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Leaders Reject KWS Plan to Move Elephants

The Nation (Nairobi)

February 16, 2004

Walker Mwandoto And Kauli Mwatela
Nairobi

Four Coast politicians have opposed a Kenya Wildlife plan to move 400 elephants from the Maasai Mara national reserve to Tsavo East.

An assistant minister in the Office of the President, Mr Morris Dzoro, who is also the Kaloleni MP together with Bahari MP Joe Khamisi, Ganze's Mr Joseph Kahindi Kingi and former Voi MP Basil Mwakiringo, said no major decisions should be made on Tsavo East without consulting the local leaders.

Mr Dzoro was concerned that the park had been turned into a breeding ground for elephants. "Stray elephants from Tsavo East have been a menace in Kaloleni, Ganze and Bahari constituencies for many years, so it's time to stop this by not bringing in more," he said at Bamba in Ganze at the weekend.

Mr Kingi said KWS had failed to manage the current elephant population at the park and that getting more would add to the problem.

"The elephants have killed people and destroyed crops. How is KWS going to handle an additional 400?" he asked. He called for culling to reduce the number to manageable levels.

KWS announced the plan to move the animals in December, but it was rejected by the Taita-Taveta district development committee. Speaking in Kilifi town, Mr Khamisi accused KWS of double standards in dealing with the human-wildlife conflict.

Mr Mwakiringo told the the Nation in Kilifi that because of frequent elephant invasions, the Taita-Taveta people had been reduced to beggars as their crops were destroyed every season.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 farmers in Kwale District asked the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission headed by Prof Yash Pal Ghai to include a law in the new constitution to protect farmers against wild animals.

Speaking at a meeting at the county council hall, they said that whenever animals like elephants destroyed their crops, they were not compensated.

"We need a law in the new constitution that will secure us. Whenever wild animals destroy our crops or kill a person, the victims should be well compensated," said Mr Ramadhan Mwakutakiza, 75.

"According to the current constitution, when a person is killed by wildlife, the compensation for the family from the Government is only Sh30,000 and none at all for crops," Mr Mwakutakiza said.

He told the meeting that in 2000, his 21-year-old son was killed by elephants on his farm in Mwele Village as he guarded a maize crop, but he had not been compensated despite filling the relevant KWS forms three years ago.

The farmers who were drawn from all the five divisions of the district, namely, Kubo, Msambweni, Matuga, Kinango and Samburu accused the government of failing to protect them from the elephants which they said had made them to leave in a state of starvation and poverty.

"We have been made to starve by the wild animals and in particular, the elephants that have destroyed all our food and cash crops, nothing is done by the government to protected us from these menace", a farmer, councilor Said Kalima said.

The chairman of the Kenya National Farmers Union (KNFU), Mr Ali Rumba, Councillors Mr Hamisi Benzao and Mussa Ahmed appealed to the head of state, President Mwai Kibaki and the government to help Kwale farmers will free seeds and other agricultural inputs in readiness for this years planting season.

They said the prolonged drought that hit several parts of the district and especially, Kinango and Samburu divisions, left the farmers with no seeds reserves.

"We have already prepared our farms for this plant season, we found it will be difficult for the farmers to plant, because, we have no seeds.

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