Kajiado elephant attack: Address community grievances to cure this ‘madness’

The recent elephant attack in Rombo, Kajiado South, highlights the ongoing human-wildlife conflicts in the area.

Locals killed three elephants in retaliation for an attack that reportedly killed a young girl.

Whenever humans live in close proximity with wild animals, like in some parts of Kajiado, conflicts are bound to occur.

The most prevalent cases are when wild animals like lions, leopards and hyenas, sneak into human settlements and attack livestock.

In other cases, animals like elephants encroach on human settlements in search of water and pasture and in the process destroy farms and attack humans they come into contact with.

Angry humans will retaliate, and if Saturday’s example is anything to go by, lives (human and wildlife) will be lost.

Many people have lost their live and many others left with life-threatening injuries as a result if attacks by wild animals.

There are underlying issues that contribute to the increase of these unfortunate conflicts. A good example is climate change. Now, climate change is responsible for prolonged draught cycles.

As a result of increased cases of draught, humans and wildlife, living in close proximity, will naturally compete for scarce resources like water and pasture.

Humans will take their livestock to wildlife habitat like parks in search of pasture. On the other hand, animals will wander into human settlements in search of water and feed. Inevitably, in such situations, conflicts are bound to occur.

Now this is where bodies like KWS come in. Their mandate, apart from taking care of the animals, includes ensuring that humans co-exist harmoniously with animals and in instances where injuries and deaths to humans occur; work out a suitable compensation package.

The truth, however, is that compensation rarely comes and when it does, it is not sufficient, not forgetting that accessing the money is a long drawn out process littered with constricting bureaucracy.

The people often accuse KWS of being very vocal and acting concerned whenever animals are killed but act dumb when humans are killed by the same animals.

It should be noted that in a county like Kajiado, wild animals occupy, not just animal parks, but also land belonging to the community.

The fact that wild animals is to be found on community land speaks volumes about the community’s ability to co-exist with the animals. Their conservation efforts go unrecognised and therefore unrewarded.

The government and conservation bodies should in fact give credit to the community for allowing wild animals to live in their land unmolested, over the years. There is this misconception among conservation circles that conservation is the sole preserve of foreigners. Nothing can be further from the truth.

On this note, the community, through their leaders, have been asking KWS to ensure that the animals are properly enclosed within their habitat so that they do not encroach on human settlement, in vain.

There is also the thorny issue of the community not benefiting from proceeds of tourism emanating from the Amboseli National Park, like their brothers from Narok County, who draw benefits from the Maasai Mara National Park.

Unless and until grievances from the host community are listened to and acted upon, rest assured that incidents like the one that occurred on Saturday, are not about to come to an end.