It’s scrubbier, wilder, barren and deserted, home to a growing number of Ostrich. The hills are like cones popping out of the earth’s crust. Seasonal sand rivers oscillate across the savannah and then disappear into deep rocky gorges. Lions pose like models on top of the kopjes, surveying the grasslands below, shopping for dinner. It’s not uncommon to see them lounging in the fig trees to get away from the midday heat. The park has been a well-kept secret for a very long time but it has not been without its problems. Conservation efforts have been considerable to get the park back on its feet after the years of turmoil which affected many of Uganda’s protected areas. Among many other partners, Frankfurt Zoo, Uganda Conservation Society, Africa Wildlife Foundation, the Giraffe
Conservation Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, IUCN, UWEC , and of course the Uganda Wildlife Authority which oversees all Uganda parks, have all participated in numerous conservation projects and initiatives to restore the park to its former glory. The giraffe population in Kidepo, for instance, had reached critical numbers. The Rothschilds giraffe, a subspecies of the Northern giraffe which exists only in Kenya and Uganda has in the past decade been added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Poaching and habitat loss contribute significantly to their decline. In the late 1990s, only 3 giraffes remained in Kidepo and the outlook was dire. Two concerted translocations have been carried out, first in 1997 when 3 giraffe were flown from Lake Nakuru in Kenya, and more recently when 10 more females were moved from Murchison Falls. The population is growing steadily - it is estimated
that there are now in excess of 50 giraffes in Kidepo - sightings of lovely pale baby giraffes frolicking in the grasses are not uncommon and we are almost at the stage when we can breathe a sigh of relief. Monitoring continues but the improvement is marked. Other projects are also ongoing: ostrich breeding, translocation of eland and kob, constant monitoring, community conservation initiatives. All of this leads to a better and brighter future for one of Africa’s greatest parks. Those of us who have built lodges up in Kidepo know that we are playing a long game. The park is still very remote. Logistics are a challenge, supplies are all carted up from Kampala. But improved links to the area have made a big difference, our doors are open. And the view’s not bad either…
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 45
ART REVIEW
Earth Friendly Gifts 1.
Beautifully packed Seed Balls
2.
Bath Bombs, massage oils and creams in glass, metal or bamboo containers
3.
Traditional metal shaver
4.
Ink refillable fountain pen
5.
Recycled or natural rubber flip flops and sarong
6.
Edible - Preserves, chocolates, cookies and cake
7.
Recipe Book especially one that contains delicious vegetable preparations
8.
Wax Food Cloths
9.
Cushions & throws
Loose tea drinking equipment
Seed Balls
10. Table mats and napkins 11. Insect repellent candles
Wax Food Cloths
12. Water Bottle 13. Bamboo framed sunglasses 14. Hats - minimise the use of sunscreen and wear a hat 15. Anything Upcycled, especially clothing & swimwear from recycled plastic 16. Shopping canvas bags & Straw Baskets, Kenyan kiondo 17. Loose vegetable string/mesh bags filled with fruits and nuts 18. Kindle 19. Solar powered lights 20. Loose tea drinking equipment
46 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Kenyan Kiondos Ink refillable fountain pen
Kenyan Kiondos
ENGLISH PRESS
REVIEW
I
The gods at Christmas
’m in the wilderness with a group of outstanding thinkers, readers, some of them writers, an authority on animal behaviour and all of them conservationists. We are discussing the gods -ancient and new and their influence on our culture. There is much discussion on why, or more precisely when, the old gods were replaced with those who have forged our laws today. Discoveries into the history of
rituals, fire here and there between the vultures circling and landing, the hyenas sniffing the ground for scraps and the overly fed Cheetah who managed to gorge on his prey and walk away, belly protruding. We watch the Ostriches’ mating dance, the lion and lioness snuggled in the grass and a new born elephant calf trotting alongside his mother to the shelter of the distant trees before the midday sun.
Christmas isn’t cold or snowy everywhere. Snowflakes, mistletoe & winter wonderlands have evolved over the centuries from the influence of the cultures that embraced Christmas. People have marked astronomical events like solstices and equinoxes, which gave them a sense of time like the seasons, to help them plan migrations and when to plant or harvest crops. The winter solstice
Hanukkah Candles by Pugo M
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has the shortest amount of daylight and the longest night. In the deepest part of the winter, everyone turns to each other wanting to hug them and say well done; we’re half way through the darkness, from now the days are going to get longer and the nights shorter. This mid point is the winter solstice or Christmas. Independent of each other, people would have celebrated this time with a holiday and a feast. In ancient Rome, that holiday was called Saturnalia, named after the god Saturn. Saturnalia was celebrated with food, drink, swapping gifts, and a brief but generous sense of equality by the masters - role reversing and tending to their servants. When Jesus was born, Jews didn’t celebrate birthdays. On December 25th, 274 AD, the Emperor Aurelian created a holiday called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti or the birthday of the Sun. It wasn’t until 350 AD, when Pope Julius I officially declared December 25th, the day to celebrate the birth of Christ. Luke’s gospel says: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Shepherds watch their flock by night during lambing season, which is in the spring. In the winter, livestock would be corralled. In 4th century Rome there were three big holidays celebrated on December 25th – Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, and the Dies Natalis of Jesus. As Roman gods faded away to be replaced by early Christianity, the gift giving of Saturnalia survived. As the Christians spread to Northern Europe, they absorbed the local winter solstice’s customs there too. Vikings celebrated the Festival of Yule to honour the winter solstice - family member went into the winter woods in search of the most robust log. The Christmas tree probably originated in 16th century Germany, when Protestant reformer
Christmas dining - Ideal Home
Modern Table
Elegant Christmas
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REVIEW
Norse God Odin's Hunt by Peter Nicolai Arbo
Martin Luther lit candles on an evergreen tree. Santa Claus can be traced back to a monk named St. Nicholas who lived around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One time, he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery and prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant 50 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Reformation, which discouraged the veneration of saints, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland. For centuries, Christ Mass was celebrated as a whole season beginning with Christmas Eve. On the eve because Moses said ‘an evening and a morning were the first day’. Hence for early Jews, a day began at six in the evening and ran until six the following evening. This ancient method of timekeeping is also used in Swahili. What is well known by historians is that neither Christ nor his apostles celebrated their birthdays. The idea of birthdays, candles and cakes is rooted in magic. The Greeks and Romans believed that guardian spirits attended the birth of a person and watched over them for life. The custom of lighted candles also came from the Greeks who offered lit up
cakes in the shape of the moon and stars to Artemis who would grant them their wishes. Predating Christmas, is Chanukka. Sometimes written Hanukka. The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so Hanukkah can fall anywhere from November 28th to December 26th. Chanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights, beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. After Alexander the Great, Babylonia, Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, parts of Pakisatan & Turkmenistan were under the Seleucid Empire. After the emperor, Antiochus forbade Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest, Mattathias the Hasmoen, sparked a revolt by refusing to worship the Greek gods.
