Every month we have a meeting where all the Lion Guardians get together and discuss last month’s successes and the challenges ahead for the next month. Lion Guardians started arriving for the meeting as early as noon the day before! By the morning of the meeting only one Guardian was still missing, and that was Melubo from Oltiasika, who had been tracking Ndelie, a collared lion at the border of Mbirikani and Kuku. He came just in time!

The Guardians shared their news from the different zones – Melubo has located Ndelie, one of our collared lions, who was with another un-collared lion. He also thinks there are others in the area, which have not been collared. Luckily, they are not causing problems to livestock owners. Another lion was reported to Mokoi by a herder who says the lion had followed his livestock, but again fortunately it did not take any of his animals.

Among other issues raised by the Guardians was an increase in their wages. They work very hard and have to meet dangerous wild animals in the course of their duties, and for these reasons they should earn more money. They have been patient for a long time waiting for a pay increase, but currently we just do not have the funds to increase their wages.

I have promised them that I will ask our blog readers for their help so that we can pay them well. Soon we will be starting a Sponsor a Guardian campaign, and we hope that with your help each of our Lion Guardians will be sponsored by a donor.

The Lion Guardians had a message for our readers; that they will protect the few remaining lions of Maasailand for the future generations, so that the presence of wild lions does not become history to their children, like the extinction of rhinos that used to roam Maasailand, that they hear about in stories from their fathers.

The Guardians took their time to thank all donors who emptied their pockets to support Kapande and their work in general. This was during traditional prayers led by Ritei Kashu; the ever-smiling Guardian. In particular we would like to thank Nathalie M, Loki Q, Lisa R, Sherri S, Pirjo I, Sau wah T and John D as well as the other anonymous donors for their kind donations over the last few weeks.