Competition for dwindling pastures and water, coupled with closure of migratory routes by developers, have been blamed for the rise in human-wildlife conflicts.
Wildlife PS Fred Segor said the biggest threat to conservation is human-wildlife conflicts.
“We have seen an increase in the number of human-wildlife conflict cases and this has been caused by changes in land use, closure of wildlife migratory routes and climate change,” he said.
Segor said competition for pastures and water between domestic animals and wildlife has also contributed to the upsurge in cases.
“At the moment, the majority of wildlife in the country is outside national and game parks and this has led to attacks targeting humans,” Segor said.
He said plans are underway to use insurance to compensate victims and the department is committed to clearing the backlog before the end of the year.
Segor spoke at the end of a one-week conflict compensation claims processing workshop at KWS Training Institute in Naivasha.
“For years KWS has had hundreds of pending cases of human-wildlife conflicts, but after this workshop, we expect to clear the backlog,” he said.
KWS Director-General John Waweru said the current conflict cases were fuelled by declining space for wildlife.
“We want to ease the process of addressing the issue of compensation for families which in the past has taken years to be completed,” he said.
Last week, the PS said in the last five years the government had spent over Sh1.2 billion in compensating victims of wildlife attacks.
