Have law and order at Mara River crossings

This year’s annual wildebeest migration in Maasai Mara Game Reserve has been quite like no other. For one, the tourists who often arrive in droves to behold one of the modern Wonders of the World were absent due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While the low number of visitors should, ideally, have resulted in exclusive game viewing, it didn’t. First, there was a reported rampant flouting of park rules by tour operators. A number of them were recently suspended for a month for allowing tourists to alight from their vehicles during a river crossing.

Secondly, a video circulating on social media a few weeks ago showed workers at a tourist camp shooing the animals back after they had swam to the opposite bank and had to jump back into the water. The government ordered the camp, said to be built on their path, demolished.

Lodges in the Mara

Thirdly, conservationists say the number of lodges in the Mara is ballooning with 7,000 tourist beds in the park in 2013. It is worse in the government-owned and managed main reserve.

Jonathan and Angela Scott, who have showcased the Mara through film for more than 30 years, say a camp is built within an average of 700 acres in the surrounding conservancies but in the government side it is four times as many.

The freezing and issuing of licences should, however, not be a means to reward government loyalists and punish critics.

Lastly, an unprecedented number of wildebeest died this year after they drowned in their hundreds in Mara River while attempting to cross through a high-cliffed bank. This drastic change in animal behaviour patterns is a cause for worry as human activity is mostly to blame.

The government should ensure sanity in Mara River crossings. Additionally, community advice must be sought before the implementation of the Maasai Mara National Management Plan, which has caused uproar in the conservancies.

Mr Reyia, freelance journalist, was longlisted for the Toyin Falola writing prize. [email protected].