Bill to protect migratory game routes to be tabled
A Bill aimed at protecting game migratory routes is set to be tabled in Parliament. The Bill aims at minimising human-wildlife conflict, the Kenya Wildlife Service board chairman David Mwiraria has said. He
said the bill that emphasizes on conservation of the corridors seeks to
revise the existing Wildlife Act that had become outdated.
Speaking
in Nyahururu town when he handed over classrooms set up by the
Nyandarua KWS for Manguo primary school, Mwiraria said some Kenyans had
encroached on wildlife habitats thus increasing cases of conflict
between humans and wildlife. The former finance minister appealed to MPs to pass the Bill.
Mwiraria
at the same time decried vandalisation of electric fences that surround
forests in Laikipia County and urged local residents to help the
security agents to contain the vice by arresting the culprits. He
underscored the need to produce crops against invasion by elephants at
the Silale and other villages situated near Marmanet forest.
Nyandarua
district game warden Peter Lekeren said following construction of
electric fences around forests where elephants live, reduced cases of
wildlife-human conflict had been recorded in the last five years. He said in the year 2006, 166 cases were reported as compared to this year where only 48 had been recorded. He said 15 compensations were paid out in the year 2005 while only two were done last year.
But
as Lekeren was upbeat, Laikipia West MP Ndiritu Muriithi paraded
members of a family whose member had been killed by a lion at Lobere
village in Ng’arua division of his constituency. John Gitogo said her sister Martha Nduta had gone to collect milk from the neighbour’s home when she was attacked.
Gitogo
said only a skull was recovered in the bush. The piece was taken to
Nyahururu district hospital mortuary for identification, he said. The
two classrooms and a sanitation improvement block were built at a cost
of Sh2.9 million Mwiraria promised that KWS would continue building more
classrooms until the school was complete. The
new mayor for Nyahururu Municipality Timothy Nduhiu said the council
would avail Sh2 million to start construction of the secondary school
section in the 10 acre compound.