The efforts by a multi-agency response team deployed to contain the forest fires that have been raging in parts of Mount Kenya have been successful says Kenya Wildlife Service.
Online mapping service, Mapcarta, describes Ithangune as a peak located nearby to Kanje and Mugi Hill. It has an elevation of 3,858 meters and is Southeast of Lake Alice.
The national game park and reserves agency states that teams comprising 200 Kenya Defence Forces officers, 50 policemen and 131 community forest association members deployed the east of Chogoria are monitoring the situation there.
KDF who joined the efforts Saturday called in ‘air tractors’ carrying 3,000 litres of water to assist in putting off the fire.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry said on Saturday the fires had affected 100,000 acres in the Mount Kenya ecosystem.
Major fires were reported Kamiruri, Ndaragua areas of the forest and also in Meru and Tharaka-Nthi.
Over 500 personnel mostly drawn from the military have camped at the Aberdares National Park where a joint command centre has been set up to monitor the situation.
In February 2018, 300 hectares of Mt Kenya forest were engulfed in a similar fire, days after the Kenya Forest Service issued an alert following prolonged drought.
The inferno lasted three days.
On Friday evening, the fire Mt Kenya fire extended to the bamboo vegetation near Kinondoni Lodge in Tharaka-Nithi County.
The cause of the fire that started near Lake Ellis in Tharaka-Nithi County, and spread to Embu, Kirinyaga, Meru, Laikipia and Nyeri counties, has not been established.
On Friday, 490 Kenya Defence Forces soldiers were deployed to help put out the wildfire, bringing the number of responders to about 610. Responders have been using twigs, hang pumps and five choppers in their attempts to put out the fires.
The park’s Senior Warden, Mr Isaac Mugo, said: “We are hoping that with the [help of] KDF officers, we will put out the fire soon, though it is spreading very fast due to strong winds.”
Chief Conservator of Forests, Monica Kalenda, said 120 cases of wildfires have been reported nationwide since January and 110,582 hectares of vegetation destroyed, dealing a blow to the revenue stream.