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Mattathias killed a Hellensistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias’s place. He then fled with his five sons into the wilderness of Judah. In 166 BCE, a year after Mattathias’s death, his son Judas Macabee led an army of dissidents into guerrilla warfare against hellenistic Jews - they destroyed pagan altars in villages, circumcised boys & became outlaws. Macabee means hammer in Hebrew. The Macabees then ritually cleansed the temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship. The Selucid army returned to Syria after Antiochus’s death and religious freedom was restored. It is said, at the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem, a small sealed and therefore pure jug of oil was found that had only enough oil for a day. But, that the wicks of the menorah burned for eight days, by which time more oil could be procured. Recent studies by Dr Secunda, professor of Judaism claim that lighting of the holy candles is heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism. It is written, that an unnamed Achaemid king of the Zoroastrian Persian Empire of the time, impressed by the miracle of the oil, enclosed and made the place sacred. Since the Jews already considered the space sacred and central to the Zoroastrian religion is the veneration of fire as a symbol of purity, the light of god and the illumination of the mind, it was the Zoroastrian tradition that elevated the restoration of the fire on the altar. Josephus, towards the end of the first century CE, writes that Jews refer to Chanukah as ‘the Festival of Lights’. Indeed in the classical Rabbinic sources, there is no reference to the kindling of Chanukka candles. In these
Scandinavian-christmas
sources, Chanukka, the official start of the winter season, is a festival on which fasting and mourning are prohibited. So what of New Years? They all fall at different times too. The Chinese, Islamic, Sikh & Hindu New years do not fall on January first. Yet, it doesn’t matter. The Vikings, Victorians, modern consumers and profiteers have all left their mark on the season to be merry. But that is the nature of integration and acceptance. What I’ve gleaned from all this talk about the gods amidst the
wilderness, is that there are many ways to celebrate the Christmas holidays and that they are all man made and correct. Feast with your fellows and do something magical together. Like being compassionate to the planet, it’s plants and all its creatures. We've been reading 'mythos' by Stephen Fry, a dazzling, entertaining and herculean task of retelling the story of the ancient Greek gods. –Rupi Gill
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 51
REVIEW
Kifaru the Film “This is what extinction looks like.”
J
ames Mwenda, who looked after Sudan, the last male white rhino on earth until his death in March 2018, says. The auditorium showing David Humbridge and Andrew Harrison’s award winning feature documentary is full with three screens set up and a fund raising auction for the
Ol Pajeta conservancy which raises about a million shillings. Two rhino caretakers’ humble lives are explored. James Mwenda was a gardener and understands human wildlife conflict from first hand experiences. In the film, he develops a deep bond with Sudan and feels that Sudan wants someone to speak up for him. The
other keeper is Joseph Wachira, fondly Jojo, who runs around amusing the rhinos. Mwenda says of him that Jojo “has been in the wild so long he thinks he’s a rhino.” Working away from home for ten months of the year, the caretakers sleep with their animals, feeding them and on occasion have a night off to play pool with other wildlife
David Hambridge with Sudan
rangers. Jojo’s wife is expecting a baby and his affections are torn between the work he loves and the family for whom he works. The northern white rhino is a subspecies of white rhino, which used to range over parts of Uganda, Chad, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Years of widespread poaching and civil war in their home lands have devastated northern white rhino populations, and they are now extinct in the wild. Only two remain, both on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. They are the most sociable of the rhinos. Sudan was born in Southern Sudan, captured at two years old and taken to the Czech Republic where he was brought up in captivity on a Czech Safari Park. After unsuccessful breeding attempts, he was brought back to Africa to live out his days at Ol Pajeta where he had to be guarded day and night for his precious horn.
