Maajabu Safaris

28/04/2020

Interesting culture

09/10/2019

Maajabu Safaris Celebrates you,"Uganda"

07/07/2019

26/06/2019

The big Wild Safari adventure starts sooooon!

The Borderless Safaris, Trek the Mountain Gorillas combined with Kenya's Massai Mara game viewing, River Nile Rafting and so much more of adventures. let's Celebrate the Wild with this Safari episode in 14 days.

30/05/2019

Awesome!

05/02/2019

The adventure starts in 4 days and we are set to go!!!

The Borderless Safaris Kenya's Masai Mara game-viewing plus Gorilla Trek adventures. From Rwandas Genocide Memorial, hike the active Parc National de Volcans, gate-crush into Bwindi, Trekking the Mountain Gorillas and Continue to Kenyan Masai Mara plains warming up for the forth coming wildebeest Mi...

26/12/2018

Merry Chrismas!!!!
You can now start a fresh 2019 with our Wild Safaris adventures

The Border-less Safaris” trekking Mountain Gorilla combined with Masai Mara's Multiple Wild game Safari adventures. After a visit of the Genocide Memorial, hike the active Parc National de Volcans, gate crush into Bwindi trekking the Mountain Gorillas and Continue through Kampala to Kenyan Masai M...

22/12/2018

You can now Book for a Wild Safari Adventure in East African Safari hop-spots.

The Border-less Safaris” trekking Mountain Gorilla combined with Masai Mara's Multiple Wild game Safari adventures. After a visit of the Genocide Memorial, hike the active Parc National de Volcans, gate crush into Bwindi trekking the Mountain Gorillas and Continue through Kampala to Kenyan Masai M...

17/08/2018

Have you had a trip this year yet! if not Contact us, we let your East African travel dreams come true.

21/07/2018

Of course civilization started in Africa, not even Egypt as history tells but Sub Saharan Afrika.

05/04/2018

Magical nature

First baby Giraffe born in Mburo National Park, it has been a long wait since 2015. The translocation of Giraffes to Lake Mburo has started yielding fruits.

07/01/2018

Did you know that Mt Elgon is an extinct volcano and one of the oldest physical features in Uganda, first erupting around 24 million years ago. Mt Elgon was once Africa's highest mountain, far exceeding Kilimanjaro’s current 5,895meters. Millennia of erosion have reduced its height to 4,321m, relegating it to the 4th highest peak in East Africa and 8th on the continent. You can visit Mt Elgon national Park and hike to the peak either from the Ugandan side or Kenyan anytime of the year. Cheers! As you enjoy your East African Safari.

How many caves can you name that are found in Mt. Elgon National Park?

07/01/2018

06/01/2018

How many caves can you name that are found in Mt. Elgon National Park?

06/01/2018

Read please and keep up to date with wildlife rules.

05/01/2018

05/01/2018

Maajabu Safaris welcomes you to Uganda and East Africa. The future of the World belongs here.

30/12/2017

We hope you are having a wonderful festive season and that now gearing up for 2018. Maajabu Safaris wishes you a Happy New Year celebrations with our best wild Safari adventure itinerary “The Borderless Safaris” running From Kigali through Uganda to Kenya. Here are some of the highlights;- The Genocide Memorial, hike the active Parc National de Volcans, trek the Gorillas and Chimps, track the tree climbing lions, Raft the River Nile, a glimpse at the flamingos of Nakuru and wind it up with the great Masai Mara Safari. This Safari will get through African’s most spectaculars Safari episodes in just 12 days.

26/11/2017

Learn more "The Pearl of Africa"

23/11/2017

Travel Uganda this season!

22/11/2017

Be one of the lucky ones to see mountain Gorillas in Uganda

Help us save the Gorillas

21/11/2017

21/11/2017

20/11/2017

THE EFFECTS OF TRANS-BOUNDARY PASTORALISTS ON MATHENIKO
WILDLIFE RESERVE IN KARAMOJA, UGANDA.

