• Mwenda said stakeholders providing the resources for the exercise were hesitant to give the cash to an individual.
• He said they are also exploring to see if Ruto can sell the poison that remained following the efficacy test to the state or stakeholders.
Image: HANDOUT
The issuance of a monopoly licence has continued to hinder plans to eliminate the Indian house crow through poisoning.
The crows are aggressive, they eat eggs of other birds and displace them from their nests.
Dr Mwenda Mbaka, a technical adviser to the team constituted by the state to eliminate the Indian house crow, told the Star on the phone that the bird is multiplying rapidly.
He said the Kenya Wildlife Service cannot import the poison known as Starlicide, since the licence to import has exclusively been given to Little Kenya Gardens.
“The government and the experts are gravely concerned that the bird's population has continued to grow,” Mwenda said.
Four years ago, the government gave Little Kenya Gardens Ltd the monopoly to import Starlicide. The firm imported a little for the efficacy test.
In 2022, the firm said an efficacy test of the poison was done in Ukunda and Diani.
“The efficacy test was very successful, as close to 2,000 birds were killed during the exercise,” Little Kenya Gardens owner Cecilia Ruto told the Star on the phone at the time.
Efficacy trials determine whether an intervention produces the expected results under ideal circumstances.
Before the efficacy test was done, Ruto said they were feeding the crow with bait meat.
“We were feeding the crows 150kg of meat each day,” she said.
The feeding was meant to train the birds to depend on the meat before it was laced with poison.
Ruto said a kilo of meat at the time was retailing for Sh580. This means that each day, the crows consumed meat worth Sh87,000, roughly Sh2,610,000 a month and Sh5,220,000 in the first two months.
Ruto said during the efficacy test, officials from the Pest Control Products Board were present.
“The PCPB personnel from Nairobi and Coast were present before, during, and after the exercise,” Ruto said.
She said that during the test, no other bird was affected.
“The local community collected the dead birds and they were paid Sh20 per bird. We disposed of the dead birds in a pit on land belonging to the veterinary department," Ruto said.
After the efficacy test, she said she was waiting for the government to provide funds to import more poison for the rollout of the bird poisoning.
Resources were, however, not forthcoming.
The crow that arrived in Kenya in 1947 has, in the meantime, been multiplying.
Today, there are thousands of Indian House Crows in Coast and some have been sighted inland in Emali.
Mwenda said stakeholders providing the funds were hesitant to give the cash to an individual to source the poison.
He said they are also exploring to see if Ruto can sell the poison that remained after the test to the state or other stakeholders.
“We will get more poison if we get more funds,” Mwenda said.
He said the bird is stressing out hoteliers and their guests in Coast.
“The pest also transmits some diseases that affect people, and it does not have any known predators,” Mwenda said.
Starlicide is best-suited for the elimination of the crow as it metabolises rapidly over 10 to 12 hours.
If a poisoned crow is found dead, it can be eaten safely by a scavenger, such as a dog or a vulture.
Starlicide is the only measure that has proved effective in reducing Indian crow numbers.
Groups, such as Watamu Association, have in the recent past urged the state to revoke the licence given to the firm, saying it has not been active in the crow eradication programme.
In January 2020, the KWS Board of Trustees approved a "well-thought-through plan for a National House Crow Eradication Strategy,” and “a comprehensive five-year National House Crow Eradication Programme” was completed in July 2020.
KWS has an environmental and social impact assessment licence for a trial of Starlicide in Kwale, Mombasa and Kilifi.