To emulate wallowing, which rhinos do to cool down, protect their skin from UV light and from parasites, the caretakers massage Sudan with wet mud, they dress his sores and when he simply can’t get up, Dr Morne de la Ray is called in to euthanise him. When Mwenda came to work with Sudan, there were four northern white rhinos - Sudan, Suni, Sudan’s daughter Najin and her daughter Fatu. Suni died of natural causes. It was then discovered that Najin has weak hocks and wouldn’t be able to carry a pregnancy whilst Fatu has endometriosis and wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. But recent successes in fertilising seven of their eggs with frozen sperm from two deceased bulls - Suni and Saut, has scientists looking towards surrogate mothers in southern white rhino herds. However, Richard Vigne CEO of Ol Pajeta conservancy later says that
whilst conservation was becoming more mainstream, it was difficult to predict the future of the northern white rhinos as the embryos will have to be safely implanted and if they were carried to full term and birth, the young ones would have to be taught how to be northern whites by southern whites. Speaking after the film, Mwenda describes how when he went to Hong Kong to raise awareness of conservation and to dissuade people from using rhino horn; “Children cried when the plight of rhinos was explained to them. In China paracetamol has been made from rhino horn for 600 years. Some children said their parents had rhino horn in the house. The countries surrounding China are still demanding this”. A cinematographer & commercial documentary filmmaker this is David Hambridge’s debut feature as the director, cinematographer and producer. He proposed that “media
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 53
controls the mind. If an animated film about Sudan and extinction were made, it would change the demand for horn.” David believes losing an animal to extinction should not only be experienced by the world, but “it should be felt” too. With KIFARU, David’s goal is to share that feeling of extinction with a worldwide audience for the first time, and hopefully the last. Andrew Harrison Brown co-produced and edited the film. Andrew, having witnessed how stories told through images transcended barriers and acted as levers for change. And thus the proud descendant of Chief Tarhe of the Wyandot-Huron nation and a father of two became the founder of his production company Ragtag Tribe Films. The film has pretty much everyone in tears. And we believe it wholeheartedly, humbled, properly converted to conservation and to stop wasting stuff. What we don’t see enough of or at all, is the danger 54 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Sudan's Carers
lurking behind the bushes. Whilst rhinos have no natural predators, poachers from nearby areas driven by conflict over land, poverty, drought and a lack of opportunities are being enticed by companies that can ship rhino horn or ivory in large quantities, past authorities and into the hands of wealthy traders. Rhino horn in Vietnam for instance, is considered the best of the best, to possess it is to possess an elixir, should it be needed. Rhino horn consumers will often also buy other
illegal products such as bear bile and tiger bone too. Many customers are aware that the animals have to be killed to get at the medicine, but since they are not personally affected, even by their extinction, they do not care. In fact the rarer it gets, the more it is desired and gifted to special people thus acquiring a status of prestige and power, since it is also only available through selective networks. – Rupi Gill
REVIEW
Beer and food pairing at Dar es Salaam's oldest hotel By Kari Mutu
I
t was an à la carte menu instead of a buffet. I am more inclined to take wine with my meal but this time, with the assistance of the maitre d’, we were able to select the right beers for each course. Being a coastal city, the starter of choice was an appetising Crayfish Bisque. Chunks of crayfish meat floated in the smooth red soup with a hint of
lemon, a dollop of fennel foam and strip of garlic crostini in the side. Recommended with the soup was the Serengeti beer, a clear gold lager and one of Tanzania’s most widely enjoyed brews. It is an idea beer for mild flavoured soups because of the light body and dry finish does not overpower the delicate flavours of the bisque.
Pairing wine and food is common enough but I recently discovered the art of combining beer with a meal at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Dar es Salaam. The hotel has recently been refurbished with contemporary décor, polished floors and trellis light fixtures that evoke Zanzibar wood carvings-.
Four Points Shertaon Dar NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 55
REVIEW
PHOTO©KARI MUTU
Bandari Grill Restaurant - photo Kari Mutu2
I was there during Best Brews Global, a week-long event held in all Four Points hotels around the world to showcase the best beers in a country. Lunch was served in the recently renovated Bandari Grill, a stylish eatery on the mezzanine floor. It faces the historic St Joseph’s Cathedral, a German-built structure of Gothic architecture and stained glass windows dating to 1902. In the distance you catch glimpses of the blue harbour water. However, the tall windows of Bandari Grill are well sound-proofed as we did notice any noise coming from the busy street below. Soup was followed by an assortment of savoury appetizers made in bite-size pieces that you could easily pop into your mouth. Pyramid shaped tartlets were filled with ground beef and dried powdered olives, with a side of creamy lemon tartar sauce for dipping in. These are best washed
56 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
PHOTO©CRAFTY DEES TANZANIA
Draught beer
down with a Kilimanjaro beer, a crisp and not too malty beer that is easy on the palette and widely consumed in Tanzania. There were some Arancini Rice Balls stuffed with sweetcorn, pearl onions and chopped avocado and they matched well with Dee’s Gold, a crafted draught beer made by a Tanzanian microbrewery called Crafty Dee’s Brewing Company. With the mini tarts of feta cheese and smoked chicken the recommended brew is the English Summer, also a local craft brew. This clear beer is a hybrid of an English style brown ale and a blond ale. I liked its slightly fruity taste and medium body and consequently, this was my ale of choice when it came to desert. Chintu Patel, the founder of Crafty Dee’s, follows the German qualitative beer laws, the mostly widely known regulation system. Only malt, hops, yeast and water are used in production. However his ingredients
come from New Zealand. “With their innovative and highly advanced beer making systems, it is ideal for sourcing the best ingredients available anywhere in the world today,” said Chintu. The table was reset for the main course. What could be more apt then Prawns Zanzibar Swahili style? Here, executive chef Vishul Gosavi was aiming for a blend of coastal Tanzanian and Indian flavours that evoke mixed heritage of the region. The tasty skewered prawns were served on a bed of sticky coconut pilaf rice and accompanied by chachandu, a popular Tanzanian hot sauce made from tomatoes, red chillies, garlic and herbs. It was very satisfying but not overly filling, meaning there was room for pudding afterwards. The ideal beer for the zesty main course was a slightly chilled Dee’s Blonde craft beer, a pale gold and low bitterness ale that tempers the invigorating flavours of the prawns.
