Record funds raised by Rhino Charge 2016

CONSERVATION EVENT RAISES NEARLY 140 MILLION KENYA SHILLINGS

(Posted 02nd June 2016)

Kenya’s undisputed number one conservation fundraiser event, the annual Rhino Charge, once again showed that participating and helping to raise funds towards the protection of rhinos and other game, has not lost any of its appeal over the years since the first such event was held in 1989.
In fact was a record breaking 138.402.565 Kenya Shillings raised, beating the previous record of 108 million Kenya Shillings set last year by a very wide margin.
The three top fund raisers from among the participants were Stanley Kinyanjui, Car 62 who bagged 14.5 million Kenya Shillings, followed by Peter Kinyua, Car 23, who raised a respectable 11.215 million Kenya Shillings and third came Allan McKittrick, Car 5 with 10.3 million Kenya Shillings.
This year’s even was notably won by Allan McKittrick followed by Neil McRay and Sean Avery and congratulation to them and their teams for checking in at all 13 control points.
The Masai landowners of the Naikara and Olderkesi Group Ranches got 4.4 million Kenya Shillings from the fees raised while another 1.8 million Kenya Shillings was paid to some 400 members of the local communities who provided various services prior and during the conservation motoring event.
David Lowe, Clerk of the Course who coordinates the event, said ‘I am so thrilled by the growing support the Rhino Charge is receiving, enabling to raise over KES 139 million this year. This represents a 28 percent increase over last year’s figure of KES 108 million. I am also very happy that the two top fund raisers are Kenyan teams‘.

Addressing the Chargers at Prize-giving, Peter Kinyua, Chairman of the Board of Kenya Forest Service and driver of Car 23 challenged other Kenyans to join the Rhino Charge movement and participate as competitors in this fund raising event. He said ‘I am a Kenyan and have been charging for the past 23 years. I have been doing it because I feel duty-bound to contribute to the conservation of our environment. This is not just because each time I travel around the country, I am amazed by the diversity and beauty of our ecosystems, but because those ecosystems are essential in supporting our economic development, our well-being and our resilience to climate change. Yet, too many of us have taken our environment for granted and if we do not take urgent action to preserve it, we are putting ourselves at great risk‘.

Reflecting upon the past 28 Rhino Charge events, Julius Kimani, Deputy Director of Kenya Wildlife Service, expressed his amazement at the journey travelled so far. He added his own voice when he said: ‘Few may believe that an idea shared by three visionary individuals, namely Ken Kuhle, Rob Combes and Brian Haworth, would bring such incredible changes in the way one nation conserve the sources of its water. From KES 250,000 raised in the first charge 27 years ago, we have crossed the KES 100 million mark yearly, bringing to a cumulative figure of more than KES one billion‘.

Projecting into the future, Kimani added ‘We must invest in our communities who are surrounding our protected areas and are hosting on their lands a large proportion of our wildlife. Addressing human-wildlife conflicts, including through fencing, will remain a pivotal component to secure the engagement of our communities in conservation and to protect our wildlife‘.

Speaking on behalf of the Rhino Ark Board of Trustees, Brian Haworth who is also one of the three founders of the Rhino Charge, noted that the appointment of Peter Kinyua as Rhino Ark trustee, together with David Lowe as the Rhino Charge Clerk of the Course and Christian Lambrechts as the CEO of Rhino Ark, represents a smooth generational change across the entire institution. ‘I feel very fulfilled that what we started has a bright future in very able hands‘ he said.

Provisional results of the Rhino Charge are available at:
http://rhinocharge.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Overall.pdf

Photographs of the event are accessible at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m1hlpu4mzmyrele/AAC77DlUlXQr7uShO3wWey02a?dl=0. For photo credits, use the file name.

The digital channels of the Rhino Charge and Rhino Ark are: