The ViewFinder
NEWSLETTER : ISSUE NO 66, DECEMBER 2011
[SEASONS GREETINGS][AFRICAN CATS SCREENING][NEW NATIONAL PARK][MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE][SECURITY AND THE ‘WAR’ WITH SOMALIA]
SEASONS GREETINGS
We would like to wish all our friends and clients all the very best of everything for the festive season, which seems to have come round again with more haste than ever before. The first nine months of the year were busy for us (60 films), but when the wildebeest headed out so too did most of the film crews. The last two months have been extraordinarily quiet, allowing us time to take a breather which, frankly we haven’t enjoyed for a very long time. The rains, as predicted, arrived late and were very much heavier than normal, continuing into the first week of December. Floods in many areas left people displaced, rivers broke their banks, crops were washed away, and many roads became impassable. Dams are overflowing, but this doesn’t always mean that there is water in the taps.
AFRICAN CATS SCREENING
Disney Nature’s epic “African Cats” was screened in Nairobi on 28th November to a full house. This is the first time one of our (1100) wildlife films has hit the big screen in Kenya on such a scale, with a glittering premiere. Two and a half years in the making, it is filmed as a drama rather than a documentary. The film has done well in the US, and has now moved to the UK and Europe. It has also been seen by many thousands of people as in-flight entertainment on various long haul flights. If it comes to a theatre near you, do make an effort to see it. The cinematography (Owen Newman and Sophie Darlington) is breathtaking.
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NEW NATIONAL PARK PLAN PUT ON HOLD
Earlier in the year, the local press carried an announcement about a new National Park opening in Laikipia, to the north of Mt Kenya. This is the area where Lewa Downs, Ol Pejeta Ranching Company, and other large tracts of land are run as private wildlife conservancies. The National Park was to have been created with the aim of providing additional protection (through the Kenya Wildlife Service) to the wildlife of the area, and to form a corridor from the mountain to the Matthews range and Ndoto mountains to the north. The land was originally donated by the African Wildlife Foundation and the Nature Conservancy, to become a buffer zone between people and animals, and under the management of KWS to bring down the incidences of human/wildlife conflict. However, as is not uncommon in Kenya, there appears to be a dispute and a group of community members have taken the matter to court, stating that the land in question is ‘community owned’. The court ordered that the police should cease all attempts at eviction, but the Samburu people who live there say they continue to be severely harassed and threatened by police in an attempt to get them to move out of the area. Due to a large backlog in the courts, it is unlikely that the situation will be resolved any time soon.
MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE
As always, the Mara is in the news and for several reasons. Due to extraordinarily heavy rains this year, the reserve has been incredibly wet, with several vehicles being washed away when attempting to cross swollen rivers. Residents and visitors alike have voiced their complaints long and loud about the number of cattle inside the reserve, both during the day and at night. The incursion of domestic stock on to the wildebeest/gazelle/zebra grazing areas causes the wildlife to disperse to new areas of the reserve in search of edible grass, so tourist vehicles create new off road tracks and damage the ground cover. The area cannot sustain both wild and domestic grazers, not to mention the fact that some cattle have been taken by predators such as lion and leopard. In answer to these complaints, the Narok County Council say that they have brought in a new system whereby cattle owners have to pay Sh 200 per day per cow if they are inside the reserve. We are informed that the people collecting these fees are in fact the owners of the cattle, so the problem has not been solved. The Narok Council has for many years been accused of being somewhat lax in the way gate fees are taken and accounted for. To counter this, they have now introduced a Smart Card system for everyone entering the reserve. This is similar to the system that KWS have been using for some years for National Parks. These are obtainable through branches of Equity Bank and become effective this month.
SECURITY AND THE ‘WAR’ WITH SOMALIA
As a result of the kidnapping of 3 (British, French and American) women by suspected Al Shabaab activists on the extreme northern coast of Kenya and inside Somalia, Kenya’s defence forces swung into action with the aim of clearing the southern part of Somalia of all Al Shabaab threats. Since then, it has been difficult to ascertain exactly what is going on, as it is an extremely difficult situation for the international press to cover. Enter technology… quite apart from the military engagements on the ground and in the air, the social blogging site Twitter is also being used as a weapon of war. The Kenya army spokesman, Maj Emmanuel Chirchir is engaging in daily tweets with Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen (HSM Press), the Islamic movement that governs South and Central Somalia. How times change. The situation for visitors at the coast is much improved, security has been stepped up and hotels report that tourists are now streaming in again. Kenya is NOT unsafe.