PHOTOS©KARI MUTU
Butter Berry Dots with beer at Bandari Grill - photo courtesy
Tanzanian food, especially at the coast, is influenced by foreign cuisines because of centuries of merchant trade with the East and Europe. Cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns and cinnamon grown in Zanzibar and which flavour many local dishes, were introduced by Chinese and Portuguese. Dishes on the menu such as pilaf rice, butter chicken, daal (lentils) and kachumbari (a tomato salsa) trace back to Indian cooking. But there is very little German cuisine which is the origin of the New Africa Hotel. It was built in 1896 as an official residence of Germany’s emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II when Tanganyika was a colony. During World War I it was used as a hospital and when Britain took control after the war it was converted into hotel, the first in Dar es Salaam. Bandari’s wide menu also has steaks, seafood dishes and several non-meat options. The vegetarian version of the prawns were skewered assorted grilled vegetables
Prawns Zanzibar Swahili Style
and halloumi cheese made with a side of chachandu sauce that spices up the benign taste of the skewers. And if you do not take alcohol, the freshly squeezed watermelon and pineapple juices are revitalising. Once again the plates were cleared promptly by attentive staff and dessert made an appearance before long. The Butter Berry Dots that I had were miniature vanilla mousses with an almond biscotti and a decadent chocolate cage. They were just the right size and sweetness at the end of a satisfying meal which was rounded off with a shot of espresso. I could have happily stayed with the English Summer ale for all the courses as it complemented the deep flavours of the food. Being smooth and low in bitterness, it was also easy to drink on its own as a refreshing beverage on a hot day. But I’m glad I discovered the complexity of beer flavours which are broad enough to accompany lots of food.
PHOTOS©KARI MUTU
St Joseph's Cathedral, Dar es Salaam
NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 57
TRAVELER'S TALE
Adventure around Kenya W
hat better way to start a trip in Kenya than in the Maasia Mara at a wonderful camp, hand selected by Seas4Life Safaris. We got to connect with the people who ran and worked on the Mara Elephant Project those at the forefront of protecting these magnificent animals, their habitat and engaging with the local communities. After experiencing the magic of the Mara we hopped back to Nairobi where we stayed in a beautiful home surrounded by nature and got to visit the Giraffe Centre and the David Sheldrick shelter – whose core work involves the rescue and rehabilitation of milk dependent orphaned baby elephants and rhinos. The next day we took the breathtakingly scenic road into the rift valley and arrived at Ajuba house, right on the shores of Lake Naivasha. Here roam freely, Hippos, Zebra, Waterbuck, Leopards, pelicans and more. We spent our time walking, cycling and water skiing with Julie Church - our guide, and simply relaxing before heading back to the city, for the next leg.
Dhow
58 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
TRAVELER'S TALE
Stepping onto our luxury 60ft traditional Dhow for our five night adventure to Lamu, took our breath away. The boat we took, was filled with luxuries that allowed us to unroll our gorgeous bedrolls and sleep under the stars, on deck, in comfort. Some did diving, others snorkeling, swimming, kayaking or water-skiing and then just ambling along the beaches. Around the crystal waters of the archipelago were activities that even less active members could join. We were spoilt by the chef on board who catered for all our wants and needs – vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or carnivore. We even got to fish and eat the catch. Eating either on deck or on a deserted beach under the moonlit sky, every night. One of the best things about this form of travel is the flexibility to set sail or anchor in what feels like your own little slice of paradise with no pressure of getting up and out at a certain time. We felt like we had the ocean and beaches to ourselves, far
Dinner on the deck
from the crowds. We woke up at our own leisure, ate, drank indulged in activities as and when suited any individual or the whole group. This allowed for magical moments such swimming with pods of dolphins without any time constraints.
On Kiwayu island we met some wonderful people at a Robinson Crusoe style camp for sundowner drinks. Other islands included the idyllic Kui and Rubu, for exploring the mangroves, and kayaking. Here, we caught our own mangrove crab
Swimming with dolphins
'One of the best things about this form of travel is the flexibility to set sail or anchor in what feels like your own little slice of paradise with no pressure of getting up and out at a certain time. '
TRAVELER'S TALE
with the local fishers. The focus of every Seas4Life Safaris trip is education and conservation which is what drew us to booking with them. After such wonderful and inspiring land experiences we were excited to visit and learn about the coral reef transplanting that has successfully taken place in Kiunga. Julie has played a vital role to this end. She pointed out some coral transplants she and the KWS/ WWF team had planted in 2002. It was incredible to see reefs once completely barren and dead to be so colourful and have so much biodiversity once more. Sharing a private boat with friends and family and having magical encounters with both marine and land animals is something we will all treasure forever. Julie has so much passion and knowledge of the biodiversity which makes up the ecosystems both in the water and on land, that having her guide us heightened our experience. Feeling completely immersed in it all we have come away with a new found
respect and love for our blue planet. Our trip was something completely different from the usual beach holiday packages we’ve come across before. Seas4Life safaris enabled us to escape all the hustle and bustle of the usual tourist traps and go on
adventures we would never have dreamed off with exclusive access to the sea, land, animals, scientists, local people and their environments. – Laura Williams
In our last issue, we featured rare antiques from the Swahili coast with Mombasa based collector Muhaimin Khamisa. We apologise for the incorrect spelling of Muhaimin Khamisa’s name in the print edition. Look out for further articles elaborating more of East Africa’s rich heritage of antiques including proverbs, jewellery and inscriptions that have been translated by Muhaimin Khamisa
60 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
AIRKENYA
Customer Service Week, 2019
AIRKENYA FLIGHT SCHEDULE 2020 FROM
TO
AMBOSELI Wilson Amboseli
Amboseli Wilson
Depart Arrive 0730 0815
0805 0850
NOTES See notes (a) &(b)
Connection: The Amboseli Wilson service connects to Nanyuki, Lewa Downs, Samburu, Meru,Loisaba, Masai Mara and Kilimanjaro services
KILIMANJARO Wilson Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro Wilson
1315 1425
1410 1520
LEWA DOWNS Wilson Wilson Lewa Downs Lewa Downs
Lewa Downs Lewa Downs Wilson Masai Mara
0830 0915 1025 1005
0955 1015 1240 1130
LOISABA Wilson Wilson Loisaba Loisaba
Loisaba Loisaba Wilson Mara
0830 0915 1055 1005
0955 1045 1240 1130
0800 1030 1400 0845 1115 1445 0845 1205
0840 1110 1440 1015 1300 1615 0930 1225
See notes (a) &(b)
Connection: Many of our morning inbound services conect to Kilimanjaro service, passengers can also connect Regional Air services to Arusha, Manyara, Seronera and Grumeti at 1430hrs.