"Nonetheless, the pressure on Matheniko Wildlife Reserve has also been accentuated and aggravated by other competing land use practices especially mining and scarcity of reliable water sources outside the reserve".......continued from the previous post 👇https://www.facebook.com/MaajabuSafaris/posts/1991584250874331

The common connotation on pastoralists is that they are important custodian of natural resources found in arid and semi- arid areas because they protect and safeguard the resources". With this perception in mind, it was of interest to find out if the presence of pastoralists and their livestock inside a wildlife
reserve posed any significant threat to the integrity of the protected area.
The earlier research on pastoralists has focused on the relevancy of government policies on the livelihoods of
pastoralists, social services, food security and trans-boundary livestock trade.

Therefore, it is against the foregoing that this study was carried out. More specifically, the study points out the key threats of illegal killing of predators like cheetah,
leopard and other cats, illegal collection of ostrich eggs and sometimes killing of ostriches to
collect feathers for cultural ceremonies and degradation of the wildlife reserve. Furthermore, the fragmentation of the range land by the pockets of crop gardens has also had a far reaching
impact not only to the conservation of wildlife but has intensified land use conflicts between crop farmers and pastoralists.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was carried out in Matheniko Wildlife Reserve 2°55N 34°30E. One of the purposive sampling techniques, known as expert sampling was applied in order to reach
government officials, political leaders, representatives of international agencies and pastoralists who had quality information.

A three level approach consultative meetings and in-depth semi- structure face to face
interviews were used to collect the views of the targeted categories of respondents. The first
level covered the technical officers and political leaders of Moroto District, the
second was for pastoralists and the third one consisted of Matheniko Wildlife Reserve management and staff .

Representatives of FAO based in Moroto Municipality were consulted to provide the insight on trans-boundary livestock management initiatives. In addition, group discussions were held with pastoralists who were watering their cattle at Longorikipi dam, dominated by Karamajongs of Jie and Bokora ethnicity, Kobebe dam that was used by mainly Turkana and Lokapet dam, used by matheniko Karamojongs.

The group discussions were kept focused by the use of a semi-structured group discussion guide. The guide was first pretested in the neighboring wildlife reserve of Bokora using a group of
pastoralists to assess its effectiveness in collecting the desired information and determine amount of time needed to obtain the desired data.
During the interview and group discussion session, particular attention was made to carefully observe and study the body language of interviewees.
Field observations were made within a distance of 500 metres from both sides of tracks and trails, covering a stretch of 60 km. Incidents of land degradation, bush burning and deforestation were noted. Where field observations were of unique, special and of particular interest, photography was applied to supplement information collected from interviews,
group discussion and literature review.
The movement pattern of key wild animal species such as bright gazelle, buffalo, kob and warthogs was recorded for period of three years

Finally, the quarterly and annual reports of the reserve were
reviewed to establish the level of illegal activities in areas occupied by pastoralists.

Feel free to contact Maajabu Safaris for any possible Karamojo Safari Tours.

To be continued in the next post........................Stay tune! 😀

18/11/2017

He is a mad man of the west!

The U.S. Administration plans to allow hunters to kill African elephants and lions and bring their body parts home as trophies, while simultaneously cutting funding for wildlife conservation. We think this is appalling. If you share our outrage over these decisions, please consider donating in support of our work to save endangered species, and contact US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and/or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to demand that critical African wildlife protections not be reversed.

- Donate to support our work in Africa: https://biglife.org/donations
- Contact US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke: [email protected], or tweet
- Contact US Fish & Wildlife Service: [email protected], or tweet

18/11/2017

Waste-of-space poachers and trophy hunters are back in business in Africa, thanks to Trump. His sons must have put him up to this. (1160 signatures on petition)

