Kenya won't abolish hunting ban to cull high wildlife numbers: Kibaki Sat Aug 20,12:28 PM ET



NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenya will not drop an 18-year-old hunting ban despite calls for it to be lifted to cull high numbers of wildlife and reduce damage to farms, President Mwai Kibaki said.


Kibaki, who last year vetoed changes to the 1977 ban to allow sport hunting and ranchers to kill stray wildlife on their land, said new "innovative" ideas were needed to cut down on growing human-animal conflict in the country.

"Although currently the numbers of Kenyas wildlife is high, the government (will) not lift the ban on hunting but step up its conservation efforts," Kibaki said, according to a statement from his office.

"Conservationists in Kenya must seek innovative ways of dealing with the excessive number of wildlife to avoid serious human-wildlife conflict," he said, adding that Nairobi would "continue to protect the natural heritage".

Kibaki's comments, in a speech to potential investors in Hong Kong at the end of a five-day state visit to China, come as hunting advocates -- mainly ranchers and big-game trophy seekers -- try to revive the vetoed legislation.

Lawmakers amended the 1977 Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, which banned poaching and reckless killing of wild animals, to ease the proscription in early December 2004, but Kibaki vetoed the bill on New Year's Eve.

At the time, Kibaki said he agreed with provisions to boost compensation payments for livestock killed by wild animals but would not allow the "relegation of wildlife management to a few interest groups."

Kenya, home to some of the world's largest populations of exotic game, depends heavily on wildlife tourism and the country has won plaudits for its staunch opposition to lifting the international ban on the ivory trade.

So what else is new? If you want a really good overview of Kenya today read the latest National Geographic entirely devoted to the African continent. Nothing positive about hunting in there either, including the last page referring to TR slaughtering thousands of animals on one of his Safaris. In the short blurb on TR they stated that he claimed to not be a butcher in his application for financial support of the Safari in order to collect trophies for the Smithsonian or National Museum. Maybe a big lion could somehow get a hold of and eat Kibaki and half of his parliment.

I try to get "a good overview" of Kenya. That why I read Kenyan newspapers daily (The Nation and The Standard, occasionally the Kenya Times - thanks to the Net, all are accessible freely) and why I frequent Kenyan websites and discussion boards; not US magazines though.

Many thanks to Katie for the information: this was one piece however ;-) about which the local media did not report. Kenyan public opinion isn divided, and Wycliffe Muga always strongly lobbies for a change for the wildlife bill in the "Nation", very convincingly.

Carcano