Kimana is one critical Big Life outpost still up and running whilst we apprehensively wait for news from the August 6 meeting between the Maasai leaders and Kenya Wildlife Service.

An informer called the Kimana camp at 6 in the morning yesterday. His message was brief. Go to a certain house on the border of Kimana sanctuary and you will find something. The Big Life rangers were there at first light, and sure enough the information was good. Or bad depending on how you look at it. A search of the house turned up the grisly remains of one Impala and three young Grants Gazelle.

The owner of the farmstead admitted that the night before, he had gone hunting with two others with a spotlight and killed the animals, using a spotlight to dazzle the animals, making them freeze, and then cut them down using a machete. 

He said that he was waiting for a motorbike to arrive to collect the meat to take to Kimana town, where they would sell it.

Kenya Wildlife Service were called and reacted promptly. By 10am he was in the police station at Liotokitok and charged.

Obviously, we wish we could capture the poachers more often before they kill. But as ever, informer rewards leading to arrests of poachers are the best use of donor money that we can think of.