Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Warden Kitui County Jamal Rashid has faulted locals in Kitui south for making it hard to drive out wild animals from the area.
Jamal revealed that human encroachment near South Kitui National Reserve by locals has made the exercise of driving out elephants and other wildlife from Kitui South constituency hard.
Rashid who spoke to a local radio station said due to increased population, locals have blocked the animal’s migratory corridor. With this, the animals migrating from Tsavo can no longer trace their migration route to other parks hence the increased human-wildlife conflict within the area.
“There is increased population. There are shambas everywhere. Initially, when things were good and the population was low, there used to be a migration route which they used to Mwingi National Reserve, Kora National Park to Meru National Park”, he explained.
Rashid added that tracing the animals has since been difficult because they are using other routes as they roam around searching for water and food.
“Right now as they move, they are coming across people, buildings, and farms. If you try to revoke them back, they change routes. This is a phenomenon that personally I can’t change”, Rashid added.
Meanwhile, a middle-aged man from Kivuio Mutha Ward is currently nursing injuries at Mutomo level 4 hospital after being attacked by an elephant yesterday. Farmers within the area are counting loss as herds of elephants continue to destroy their shambas for a period of two weeks now.
