MAASAI MARA, Kenya — Joshua Kijape has spent the past year patrolling the Mara on an electric motorcycle, using its near-silent motor to get closer to wildlife and, when needed, poachers. The Mara-Siana ranger, attached to Entumoto Safari Camp in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve, said the bike helps him move without disturbing animals and makes it harder for poachers to hear him coming.
"With this bike, I can get closer to the animals without disturbing them," he said. "And when you are following poachers, they cannot hear you coming."
That’s the basic shape of the story: a reserve where rangers, safari operators and electric vehicle companies are testing whether solar-charged transport can cut fuel use, lower maintenance costs and reduce noise in one of Africa’s most watched ecosystems. The people doing the work are on the ground. The decisions and the money sit higher up.
Who Gets the Quiet, Who Gets the Risk
The electric motorcycle is part of a broader effort to bring Africa’s energy transition into wildlife reserves, replacing petrol-powered transport with vehicles charged by the sun. In the Maasai Mara, conservation operators are testing whether electric mobility can reduce fuel use and maintenance costs while limiting noise during one of the reserve’s busiest periods.
That period is the annual wildebeest migration, when huge numbers of animals, tourists and conservation teams crowd onto the grasslands. Rangers in Kenya’s Maasai Mara are patrolling on electric motorcycles, and safari camps are running solar-charged electric vehicles. The people at the bottom of the chain are the ones expected to make the system work in rough terrain, long patrols and remote conditions.
Jason Knauf, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, framed the shift as proof that the energy transition has reached far beyond city streets. "Seeing electric vehicles reach the Maasai Mara during the Great Migration is powerful proof that the energy transition extends far beyond cities," he said. "The Mara is one of the world’s most demanding environments, and if clean technology can prove reliable, affordable and effective there, it strengthens the case for scaling it across other conservation landscapes and remote communities," he said.
The Test Site for the New Order
For ROAM, the Nairobi-based electric motorcycle company behind Kijape’s bike, the Mara is an engineering test. ROAM CEO Filip Lovstrom said the company wanted to put its motorcycles and products in the field because nature is worth protecting.
"Nature is worth protecting, so we think it’s important to put our motorcycles and products out there," Lovstrom said. "By eliminating noise associated with petrol bikes, it creates a serene, quiet environment that is beneficial to both the animals and tourists."
He also pointed to economics, which usually decides what gets adopted and what gets left behind. "Instead of shipping petrol all the way from the port of Mombasa out into nature to fuel a bunch of petrol motorcycles, you’re now able to charge them using solar, right where you are contributing positively to the environment," he said.
ROAM’s e-bike can travel about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, between charges. Longer patrols will need charging stations along the route. Because the bikes can plug into a standard 10-amp socket, Lovstrom said, stations can be built around relatively small solar and battery systems. "Just as you need access to petrol, which is really difficult today in an area like the Maasai Mara, you now need access to electricity," he said.
The market reaches beyond conservation. Communities near wildlife areas often rely on motorcycles for transport, especially where roads are poor and alternatives are limited. That means the same infrastructure being tested for safari operators and rangers also touches ordinary people trying to move through the same neglected terrain.
Proof of Concept, Built on Sunshine
Emboo River Camp in the Maasai Mara has used electric safari vehicles since 2019. The camp’s co-founder and co-director, Loic Amado, said the vehicles are charged exclusively with solar power.
"It’s an extremely good use case for electric vehicles," Amado said. "They’re silent, sustainable, environmentally friendly and most importantly economical."
What began as an experiment has grown, through his other firm EERA LAB, into a broader sustainability operation. Amado said it now supports 25 lodges across East Africa with solar power, wastewater treatment and electric-vehicle conversions. "Emboo was really a proof of concept and a test case," he said. "It was almost like our laboratory. We tried to prove the model there."
Emboo camp has expanded its EV fleet and more than tripled its solar energy system to meet demand. Kenya has only a small number of electric safari vehicles in operation, concentrated in the Mara and a handful of other conservation areas, and the concept is attracting larger safari operators. Amado said Asilia, which runs about 20 lodges across East Africa, now operates its electric fleet.
EERA LAB has also developed a dashboard that tracks energy generation and consumption, water levels, recycling and the solar power used to charge vehicles. "It removes the black box and uncertainty that safari operators have had over the past couple of years," Amado said.
Converting conventional safari vehicles costs between $35,000 and $45,000, Amado said, but the investment can pay for itself in about two and a half to three years through fuel and maintenance savings. "It’s all running on sunshine, and we have plenty of it," he said.
For Amado, the goal reaches beyond swapping out individual petrol vehicles. "Our goal is to make the Maasai Mara net zero by 2035," he said.