• The park is home to thousands of wild animals. Contained.
• It’s not fenced and the animals have been invading private homes.
The Naivasha drought crisis has worsened after fire broke out in Mt Longonot National Park wiping out tens of acres of pasture.
It was brought under control. It was the third fire over the weekend.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of wild animals were displaced into nearby farms before KWS officers and members of the public managed to contain the blaze.
No injuries were reported.
The Nakuru county government raised an alert following fires increase in parts of the county, all attributed to the dry weather.
Naivasha subcounty commissioner Mutua Kisilu confirmed the fire in the southern part of the park.
He said the fire had been contained before spreading to the nearby farms and homes though many animals had been displaced.
“We suspect that the fire outbreak was caused by charcoal burners or honey gatherers but we have managed to contain it,” he said.
Kisilu called on members of the public to be on high alert mainly while burning trash, terming this one of the main causes of fires.
Property worth millions of shillings was reduced to ashes after fire gutted a warehouse.
Efforts by members of the public to contain the fire in Lakeview estate were thwarted by its intensity caused by flammable materials in the store.
Nakuru chief officer for disaster management Joyce Cece attributed the fire to the burning of litter near the trader’s warehouse.
Cece, who was present, said that the county did its best by providing two fire engines and several water bowsers.
“This was the third fire incident in the county over the weekend and we are calling on members of the public to be careful on how they burn their waste,” she said.
She added that the county disaster management team was on high alert following the increasing fires.
“We have seen a rise in fires mainly due to the harsh weather that has dried vegetation and we are on high alert," she said.
(Edited by V. Graham)