Ngong Forest

For the last two days the Rangers have been busy learning some of the basic first aid skills. The event was sponsored by our employer as it is very important due to thier working enviroment which mostly includes being in the forest, hence must have basic first aid skills.

Attending to a snake bite

On the first day the facilitator was able to give a brief introduction on emergency medical Aid and some of the common accidents that happen in our day to day life and require emergency treatment. The treatments were cleary demonstrated using a projector. After every topic a ranger was called upon so that the trainer could clearly demonstrate it practically to the rangers on how to tackle an emergency at any given time when it arose.

The first things to consider before attending a casualty were clearly emphasised. These are some of the things to consider.

1. Assess the scene of the accident to find out what happened., is there any danger to you, bystanders and the patient?

2. Ensure that the area is safe before you do anything.

3. Once you are certain that the area is safe procced to check on the patient and manage the conditions appropriately.

4. Call for help if the condtion is beyond you.

5. Once you have attended your casualty, replelish your first aid kit and keep a written record.

Some other medical emergencies such as choking, seizures, handling a diabetic person, burns and sprains were also taught and demonstated to us by our trainer.

Fractured arm

Fractured leg

How to deal with fractures

How to handle fire

In our working enviroment the accidents that are most likely to occur are snakebites, sparins, fractures, and bleeding which were clearly demonsrated to us on how to handle such incase it happend in the forest.

We are truly grateful to our employer and the facilitator for the life skills we learnt.

Story by

Ranger Nicholas Akach.

Standing magnifiently near the edge of the forest the Imre Loefer center offers a venue to various institutions, be it coprate, private institutions, schools, churches, organazations who want to meet, learn, have fun, away from the noise polluted city. The amazing thing about the Imre Loefer center is that its only six kilometers from the city center! The sweetness of it its that its in a natural forest where the only sounds you hear are the birds humming their sweet melodies and the swaying of trees plus there are the black and white colobus and sykes monkey.

The Imre Loefer Education Center

Imre Loefer was a reknown conservationist and an enviromentalist. He came to Kenya in 1975. He had gone for horse riding in the Ngong Road Forest when he concieved the idea to save the forest by converting it into a sanctuary. It was a task that occupied him for over twenty years, but eventually was completed.

The complete Imre Loefer Education Center

Those who have had a chance to visit the Imre Loefer education center marvel at the size of the bulding and the way it blends to the enviroment. As way of giving back to the forest. Imre Loefer provides a place where people can come and study, learn, and enjoy its serenity. All are welcome to visit the sanctuary.

Students learning at the Education center

The pathway that leads to the Education center

Contact as at office@ngongforestsanctuary.com

Story by Joseph Karanja

jranjus@yahoo.com

They are a group of birdwatchers across the world, among them includes Nature Kenya, Nature Uganda, Wildlife society of Tanzania, Royal society of protection among others.They are having a confrence this week and they are holding it at K.C.B Kenya.The group had visited the sanctuary through the Race Course Jockey Club Parking.

Guests arrive

The group was included men, women, teenagers, ladies and gentlemen.They started arriving at the parking lot some minutes to nine.The Ngong Road rangers and the Kenya Forest Rangers had arrived early and were patiently waitng for their guests.Twenty minutes later the organizer Mrs Fleur Ngweno from Nature Kenya arrived. She immediatley spotted a Yellow cinnamon chested bee eater she was so excited that she requesred the group to gather around and introduced the over fifty members who had arrived to each other, after which she welcomed the senior ranger, to give a brief background about the Ngong Forest Sanctuary

.

Mrs Fleur Ngewno welcomes the guests

Senior Ranger briefs the guests

After the introductions they were ready for some fun, each armed with a pair of binocularss, pen and a notebook they were ready to venture into the forest.After about two and a half hours they had spotted over fifty species of birds big, small, beautiful and plain.

each holding a pair of binoculars

everyone is enjoying

Bird watching

Ater they were through they gathered under a canopy tree for a brief question and answer session.They ended up by cheering the Ngong forest rangers and Nature Kenya for organizing for a bird watching session.

Question and answer question session

Later some individuals approrched us to enquire when they can come for birdwatching. We gladly informed them that its on every first and third saturday but on any other day people are always welcome prior to arrangements.

Story by Ranger Steve Kamotho

Contact us on

office@ngongforestsanctuary.com

For most of us that work or school and live in the city, we can never avoid the hussle and bustle that go with the city, no matter how hard we try. Starting with the morning traffic jams that at times start right infront of the gate, the ever noisy matatus and their rude crews, the cops who’ll stop you for scratching your ear and demand to arrest you for talking on your phone while driving, the list is endless of the things that make one tired even before getting to work. By the third day of the week, with a repeat of the above and like episodes, the mind is practically begging for a break. You can be sure pushing through the rest of the week is harder than pushing a boulder up a hill.

