Lamu residents living in fear of wildlife attacks as drought bites

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Residents of Imenti in Meru county push an elephant that had been trampling on farm crops towards a river .Human wildlife conflict in Kwale has goven rise to an illegal bushmeat market in Kwale county PHOTO COURTESY

Lamu,KENYA:The number of wildlife roaming homes and farms in Lamu as the drought spell persists in Lamu alarming.

This is according to the residents of Hindi,Sheemgambo,Bobo,Saba Saba,Bargoni,Mpeketoni,Witu,Pandanguo and Kipini  who have expressed concern over the increased number of buffaloes,hippos and lions that have been openly roaming their homes and farms in search of food and water.

They are calling upon the Kenya Wildlife Service-KWS to intervene and contain the dangerous animals before they cause any harm to locals and especially school going children.

“Many times we have been forced to lock ourselves in the house whenever we spot a lion,hippo or buffalo just grazing outside our houses.We are so worried these are animals could cause deaths very soon because we normally aren’t aware of their presence until you stumble upon one. Thats dangerous and the KWS knows as much.Let them do something before someone dies,”said Kahindi Ngumbao.

This comes as county wildlife committees are engaged in a row with the ministry of environment and natural resources over a suggestion to strike out snake bites from the compensation list and delays in compensation of victims of wildlife attacks.

 

The chairperson of the Lamu County Wildlife Compensation Committee Ali Shebwana said that the huge backlog of compensation cases was further complicating the process.

Shebwana however heaped the blame solely on the Ministry Environment and Natural Resources.

“Its not our fault.The Ministry hasn’t given us any money to pay all these people.There are so many complaints but we just don’t have the funds to deal with them.Once the money is allocated to us we shall definitely compensate these people,”said Shebwana.

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