KWS to use chopper in driving elephants back to parks

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will start to use a chopper to drive about 200 elephants which have invaded farms in Taita Taveta County back to national parks.

KWS assistant director in charge of Tsavo Conservation Area, Julius Cheptei, said the conservation agency would deploy a chopper to drive the animals from the affected areas back to Tsavo East and West national parks.

He added that the areas affected by elephants include Sagalla, Ndare, Kajire, Ndii and Mbulia since they border the two parks.

Currently, he said, KWS rangers are using vehicles in the exercise to prevent the animals from attacking villagers.

“The construction of the standard gauge railway between Bachuma and Maungu has in some way played a part in the human-wildlife conflict in Taita Taveta County,” he said.

“The elephants were used to roaming to open spaces, but now the railway line cuts through the migratory routes causing the animals to wander into farms,” he explained.

Speaking to the Nation on Monday, Mr Cheptei called on residents who encounter the elephants to report to the agency so that the animals could be driven back to the parks.

In order to address the human-wildlife conflict in Taita Taveta County, he said, KWS will build a 28km electric fence between Bura and Mwatate.

Mr Cheptei added that the agency had set aside Sh40 million for the electric fence project.

“We have already completed the environmental impact assessment and we are now holding stakeholder meetings to create awareness about the project,” he said.

He called on residents to cooperate with KWS officials to help address the wildlife challenge rather than engaging in blame games.

But in a quick rejoinder, Taita Taveta governor John Mruttu urged KWS to compensate families who lost their loved ones as a result of attacks from elephants.

“The big issue is compensation as some residents were killed by wildlife. Even last Saturday we buried a villager,” he said.

Mr Mruttu revealed that more than 80 per cent of Sagalla, Kasigau, Marungu, Mbololo, Mwatate, Bura, Wumingu, Kishushe and Mata residents were facing starvation after their crops were destroyed by wildlife.

“Residents from the areas affected by wildlife have for the last two years harvested nothing following crop destruction by elephants,” he added.

The governor said he had received a petition from residents who are contemplating to sue the government to push for compensation.