The temptation to retreat into a noise free, pollution free and refreshing natural forest couldn’t have come at a better time for the youngters of a church in the city who despite their different social and school backgrounds all desired to spend quality time in the Sanctuary.

The Sunday school kids queue just before a briefing outside the Sanctuary’s office.

For most, it was their very first time to set foot into a natural forest and the excitement of walking under the trees and listening to birds singing was simply unbelievable. A few had the opportunity to interact with with the dreaded safari ants along the way. Their sunday school teachers took every opportunity to explain these wonders of creation to them.

They finally got to a glade where they requested to stop for some snacks. After the snacks, it was time to play,pray, sing and dance as their teachers joined in the celebrations.

Rope skipping in the Forest

Some of the parents could not resist the temptation of joining in the party.

The Sanctuary is always open to visitors, be they organized groups or individuals. Contact us on office@ngongforestsanctuary.com.

I was elated as i welcomed my collegues in my house at 6.30pm last Sunday.They had come for a special visit to see baby Angela who was the newest family member among all my workmates.

The vistors arrive

Baby Angela and her mother started the occasion by listening to the word of God from Ranger Steve Kamotho. As he read the bible from the bok of Luke 18:15-16 i could not help myself from looking at baby Angela with admiration and believeing the words that were being spoken.

Baby Angela and her mum

Ranger Steve sharing the word

After the breif word of God we shared a meal while remembering our past when we joined The Ngong Forest Sanctuary back in 2004 as as rangers all of us were bachelors but now most of us are married with one or two kids.

Sharing a meal

Once we were done with eating baby Angela was passed around for every visitor to hold her and they presented a gift to her. It was a very memorable day and an important day for Angela. When she noticed that she was the center of everyone’s attention, she smiled back perhaps her way of appreciating the kind gestures.

Rangers present a gift to baby Angela

I captured the moments with a camera so as to remember this important occasion and to show the pictures to Baby Angela when she is older.

Story by

Joseph Karanja

Ranger Joseph Karanja

Ranger Joseph Karanja joined Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary as a ranger in 2004. He is currently based at the sanctuary’s main gate where together with other rangers his duties include, Forest Patrol,Guiding Guests into the forest among others.He with the other rangers also update the blog to share their daily expriences in the forest and sensitize people about the importance of conservation of trees.

It all started as a usual week, my wife left the door open, and the curtain had been moved to one side. Then all over sudden the Olive Thrush bird flew in and perched itself on top of the tv i caught it with my hand and it was beautiful and lovely. I got a camera and took a picture of it, then later let i let it free.

The Olive thrush Bird

This made my day beautiful and when the Chairman of Ngong Forest Sanctuary came and requested to visit the Africa crown eagle nest i was more than eager to take him. It was a fantanstic site as the chick was on one of the branches making its usual melodies.

The chairman veiwing the Africa crown eagle

Later we had a walk with Mrs Ingrid Kavivumbi accompanied by ranger Joseph where we came across birds like the beautiful sunbird, the red headed weaver,the bee eater,white starred robin, yellow wagtail narina tragon, the ibis,long tailed cormarant, the red chested cucko and many more. At the end of the walk for about one hour, we had seen over thirty species of birds.

The week ended with a walk by Mr and Mrs Charles accompanied by their pets dogs. The walk took two hours and the most intresting part is when we had what seemed like a swimming competition between the dogs and the Egyptian goose.

The Egyptian goose competing with the dog

You are all welcome to see the rare birds that are at Ngong Forest.

Story by Ranger Steve Kamotho

kamothosm@gmail.com

As we are commited conservationists, there has been a few great challenges affecting the trees in the forest among them logging and debarking. On one of our normal partrols we came across an old man on the forest who was busy debarking the trees. We arrested him immediately and took him to the main gate before taking him to Jamuhuri Police station.

The culprit

We asked the old man to explain why he was debarking the trees he said that he inherited the habit from his grandparents and he claimed that the barks make good medicine for healing stomach aches, tooth aches and that they also increase blood in the body used after boiling the barks. He also informed us that the trees that are mostly debarked are (muthiga, mukinduri and mutunga).

The debarked barks

We are highly against debarking because once a tree is debarked the tree ceases to survive and becomes useless.Secondly the method used to prepare the claimed herbal medicine is not proffesionaly done and might do more harm than cure the person taking it.

