Panic among farmers as desert locusts invade Kilifi villages

Residents of Kilifi have panicked, fearing starvation after swarms of desert locusts invaded their farms and destroyed crops.

The ravenous pests have been sighted in Magarini, Ganze, Malindi, Kaloleni and Kilifi South subcounties.

Farmers fear their crops will be completely destroyed if no urgent measures are taken to fight the locust invasion.

The Kilifi county government dispatched five teams to all the 35 wards for surveillance and to identify the type of locusts being witnessed and the size of the swarms.

By Friday, the swarms had invaded 10 wards. Our reporter accompanied one of the surveillance teams and witnessed the locusts in Kanagoni, Msumarini, Marereni areas of Adu ward.

There were also others at Matangini in GIS, and Kilulu area where they were seen in huge numbers.

Agriculture chief officer Fredrick Kaingu who was in one of the surveillance teams said the kind of locusts that have invaded Kilifi belong to the Schistocerca Gregaria category which is highly migrating.

Speaking in Dakatcha, after witnessing thousands of the locusts in farms, Kaingu said the pests moved in from Lamu and Tana River counties.

"Historically these locusts migrated from Yemen, came through Ethiopia and Somalia. On the coast, we did not have any kind of invasion in early February or March but it is now that we are seeing another wave whereby we are having invasion in the coastal counties," he said.

Locusts invaded Kilifi from the northwest in Magarini's Adu ward, before moving to Langobaya, Ganze in Sokoke ward at a place called Mwariandinda, after which they moved to Bomani in Kilifi South and Mtepeni.

"Looking at the migratory patterns you will find that Kilifi county has been highly invaded by the desert migratory locusts," he said.

He said they were finalising their report before convening a steering group meeting to ascertain the extent of damage and develop an action plan.

The steering group consists of the county's agriculture department, the disaster management unit, Kenya Red Cross, NDMA, and other stakeholders.

Kaingu said the life cycle of the desert locusts has three main stages including the egg, that is hatched on the ground and stays for about two weeks before hatching into nymphs before later developing into hoppers.

"The hopper is the very destructive one. Currently, we have the adults which are in Kilifi county but these are not very destructive, but in two weeks time if they lay the eggs they will hatch and will have the hoppers which will destroy crops and vegetation," Kaingu said.

At Thoroweni village in Magarini, Christine Jumwa said the locusts invaded her farm on Wednesday evening.

She said they were forced to chase them away but fear the pests could cause massive destruction.

"The government should act very fast before these locusts destroy our crops, we are worried," she said.

Marafa MCA Renson Kambi said the locusts invaded his farm which consists of pineapples and watermelon.

His biggest worry was the 22 acres of watermelon which cost him over Sh100,000 as they are still at a young age.

Kambi said he was forced to spend the whole day on the farm chasing away locusts to prevent crop destruction in his farm.