MASAI MARA + MIGORI Wilson Masai Mara Wilson Masai Mara Wilson Masai Mara Masai Mara Wilson Masai Mara Wilson Masai Mara Wilson Masai Mara Migori Migori Masai Mara
See notes (a), (b),( c) See notes (d) ,(e)
See notes (a), (b),(c) & (d) See notes (d) ,(e)
See notes (a), (b), (c)
See note (g)
*** Additional flight operating between 01st July - 30th September
Meru Meru Wilson Nanyuki Samburu Masai Mara
0830 0915 1125 1125 0935 0935
0925 1115 1240 1150 0955 1130
NANYUKI Wilson Wilson Nanyuki Nanyuki Nanyuki
Nanyuki Nanyuki Wilson Meru Masai Mara
0830 0915 1200 1000 1030
0905 0950 1240 1115 1130
SAMBURU Wilson Wilson Samburu Samburu
Samburu Samburu Wilson Masai Mara
0830 0915 1055 1005
0955 1045 1240 1130
LOW SEASON HIGH SEASON 01 Apr - 30 Jun 21 Dec - 31 Mar 01 Nov - 20 Dec 01 Jul - 31st Oct Valid from 21/12/2019 to 20/12/2020
See notes(a),(b),(c),(d)
See notes(a),(b),(c),(d) See notes (a), (b), (e) See notes (d), (e)
See notes(a),(b),(c),(d) See notes(a),(b),(c),(d) See notes (d), (e)
see note (a), (b ), (c), (d) & (e)
TO
Depart Arrive
MARA - SERENGETI VIA MIGORI/TARIME Masai Mara Tarime 0845 1040 Tarime Fort Ikoma 1100 1205 Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime Tarime
Grumeti Kogatende Lamai Lobo Manyara*** Ndutu Sasakwa Serengeti South Seronera Singita
1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100 1100
1205 1115 1145 1205 1300 1150 1205 1205 1205 1205
NOTES
See note (a), (b), (c), (f), (g) & (h)
See notes (a),(b),(c), (f),(g),(h)
The same fares can be applied if clients begin their journies from Serengeti ***Call reservations for bookings into Manyara
MARA - UGANDA VIA KISUMU/ENTEBBE Masai Mara Kisumu 0845 0950 Kisumu Entebbe 1030 1130 Entebbe Kisumu 1215 1315 Kisumu Masai Mara 1355 1430 Masai Mara Entebbe 0845 1130 Entebbe Masai Mara 1215 1430 Masai Mara Kihihi (BINP) 0845 1355 Kihihi Mara 0945 1430 Masai Mara
Kasese/ Mweya 0845 (QENP) Masai Mara 1020
1435
Masai Mara Semiliki
Semiliki Masai Mara
0845 1020
1435 1430
Masai Mara
Bugungu
0845
1330
Masai Mara
Pakuba/ Chobe 0845 (MFNP) Kidepo (KVNP) 0845
1330
Kasese/ Mweya
WILSON - MASAI MARA ADDITIONAL* Wilson Masai Mara 1530** 1610** Masai Mara Wilson 1620 1745 MERU Wilson Wilson Meru Meru Meru Meru
FROM
Masai Mara
See notes (a) & (b)
1430
1445
QENP - Queen Elizabeth National Park; BINP - Bwindi Impenetrable National Park; KVNP - Kidepo Valley National Park; MFNP - Murchinson Falls National Park Flights to Semliki, Bugungu, Pakuba, Chobe and Kidepo requires Minimum 4 pax NOTES a) Daily Service b) Minimum 2 pax to operate c) Services operates into Multiple Airstrips and timings may vary depending on aircraft routing d) Flights from Northern Destinations can route Via Wilson during the low season to connect Masai Mara departure at 1400hrs e) One Direction Service f) Regional Air, Auric Air and Coastal Aviation operate Tarime to Serengeti service; Arrival times at the various aistrips in Serengeti may vary depending on aircraft routing g) All ground transfers from Migori to Tarime will be handled by Airkenya, booking to be made as Mara - Tarime h) Flight times arriving Serengeti are based on Regional Air services, timings may vary depending on aircraft routing and if booked on alternate Tanzanian partners.
