- Initially, Nema had issued a licence to Harji Mavji and Suresh Kurji Kerai, representing KiliAvo Fresh Ltd, to put up a farm.
- In September last year, the investor was ordered by Nema to stop work on the proposed 180-acre fenced farm in the fragile ecosystem.
An investor has lost a case to put up a farm in Amboseli following the intervention of the Kenya Wildlife Service and the National Environment Management Authority.
Documents in the Star's possession show that the two state institutions put up a spirited fight using statistics showing that thousands of wildlife use the land as a corridor.
"A total of 52,493 individual animals have been recorded crossing from East to West compared to 41,325 crossings from West to East," a status report prepared jointly by KWS and Nema says.
Initially, Nema had issued a licence to Harji Mavji and Suresh Kurji Kerai, representing KiliAvo Fresh Ltd, to put up a farm. The firm planned to grow avocados, tomatoes, onions, garlic and other vegetables.
Last September, the investor was ordered by Nema to stop work on the proposed 180-acre fenced farm in the fragile ecosystem. This was after conservationists and landowners raised objections to the project.
The investor was at the time given 10 days to show cause why a licence issued by Nema should not be revoked. It moved to the National Environment Tribunal seeking to overturn Nema's decision.
The firm, however, lost the case on Monday, prompting Nema to revoke a licence it had issued.
The status report says GPS-enabled satellite collars have been employed to illustrate wildlife movement within the corridor.
"The elephant being the largest living terrestrial mammal, social, intelligent, an ecosystem engineer and a species of great conservation concern have been studied extensively in Kenya," the report reads.
The status report says within the Amboseli ecosystem, the elephant is also an umbrella species whose home range overlaps that of many other species, hence data on elephant movement has been largely used to define the extent of wildlife migratory corridors and dispersal areas.
The status report shows that 17,944 impalas were using the corridor to cross from west to east, while another 14,699 used the site to cross from east to west. Some 14,546 zebras used the corridor to cross from west to east, while another 11,664 used it from east to west.
The report shows that 7,649 elephants used the corridor to cross from west to east, while another 5,266 elephants used it to go back. It shows that 5,331 giraffes used the corridor to cross from west to east, while another 4,019 used it from east to west.
Some 4,520 wildebeests used the corridor to move from west to east and another 3,745 from east to west, the report adds.
The Kimana Wildlife corridor is one of those identified in the Wildlife Migratory Corridors and Dispersal areas report of 2017.
"Wildlife from Amboseli National Park seasonally migrates and disperses to adjacent group ranches and further to Chyulu and Tsavo West National Parks as well as across to Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park.
"However, increasing land-use conversion to crop farming is blocking the wildlife migratory and dispersal corridors and routes resulting in changes in wildlife distribution patterns and increase in human-wildlife conflicts," the status report says.
The report, which was part of the evidence used in the case, was jointly drafted by officials from KWS and Nema, including Joseph Mukeka (KWS), Daniel Muteti (KWS), Peter Mwangi (KWS), James Kiparus (KWS), Christine Mwinzi (KWS) and Joseph Makau from Nema.
The Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan identifies six corridors through to which animals disperse from the Amboseli Park.
Kimana wildlife corridor, which cuts across the former Kimana Group Ranch, is one of the six major corridors that are critical to the continued ecological functioning of the Amboseli National Park and the entire ecosystem in totality.
These corridors are described in details in the Amboseli Ecosystem Management Plan (2020-30). The revised plan was recently launched and published vide Gazette notice no.73 of 2021 dated January 8, 2021.
The contiguous wildlife habitat between Amboseli National Park-Kimana sanctuary Kuku ranch and Chyulu West forms the Kimana Wildlife Corridor that connects several conservancies that were established along the corridor.
The conservancies include Osupuko, Nailepeu and Kilitome in the former Kimana Group ranch and Motikanju in the Kuku Group ranch. They are jointly registered as Amboseli Landowners Conservancy Association as one big conservancy.
The 180-acre KiliAvo farm is located along the Kimana-Amboseli road within the Oleporos area in the Amboseli Landowners Conservancy Association, which is also part of the Kimana wildlife corridor (Amboseli National Park-Kimana-Kuku-Chyulu West).
The report says the Kimana Wildlife corridor has been on the decline since the subdivision of Kimana Group ranch that took place in 1991.
This was followed by the sale and leases of land to private investors who introduced crop farming.
The crops currently grown include tomatoes, onions, maize, beans and kales among other horticultural produce. This farming is mainly through irrigation mostly from the Kimana swamp, other wetlands and boreholes.
-Edited by SKanyara