Stray Wildlife Could Cost Ranchers Farms


The East African Standard (Nairobi)

January 21, 2005
Posted to the web January 20, 2005

Amos Kareithi
Nairobi

The Government has warned owners of vast ranches, whose wildlife has been terrorising neighbouring communities, to confine the animals or lose their land.

National Security minister Dr Chris Murungaru yesterday said the Government would forcibly acquire the land of ranchers who failed to hinder the directive.



"Such land could then be used to settle thousands of landless people squatting in colonial villages," said Murungaru in his Kieni constituency.

The area and other parts of Nyeri District are dotted with squatter villages, mostly near forests where some of the families were either kicked out by the Government after the scrapping of the shamba system or displaced during the colonial era.

Kieni has vast ranches like Solio and Sangare, which have been targeting tourist to see their game.

Murungaru singled out Sangare as one of the farms whose owners have been accused by the neighbouring community of letting their animals, especially elephants, stray to their farms to wreak havoc.

The residents are said to be depending on Government relief food following the massive destruction of their crops by the animals.

The situation is said to be so bad that a number of families have lost their loved ones while others have been maimed by the marauding jumbos.

The beasts sometimes impose curfews in the area forcing the residents to stay indoors at night.

Murungaru, tired of receiving complaints from the constituents, said his people had no spare land to accommodate wild animals and the ranchers had to control them.

Parents of Ndathi Primary School in the area are said have withdrawn their children from the institution for fear of attacks from elephants which strayed from a nearby sanctuary.

"We cannot allow game corridors in areas where people have settled. It is the responsibility of the ranch owners to confine them," said Murungaru.


He said the Government had taken steps to control wildlife in national parks and game reserves in the Mt Kenya region by setting aside Sh10 million to fence off the reserves.

He said that other donors like Safaricom were willing to donate funds to finance the fencing of the Mt. Kenya region to contain the animals within their sanctuaries.

A whole lot of logic in that article by another mindless black.

On the other hand it appears like someone is looking for an excuse to do a Mugabe. The disease is spreading.

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Originally posted by NitroX:
A whole lot of logic in that article by another mindless black.

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Actually there is quite a lot of logic in the new rule. As you suspect, the officials know the Ranchers can't possibly detain that much wildlife, besides who knows where any wildlife comes from to raid the fields. It is only an excuse to confiscate private property, nothing more! That's Africa's same old song!