Contact charter desk if schedule flights don’t fit your itinerary on charters@airkenya.com
62 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
Tel: +254 (0)20 391 6000 / +254 (0) 20 3925000 Email: info@airkenya.com / resvns@airkenya.com
www.airkenya.com
AIRKENYA AIRCRAFT FLEET
DASH-7 Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: No in Fleet:
Dehavilland, Canada 2 pilots and 1 flight attendant Maximum 50 Pressurized A STOL (short take-off & landing) aircraft ideal for African bush flying 2 NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 63
TWIN OTTER Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: No in Fleet:
Dehavilland, Canada 2 pilots Maximum 18 A STOL (short take-off & landing) aircraft with fixed undercarriage for African bush flying 3
CESSNA CARAVAN Manufacturer: Cessna Aircraft Company, USA Crew: 2 pilots Passengers: Maximum 11 Description: Aircraft ideal for African bush flying No in Fleet: 4
REGIONAL AIR SERVICES FLIGHT SCHEDULE
Valid from 1st January to 31st December 2020 FROM
TO
ETD
ETA
FROM
TO
Arusha AM
Fort Ikoma Grumeti Kogatende Lobo Manyara Ndutu*** Sasakwa Seronera SGS Wasso
08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00 08:00
10:05 09:30 09:55 09:25 08:25 09:05 10:05 10:30 TBA 09:55
Seronera AM
Dar 11:00 15:20 Low and Mid season only
Grumeti * Kilimanjaro Manyara Sasakwa * Seronera
15:00 13:00 15:00 15:00 15:00
16:30 13:15 15:25 16:55 17:05
Arusha PM
LOW AND MID SEASON (1ST MARCH -31ST MAY AND 1ST NOVEMBER 15TH DECEMBER 2020) Arusha Dar Arusha Zanzibar Zanzibar
Dar Arusha Zanzibar Dar Arusha
13:00 15:00 13:00 15:00 15:00
15:20 17:40 14:35 15:20 17:40
Grumeti ** Kilimanjaro Kogatende Lobo Manyara Sasakwa ** Tarime
Grumeti AM
Dar Arusha Zanzibar Dar Arusha
15:00 17:00 15:00 16:30 16:30
16:40 18:00 16:00 16:40 18:00
Arusha
09:50
12:15
Dar 09:50 High season only
13:10
09:50 09:50 09:50 16:45 09:50 09:50 08:15 09:50
13:10 10:10 10:35 17:55 11:20 10:00 09:15 10:30
Zanzibar 09:50 High season only
12:30
Kilimanjaro PM
Kogatende AM
Zanzibar 11:00 High season only
12:35
17:20 17:20
18:30 17:55
Lobo AM
Arusha
09:45
12:15
Dar 09:45 High season only
13:10
Manyara AM
Arusha Grumeti * Manyara Sasakwa * Seronera
14:30 14:30 14:30 14:30 14:30
14:45 16:30 15:25 17:25 17:05
Manyara PM
Arusha
10:00
12:15
Ndutu AM
Dar 10:00 High season only
13:10
13:10
Dar 10:15 15:20 Low and Mid season only Kilimanjaro Kogatende Lobo Manyara Ndutu *** Seronera Tarime
10:15 10:15 10:15 10:15 10:15 10:15 08:15
13:15 TBA TBA 11:15 11:20 10:30 09:15
Zanzibar 10:15 High season only
12:35
Zanzibar 10:15 14:35 Low and Mid season only 10:00
12:15
Arusha
Grumeti Kilimanjaro Kogatende Manyara Ndutu *** Sasakwa ** Seronera Tarime
Dar 10:15 15:20 Low and Mid season only
09:45 09:45 09:45 09:45 09:45 09:45 09:45 08:15
10:25 13:15 09:55 11:35 10:15 10:05 10:30 09:15
Zanzibar 09:45 High season only
12:35
Fort Ikoma AM
Arusha **
13:10
Arusha
11:50
12:15
Dar 11:50 High season only
16:40
08:40 08:40 11:50 08:40 08:40 08:40 08:40 08:40 07:40
10:05 09:30 13:15 09:25 10:20 09:05 10:05 10:30 09:15
Zanzibar 11:50 High season only
16:00
Zanzibar 11:50 14:35 Low and Mid season only Arusha * Grumeti * Sasakwa *
18:05 15:40 15:40
18:30 16:30 16:55
Arusha ***
11:35
12:15
Dar *** 11:35 High season only
16:40
Grumeti Kilimanjaro Lobo Manyara Ndutu *** Sasakwa ** Seronera Tarime
10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 08:15
10:25 13:15 TBA 11.35 TBA 10:15 10:30 09:15
Grumeti *** Kilimanjaro *** Kogatende *** Lobo *** Manyara *** Sasakwa ** Seronera *** Tarime ***
09:20 11:35 09:20 09:20 11:35 09:20 09:20 08:15
09:50 13:15 10:00 09:50 12:00 09:50 10:30 09:15
Zanzibar 10:00 High season only
12:35
Zanzibar *** 11:35 High season only
16:00
12:35
12:15
Dar 10:15 High season only
12:15
Dar *** 11:35 15:20 Low and Mid season only
12:15
ETA
10:15
10:00
Dar 10:00 15:20 Low and Mid season only
11:00
ETD
Arusha
Dar 10:15 High season only
Fort Ikoma Grumeti Kilimanjaro Kogatende Lobo Ndutu *** Sasakwa Seronera Tarime
18:30 17:55 16:55 17:05
Arusha
TO
Sasakwa AM
Dar 09:45 15:20 Low and Mid season only
Dar 11:50 15:20 Low and Mid season only
16:45 16:45 16:45 16:45
Dar 11:00 High season only
FROM
Fort Ikoma AM
Zanzibar 09:45 14:35 Low and Mid season only
Arusha * Manyara * Sasakwa * Seronera *
Zanzibar 10:00 14:35 Low and Mid season only Seronera AM
10:00 13:15 09:55 09:50 11:35 09:45 09:15
Arusha * Manyara *
Zanzibar 09:50 14:35 Low and Mid season only Grumeti PM
09:30 11:00 09:30 09:30 11:00 09:30 08:15
Seronera PM
