Residents of a village in Lari subcounty, Kiambu, have asked the government to build them a road to end their isolation.
The cold Gitare village lies behind Bathi location and neighbours Kireita Forest where carbon dioxide is harvested and where Bathi River flows to Bathi dam.
Because the village neighbours a forest, wild animals such as monkeys and porcupine invade homes and eat food crops on the farms.
A resident, Elizabeth Njoki, said monkeys jump over the electric fence around Kireita Forest and enter the village, while porcupines pass under the fence where it has been destroyed by floods.
“These monkeys come in a troop of about 30. They harass women. We do not go to farms alone. When our husbands or brothers are not around, we spend the day inside our houses,” she said.
She said they have been reporting the issue to the Kenya Wildlife Service but the agency has never trapped the primates or controlled them.
Charles Manji said they have no roads. “We have witnessed women give birth on the roadside or at home since vehicles cannot access this village. No emergency can be attended to,” Manji explained.
Kiambu Governor James Nyoro’s economic advisor Njoki Wamitugo asked the Kenya Rural Roads Authority to visit the area.
“According to our maps, the road is there but it has never been touched. The problem is, it passes across the river. No vehicle or motorcycle can pass,” she said.
Wamitugo said she handed a petition to the KWS offices at Lang’ata, demanding the monkeys and the porcupines be removed from the village.
Edited by Henry Makori