The culprit holding the exhibit

We took the old man to the police station with him carring his exhibit.

On our way to Jamuhuri Police Station

The women beekeepers at the Ngong Forest Sanctuary have always gone through alot of hurdles in maintaining their bee hives.Every time they come together and repair their hives after being destroyed by either wildlife or human beings, they usually get a setback before they even get returns from their hardwork.This made them give up with the project and and venture into other businesses. The group that was left continued taking care of their bee hives the best way they knew how, until after a regular visit by one of the staff from Honey Care Africa promised to look into their problem and come up with a solution once and for all.

The visitors accessing the damage

All the damaged beehives were taken to the Honey Care workshop for repairs as most of them were in a bad condition. The women also got a chance to visit the workshop and the priviledge of learning how to repair their beehives. The repair work took almost two weeks, and on Monday it was a busy day for the women as they were busy placing their beehives back to the apiary.

The women carring the beehives to apiary

The Apiary

Placing their beehives back .

They were overjoyed and humbly thanked the visitor for the help given to them. They promised to work hard in their project. Fencing of the apiary and hiring a guard to watch over the bee hives was a permanent solution which they requested the Honey Care Africa to look into before they harvest their honey make some income and cater for the expenses there after.

Story by Nicholas Akach

Fence vandalisim has been the greatest challenge to the protection of Ngong Forest. This is because a big part of the fence that once surrounded the forest has been stolen, hence exposing the indeginous forest to tree poachers. Without a fence to protect the forest people can easily access the forest for illegal business without being easily detected.

The Vandalised fence

With only six rangers it has been an uphill task to protect the forest effectively as there has been an increase of insecurity in the nearby estates and the thugs ran into the forest for solace after they commit crimes.

The on going fence vandalisim.

However the sanctuary has not given up in protecting the forest and its trying to raise funds to re- install the vandalised fence.The rangers constantly patrol and keenly monitor the fenced part of the forest by checking its voltage. When they notice that the voltage has dropped a promt partol is done immediatley to find out the cause.

Ranger cheking the voltage

So it was on Tuesday night that we encounterd two men busy cutting the fence wires about two kilometers from the main gate.We managed to nab one of the thugs while the other managed to escape. We took the culpit to Jamuhuri Police Station and was to be arraigned in court the next day. Mr David was the name of the arrested thug, his friend who manged to escape later presented himself disguising as a concerned relative of the other culprit but we managed to arrest him even though he denied any allegations made to him. The sanctuary however has to meet the cost of replacing the vandalised fence. It has been very frustrating watching the fence dissapear a bit by a bit.

The accomplise who came to secure realease for his friend

Story by: Ranger Karanja

A lot of planning had taken place the vitations sent to schools in preparaton for the Forum which was to sensitise the schools about the Education program at the Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary.

The D -day was here,the sun was shinning brightly probably an indication of a succesful day.As we waited anxiously for the Teachers,I was at pins and needles but they started trickling in at around 9.00am and I heaved a sigh of relief!

The morning of the teachers’ forum

By 9.45am they had settled in and one of the rangers took the teachers around on a nature trail ..how exiting an experience it was for the teachers who some of the them had never been to the sanctuary!They sevoured nature at its best and headed back to the auditorium.

Teachers at the Forum

They were given a briefing by the project coordinator ,Simon Ng’ang’a about Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary and the Education Program which is one of the Programs being run currently at the Sanctuary.He took time to explain to the teachers why this is a unique and important project that the teachers should consider partnering in with the Sanctuary Not only for better perfomance in the Individual subjects but also leaners being more aware of the Environment and taking care of it especially with the resent out cry on global warming.

The education officer then led the teachers through a discussion onthe Environmental education,

Education officer presenting the education program

Teachers giving their opinions at the Forum

Teachers giving their opinions at the forum

Later the teachers were taken the through the learning experiences at the the Sanctuary including .

The aquatic habitat:

A recent study at the aquatic habitat

The Grassland habitat

A recent study at the grassland habitat

The indegenous forest habitat including life cylecles food chains and interdependence between plants and animals

A recent study at the indegenous forest

Mounted insect specimen and a variety if Environmental DVDs the leaners could the watch at the Education centre wich has a capacity of 100 people.

Study of various mounted insect specimen at the centre

At the end of the forum,both parties the Teachers and the staff at the Sanctuary would agree that it was an eye opening experince as we shared ideas.The teachers found yet a nother learning destinatination for the students!

Prepared by E.Naliaka

Education Officer NgongRoad Forest Sanctury.

Email; education@ngongforestsanctuary.com