Dar 09:50 15:20 Low and Mid season only Kilimanjaro Kogatende Lobo Manyara Ndutu *** Sasakwa Tarime Seronera
ETA
Zanzibar 11:00 14:35 Low and Mid season only
HIGH SEASON SCHEDULE (1ST JUNE - 31ST OCTOBER 2020) Arusha Dar Arusha Zanzibar Zanzibar
ETD
Ndutu AM
Zanzibar *** 11:35 14:35 Low and Mid season only
Seronera
Arusha 12:45 High season only
13:40
SGS
Arusha
TBA
TBA
Grumeti Kilimanjaro Lobo Manyara Ndutu Sasakwa Tarime Zanzibar High season only
– 10:15 10:15 10:15 10:15 – 08:15 10:15
– 13:15 TBA 11:35 11:20 – 09:15 12:35
Zanzibar 10:15 14:35 Low and Mid season only Kilimanjaro PM
Kogatende Lobo Ndutu
14:30 14:30 14:30
TBA TBA TBA
Arusha PM
Ndutu Kogatende Lobo
15:00 15:00 15:00
TBA TBA TBA
Tarime
Arusha Fort Ikoma Grumeti Kogatende Lobo Manyara Ndutu Sasakwa Seronera SGS
11:30 11:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 11:30 10:30 10:30 10:30 11:30
12:50 TBA TBA 10:45 TBA TBA TBA TBA 11:25 TBA
Arusha Grumeti Kilimanjaro Lobo Kogatende Manyara Ndutu Sasakwa Seronera
Nairobi, Wilson
13:00 09:50 14:25 09:45 10:00 11:50 11:35 10:15 11:00
15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20 15:20
Nairobi, Wilson
Arusha Grumeti Kilimanjaro Manyara Sasakwa Seronera
13:15 13:15 13:15 13:15 13:15 13:15
14:45 16:30 14:10 15:25 17:25 17:05
*ON REQUEST means we will only operate where there is sufficient traffic to justify the operation and timing or when extra cost is covered **ON INDUCEMENT means flights which we will operate at scheduled rates for 8 passengers or more ***SEASONAL is June to October and December to March ****TBA means time to be advised depending on flight plan that day A minimum of 2 pax is required for RAS to operate into any airstrip that’s not on inducement or request.
Operations: ops@regional.co.tz / +255 (0)753 500 300 / (0)786 021 102 Reservations: resvns@regional.co.tz / +255 (0)754 285 754 / (0)784 285 753
www.regionaltanzania.com
REGIONAL AIR FLEET
CESSNA GRAND CARAVAN C208B Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: Fleet No.:
Cessna Aircraft Company, USA 2 pilots Maximum 12 STOL Aircraft with fixed undercarriage ideal for African bush flying 1
DHC 6-300 (TWIN OTTER) Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: No in Fleet:
Dehavilland, Canada 2 pilots Maximum 18 STOL (short take-off & landing) aircraft with fixed landing gear ideal for African bush flying 1
BOMBARDIER DHC 8-202 (DASH 8) Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: Fleet No.:
Bombardier 2 pilots 1 flight attendant Maximum 37 Pressurized cummuter aircraft 1
AEROLINK FLIGHT SCHEDULE 2020 Murchison falls National Park
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park Daily Service
From Entebbe Kisoro
To Kisoro Entebbe
Depart 0700 0825
Daily Service
Arrive 0810 1125
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Kisoro airstrip passengers can connect to:- Kihihi, Mweya, Kasese and Semliki airstrips
See note (a, b & h) See note (g)
To Bugungu Entebbe
Depart 1200 1315
Arrive 1300 1615
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Bugungu airstrip passengers can fly to:- Kasese, Mweya, Kihihi
Murchison falls National Park
From Entebbe Kihihi
To Kihihi Entebbe
Depart 0700 0945
Arrive 0845 See note (h) 1125
Entebbe Kihihi
Kihihi Entebbe
1015 1140
1125 1330
See note (c)
Entebbe Kihihi
Kihihi Entebbe
1200 1445
1440 1615
See note (e)
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Pakuba/Chobe airstrips passengers can fly to:- Kasese, Mweya, Kihihi and Semliki airstrips
See note (g)
Murchison falls National Park - QENP, BINP &SNP
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Kihihi Airstrip passengers can connect to:- Kisoro, Mweya, Kasese and Semliki airstrips
From Entebbe Mbarara
To Mbarara Entebbe
Depart Arrive 1015 1100 1245 1330
See Note (c & i)
To Kasese/Mweya Entebbe
Depart 0700 1020
Arrive 1005 1125
Entebbe Kasese/Mweya Kasese/Mweya Entebbe
1015 1220
1205 1330
Entebbe Kasese/Mweya
1200 1420
1415 1615
Kasese/Mweya Entebbe
See note (h) See note (c) See note (e)
Masai Mara * Kisumu
*Kisumu Masai Mara
0845 1355
0950 1430
*Kisumu Entebbe
Entebbe Kisumu
1030 1215
1130 1315
Arrive 1005 See note (d & h) 1125
Entebbe Semliki
Semliki Entebbe
1015 1220
1205 1330
See note (c & d)
Entebbe Semliki
Semliki Entebbe
1200 1420
1415 1615
See note (d & e)
Depart 1230 1500
Arrive 1445 1630
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Semliki airstrip passengers can connect to:- Mweya, Kasese, See note (g) Kihihi and Kisoro airstrips
Kidepo Valley National Park
Tel: +256 317 333000
Daily Service
