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To all our friends in the travel trade,

Many of your have been very kind in supporting Kenya and our properties over the past year and are very knowledgably about the difference between what goes on in remote slums in Nairobi or along the north coast. But some have asked what security measures we have in place to make your clients and our guests comfortable that Kenya is still one of the great destinations in Africa.

When we established Great Plains Conservation, security was a high priority, even though then it was largely aimed at making people feel comfortable about their protection from wildlife and petty theft. We hired a security consultancy firm called ‘Tell Tale” from South Africa to help us understand security. The story of security is basically one of concentric circles, consistent monitoring and being vigilant.
We call it ‘Circles of Safety’. The closer the circle the more reactive the system needs to be. We were fortunate enough to have the advice of some people who set up systems in some of the worst hit suburban environments in the world: Johannesburg in South Africa.

We have some further advantages:

Our camps are located in remote and fascinating wilderness areas, away from the madding crowd and any tension that comes with that. The geography of each camp is crucial to contextualize the safety. Ol Donyo Lodge, Mara Plains and Mara Toto are all located hundreds of kilometers from the coast of Kenya and far the city of Nairobi. This proximity, coupled with the remote nature of the bush and their constant stewardship by the Maasai people makes our safari camps exceptionally low risk travel areas.

Further, each of our camps takes additional thoughtful steps to guarantee guests’ personal safety, and these measures were established more to make sure that guests felt safe from wildlife but are still applicable to making each person sleep soundly.

We break our security down into concentric circles:

Circle 1.

• Close proximity to rangers’ posts (Mara Plains, Mara Toto and ol Donyo Lodge)

• Relative proximity to local villages and communities (Mara Plains and Mara Toto). This is important because we have stakeholder relationship with each of our camps so we have an agreement with our partners to report any strange ‘visitors’ to the area. This is one of the great benefits of our community partnership programs.

• We only establish our camps in private conservancies with vigilant and limited membership. We did this for the exclusive experiences but it works well when analyzed as a security benefit too. Anyone ‘foreign’ seen in the conservancy is obvious and is stopped.

• Registration of visitation with local authorities and park officials (all camps)

• Game wardens and conservation teams patrolling the land daily (all camps)

• Constant monitoring of arriving and departing vehicles and guests and visitors

Circle 2
• 24/7 security guards who are well trained and vigilant in each camp. Each with radio contact to management. We choose to use Maasai askaris in Kenya for many reasons: they form a brotherhood of fighting men that work well together, they are not shy of conflict and they are well trained from a young age in the use of basic weaponry upon which we can build our training. These men, once trained up, form our guide cadet corps, so they are very loyal, they understand the company policies and they see a future for themselves with us. Many will defend our property with their lives, as a matter of honor.

• Each Askari is tasked with staying awake and vigilant the whole night, monitored and checked. Each tent has a dedicated night Askari and the day Askaris monitor camp in rounds.

• Our CCTV cameras capture every movement in camp. We installed them to do an interesting study on what wildlife visits during the night, but they can pick up any human movement as well. The manager checks these images each morning and any suspicious activity is reported to the warden and his teams. (Mara Plains and ol Donyo Lodge)

• Elephant fence on perimeter of camp; boom gate on entry (ol Donyo Lodge).

• 24/7 radio or telephone contact with emergency services. Again, this was established in case of wildlife/human conflict but it applies to any conflict.

• We have back up communications, radios and phones, or in some cases satellite phones in camps.

• Access to anti-poaching dog tracking unit for any follow up of suspicious characters (Mara and ol Donyo).

• At ol Donyo Lodge we have full access to the Big Life anti-poaching force, an armed team of 245 anti poaching scouts, armed and with reaction vehicles and based in camp, and in base camps around the conservancy. Again these men have been hired to do anti-poaching work but the style of operations is as easily applied to security.

The widest circle is one that doesn’t expose you to any of the weaker spots. So we have taken action to de-stress any experience with Great Plains Conservation Kenya even further.

• We have a set charter contract with a charter company for use of an executive class Cessna Caravan (with luxury seating and the latest instrumentation) to be waiting on the airfield at Jomo Kenyatta International airport, (JKIA) ready to transfer our guests directly into camp and away from the madding crowds in Nairobi. This is something we encourage as a consistent way to get guests to the bush, even if it’s just to avoid the traffic and bustle in Nairobi.

• We are creating day rooms in each camp, (Mara Plains has the guest library and a number of secluded spots to rest in, and at old Donyo the pool room dining area) for people to stay longer in camp and leave as late as they can to catch international flights out and to again take advantage of our direct charter link to the JKIA, and once again, avoid Nairobi city.

Now at Great Plains Conservation we also understand that ‘obvious security’ can be as invasive and disturbing as no security.

We’ve been in some locations where armed guards escort you everywhere and it’s hard to tell if you are being protected or taken captive! So our security is as invisible as possible. We’ve had some guests get quite a fright on a path when they realize that not more than three feet away from them is a Maasai warrior with full weaponry watching over them.

Cameras are concealed. Any fences are virtually invisible. Anti poaching patrols are trained to stay clear of game viewing drives or walks. They are your eyes and ears, but they are out of sight.

Kenya is a fantastic destination that we know you all want to keep supporting. Without the travel trade working together there will be many who suffer, from the beautiful people of Kenya who greet you with the most dazzling smiles and a warm “Jambo” on arrival, to the lions and elephants and great wild landscapes that without tourism dollars, will disappear. The object of bullies is to sew the seeds of instability and collapse. For us, this is not a time to turn away, but to lean forward and make sure that the isolated security issues in Nairobi and Mombasa don’t threaten the conservation of East Africa, or steal the opportunity for your guests to
feel that magical feeling of travel where you are exposed to new cultures, sights and experiences to enrich their and their family’s lives.

In short, travel to and from the great wildlife areas of the country is as usual, still extraordinary, safe and a place to feel comfortable and calm.

Karibu Kenya.

The team at Great Plains Conservation-Kenya