18/11/2017

THE EFFECTS OF TRANS-BOUNDARY PASTORALISTS ON MATHENIKO
WILDLIFE RESERVE IN KARAMOJA, UGANDA

For centuries, pastoral communities have competently proved their capacity to live and
survive in dry, remote and difficult areas where rain fed crop production is in most cases
either not viable or highly limited due to low and unpredictable rainfall (AU, 2010; Shem et
al.,2010; Boto & Edeme, 2012; HPG, 2009). These fragile areas cover vast rangelands that
sometimes stride across international boundaries, as it is the case with Turkana- Karamoja
rangeland. As one of the coping mechanisms, these trans-boundary pastoralists have overtime
developed indigenous and informal techniques of livestock and rangeland management which
are based on the mobility and seasonal migrations as a means to access the best pasture and
maximise livestock productivity (Smith, 2012; Sulieman, 2013). In the past, their regular
interaction with wildlife was characterised by minimum human- wildlife conflicts, incursion
of predators on livestock notwithstanding (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, 2010). Most of the pastoralists were not interested in bush meat as it was a taboo
for most of them to hunt and consume game meat.

However, in the recent past, the former pastoralists’ rangelands have been invaded and
converted by developers and crop farmers, forcing the pastoralist communities to drive their
livestock to protected areas and marginal land. Their mobility upon which the traditional
cattle keeping practices are hinged has been severely affected (Pavanello, 2009). Moreover,
restriction of mobility of pastoralists negatively affects their livelihoods and biodiversity in
dry lands as some species are overexploited, while others underexploited (Schelling et al.,
2008). The effects of climate change such as prolonged droughts and frequent acute water
scarcity have exacerbated the suffering and vulnerability of pastoralists (Audus, 2013).

In Uganda the range lands occupy 43% of the country’s total land area, stretching from
Uganda – Tanzania international border through the central region to Karamoja Sub-region.
This stretch is normally described and referred to as “cattle corridor” which hosts about 90%
of the national cattle population, kept by mainly pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities.
The cattle corridor is characterised by frequent dry seasons, scarcity of pasture and permanent
water sources as well as low and unreliable rainfall. Due to high human population and
increased demand for land for food production, crop growing communities have converted
some of the sections of the cattle corridor into crop production, fragmenting the pastoral
rangeland.

In Karamoja Sub-region, the cattle corridor extends into Turkana rangeland, western Kenya.
Turkana and Karomoja rangeland is geographically and demographically related. The area is
highly food insecure, experience recurrent prolonged drought, (as such, it is arid) and scarce
water sources as well as pasture resources. Rearing of cattle is the major economic activity of
the residents. The alternative economic activities and sources of livelihood to both
Karamajong and Turkana communities are limited. Nonetheless, the environmental
conditions in Karamoja are slightly better and less hostile to pastoralists than on Kenya side.

The area of Turkana experiences more frequent and severe drought than Karamoja region.
Subsequently, the Turkana pastoralists regularly drive their livestock across international
border into Karamoja in search of pasture and water. This movement of pastoralists is done within a local arrangement through negotiations between the local government authorities
and kraal leaders of both countries. Whereas, in the past, the Turkana pastoralist had access to
vast areas in Karamoja to graze their livestock, in the recent past, the government of Uganda
has encouraged the residents in the region to actively participate in crop production as a
strategy for food security and self-reliance (OPM, 2009; Mubiru, 2010). As a result, most of
the rangeland has been fragmented by the pockets of crop gardens leading to increased
conflicts between crop farmers and pastoralists.
The unplanned crop growing in the
pastoralist rangeland in Karamoja has not only affected the seasonal Turkana cattle keepers
but also the resident pastoralists who find it difficult to freely move livestock to different
areas to take advantage of availability of pasture. Therefore, in order to avoid conflicts with
local communities, the Turkana pastoralist find wildlife protected areas as the only alternative
source of pasture and water for their livestock. In this case, Turkana pastoralists drive their
livestock into Matheniko Wildlife Reserve in search of water and pasture. The reserve is part
and partial of Great Matheniko – Bukora Wildlife Reserve which is the only protected area in
Uganda where the Bright Gazelle, the lesser and Greater Kudu are hosted, and present the
vital opportunity for Karamoja to overcome tourism competition from other types of wildlife
(Manyindo et al., 2014).
Nonetheless, the pressure on Matheniko Wildlife Reserve has also
been accentuated and aggravated by other competing land use practices especially mining and
scarcity of reliable water sources outside the reserve.

To be continued.......................................................stay tuned!