Arrive 1130 1430
Depart 0700 1020
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing
See note (d)
See note (d)
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing
Depart 0845 1215
To Semliki Entebbe
To Kidepo Entebbe
Arrive 1415
To Entebbe Masai Mara
From Entebbe Semliki
From Entebbe Kidepo
Depart 1315
Arrive 1300 1615
From Masai Mara Entebbe
Semuliki National Park
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
To Kasese/Mweya Kihihi/Semliki
Depart 1200 1315
Masai Mara-Entebbe
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing From Kasese/Mweya airstrips passengers can fly to:- Mweya/Kasese, See note (g) Kihihi, Kisoro and Semliki airstrip
Daily Service
To Pakuba/Chobe Entebbe
QENP - Queen Elizabeth National Park (Kasese and Mweya airstrips) BINP - Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park (Kihihi airstrip) SNP - Semuliki National Park (Semliki airstrip)
Queen Elizabeth National Park From Entebbe Kasese/Mweya
From Entebbe Pakuba/Chobe
From Bugungu/ Pakuba/Chobe
Timings may vary depending on aircraft routing Daily Service)
Daily Service
Daily Service
Lake Mburo National Park Daily Service
See note (d)
and Semliki airstrips
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park Daily Service
From Entebbe Bugungu
See note (d, e and f)
info@aerolinkuganda.com
Operates with minimum 2 pax *Routes Via Kisumu for Immigration
From Masai Mara passengers can fly to:- Kihihi, Mweya, Kasese, Semliki, Pakuba, Bugungu, Chobe and Kidepo airstrips
Notes a) Kisoro flights are subject to the prevailing weather conditions and strictly morning flights. b) Kisoro has a surcharge of USD 70 per person c) Mid morning daily flight except April, May and November d) Will operate with minimum of 4 pax e) PM service from Entebbe may route via Murchison Falls National Park subject to loads. f) Other days of the week are available on request subject to aircraft availability. g) Internal flights between national parks on request at seat rate eg Kisoro to Kihihi, Kasese to Kihihi, Kasese to Kisoro. h) Passengers can connect onwards to Masai Mara Via Entebbe and Kisumu for Immigration i) Mbarara mid-morning schedule flights available on request J) Jinja to Kihihi/Kasese/Mweya flight on request at a surcharge of $ 950
aerolinkuganda
www.aerolinkuganda.com
@aerolinkuganda
AEROLINK AIRCRAFT FLEET
CARAVAN Manufacturer: Crew: Passengers: Description: No in Fleet:
Cessna Aircraft Company, USA 2 pilots Maximum 11 Aircraft ideal for African bush flying 3
KISUMU
SERENGETI SOUTH
MALINDI
DIANI
KEY:
THROUGH FARE AIRKENYA NETWORK REGIONAL AIR NETWORK AEROLINK NETWORK
1. Amboseli 2. Kilimanjaro 3. Lewa Downs 4. Masai Mara 5. Meru 6. Nairobi
7. Nanyuki 8. Samburu 9. Migori 10. Loisaba 11. Kisumu 12. Entebbe
1. Arusha 2. Dar es Salaam 3. Fort Ikoma 4. Grumeti 5. Kilimanjaro 6. Kogatende 7. Lake Manyara 8. Lamai
9. Lobo 10. Ndutu 11. Sasakwa 12. Serengeti South 13. Seronera 14. Wasso 15. Zanzibar 16 Tarime
1. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest - Kihihi and Kisoro airstrips 2. Queen Elizabeth National Park - Kasese, Mweya and Semliki airstrips 3. Murchinson Falls National Park - Pakuba, Bugungu and Chobe airstrips 4. Kidepo National Park - Kidepo Airstrip 6. Entebbe - Mara Via Kisumu
NAIROBI Airkenya Express Limited, Wilson Airport P.O. Box 30357 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Telephone numbers: Call Centre (Reservations) +254 (0)20 391 6000
Airkenya Express
@airkenya_official Administration:
(Operations, Sales Marketing & Accounts) +254 (0) 20 3925000, 6005745/6, +254 (0) 206005730 Mobile: +254 (0) 721 415346, 0733 731865, +254 (0) 727 131977 E-mail: resvns@airkenya.com, operations@airkenya.com charters@airkenya.com & helicopters@airkenya.com
@AirKenyaExpress
www.airkenya.com
AEROLINK
www.aerolinkuganda.com
www.regionaltanzania.com
SYOKIMAU ESTATE READY TITLE DEEDS 50 x 100 0702 725 000
#JengaKw ako @ Kshs. 925K FEATURES Pay 20% clear balance in 6 months 5kms from Mlolongo through Kwale Road 8km from Soham Petrol Station through Katani Road All weather access road Flat terrain Electricity on site School, churches, hospital, mosque & shopping outlets nearby
Syokimau Office Katani Road, off Mombasa Road Settlers office, 1st floor, Room B9
henmwainvestments@gmail.com
0702-725000
Henmwa Investments Limited NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020 | 71
www.henmwainvestment.co.ke
@henmwainvestmentsltd
72 | NDEGE NEWS DECEMBER, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2020
