Conservationists warn about mushrooming towns in Mara
On the banks of the Talek River is an urban island, one of many towns that lie on a stretch of protected land and the largest trading centre in the Mara region.
Fuel stations open early, television sets blare from restaurants and bars, and banks and sex workers open their doors at night.
There is no public waste management system, and the roads are not really roads but pathways where there is a tacit agreement not to build structures.
Other towns in the ecosystem are Sikinani, Oloolaimutia, Aitong and Mararianda, also with permanent buildings, minus management systems.
Conservationists have a problem with the mushrooming of trading centres in the Mara ecosystem, warning that the trend is a time bomb that will drive wildlife into extinction.
The population in the region is exploding, and with it permanent buildings. In the next 10 years, the area occupied by the trading centres is expected to triple as investors buy land with the expectation of profiting from the boom.
Lioness drinks from a stream at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
Variable weather patterns, land fragmentation, increasing human and livestock populations, greater demand for and use of non-consumptive resources threaten this area.
Already, waste, including plastics, has been cited as a threat to wildlife as disposal systems are non-existent, with much of it ending up in the stomachs of wild animals and livestock, sometimes choking them to death.
Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies chief executive Daniel Sopia has decried reckless dumping by local traders, fencing, population growth and general human activities as threats to conservation.
“This town is at the heart of the Mara ecosystem and we have seen recklessness and there are no measures put in place for waste disposal, which has now become a menace to wildlife, livestock and humans,” Mr Sopia said.
He accused local traders of operating with reckless abandon by dumping single-use plastics in the environment, oblivious of their health hazards.
A woman crosses Talek River on February 28 2018.
“The most important perceived threat is the loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by ongoing human population expansion and rapid land conversion, and the growth of towns that act as business hubs for locals with a lot of human traffic,” he said.
In 2015, it was reported that the human population around the Maasai Mara was growing at 10.5 per cent annually, more than three times the national rate of 2.5 per cent.
Outside the Maasai Mara National Reserve, individual Maasai landowners have parcels of land ranging in size from about 20 to 200 acres.
The adjudication of land started in the early 1990s and continues today.
This fragmentation and associated fencing in the ecosystem is blocking key wildlife migration corridors and is rapidly accelerating human-wildlife conflicts.
Wildebeests and Zebras cross a section of Mara River at Maasai Mara Game Reserve on June 22, 2017.
This is resulting in the subdivision of land across much of the Mara landscape, Mr Sopia said, resulting in rapid human population growth partly through an influx of new residents.
Mara Base Camp programmes manager Francis Ole Sopia reiterated the need to recycle plastic bags rather than dumping them in the environment. He also feels the government must start waste management projects in the towns in the ecosystem.
“Should this waste drain into rivers like the Mara, it will be swept down all the way to Lake Victoria, to the Indian Ocean and all the way to River Nile, and it will be a global challenge if not tamed,” he warned.
Raphael Kereto, a wildlife ranger, explained that the towns in the conservancy areas are the face of the Mara, and that improperly dumped waste is an eyesore to tourists.
“A few years back, there was a viral video of a lion playing with a plastic bag. That video depicted a bad picture of the Mara and Kenya at large. No tourist enjoys a polluted game drive,” he said. BY DAILY NATION
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