Victims of human wildlife conflict in Kajiado South are decrying the delay in compensation by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
Led by their area Member of Parliament Sakimpa Parashina, the area residents say that the compensation process takes too long and they have to wait for years for their claims to be approved and paid.
“You will find that claims that have been made in the year 2018 have not been paid to date yet in some cases the victim was the breadwinner. It is not fair that compensation takes more than ten years to be paid. We want it to take at most one year for it to be helpful to the victims,” said the MP.
He further said that KWS also ought to carry out sensitization forums on compensation as most of the residents are not aware of where to report attacks and when.
“Our people should know how much is paid and when it will be paid either for death, injury or crop destruction. That will help in curbing retaliatory cases where the community kills the wildlife in retaliation to the damage caused,” said Parashina.
Jeremiah Ngashngash, a village elder in Elang’ata enkima says that hyenas and lions usually kill their livestock yet KWS takes a lot of time to compensate them yet the livestock are their source of income.
“The compensation usually delays and sometimes it does not even cover the market value of the livestock killed. Though we have benefitted from other activities such as boreholes from KWS, we are requesting for more compensation and installation of solar lights to ward off the wildlife at night when they prey on the livestock at the bomas,” he said.
He also wants KWS to introduce a tree planting exercise in the area as elephants have destroyed most of the trees in the area.
Simon Olashumpai, a resident of Kuku ward says that they usually incur losses when they have to reach out to agricultural officers to assess and validate the damages they incur due to wildlife.
“Some of our farms were destroyed years ago and we are still following up on payment. A hyena also killed 20 goats in January last year and we are still awaiting compensation though KWS promised to compensate on time. Let them act fast in matters compensation,” he lamented.
William Tajiri, a resident of Elang’ata Enkima lamented that the elephants also destroy their crops when they come searching for water near their bomas and wants KWS to drill boreholes and water pans for the wildlife far away from their bomas to curb human-wildlife conflicts.
Kenya Wildlife Service, Kajiado Assistant Director, Francis Mbaka is urging the community to report all incidences involving wildlife by dialing *202*09# for them to experience fast, fair and digital compensation.
By Diana Meneto
