Rampaging elephants anger Kenyan farmers
By Muthigani Kiama

MOUNT KENYA (Reuters) - Naftali Marungo was outside his house guarding his maize crop one cold August night when he heard a resounding thud coming from his neighbour's compound.

A rogue elephant, that had been keeping him awake for months, had fallen into a septic tank as it reached for succulent banana plants near the fence between both properties.

Villagers in Gachugu-ina on the slopes of Mount Kenya did not lament the beast's demise. They celebrated by feasting on meat from the gigantic animal's upper body.

For about five years, marauding elephants from the nearby Mount Kenya forest have trampled the villagers' farms and destroyed their harvests.

"We plant in the hope that we will harvest. We plant but don't eat," Marungo told Reuters on the wet and lush slopes of the snow-capped Kenyan mountain.

"During the day, we are at peace, but at night, we are frightened," said the 64-year-old who sits outside his house every night keeping watch, despite suffering from arthritis.

Across Africa, animals and humans are coming into closer contact as swelling human populations put pressure on land.

Kenya has around 28,000 elephants -- an important tourist attraction but also a threat to farmers across the east African country. Last August, authorities moved 400 elephants from an overcrowded reserve on the Indian Ocean coast to protect the environment and reduce conflict with local people.

STONING ELEPHANTS

This conflict between man and beast has been present for as long as Nimrod Nyaga, aged over 90 years, can remember.

In past years, villagers lit fires and banged metallic objects together to scare away the mammoth creatures. The animals are now cleverer and will not even budge when stoned.

The farmers keep buckets of stones at their doors to use as missiles.

"They just make a wide berth of the fire and break the fence at some other point to get into your farm," said Nyaga, whose septic tank is now a grave for the unlucky elephant.

"They are unafraid, totally unashamed."

A slight rotting smells still hangs over his compound, a reminder of the carcass left behind by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers after they removed the elephant's huge ivory tusks and took them away.

The villagers are angry that they do not get any compensation from the government for their losses.

"I heard one (elephant) last night and thought 'Oh my God, has it come to finish off what it left?'" said Edith Wamucii Njoroge, a 34-year-old mother of four who lost most of the 1,500 cabbages she had planted.

Njoroge says an elephant charged her once but she just made it indoors. She takes it in turn with her 15-year-old son to keep guard at night.

Stories of encounters with elephants abound in the sleepy tea-growing village, which is washed by year-round rains.

Children meet elephants on their way to school; a woman had to crawl away from another as she went to deliver milk; a man showed a swollen knee suffered after he hit a tree stump fleeing from a charging elephant.

AFRAID OF THE GOVERNMENT

The farmers here scrape a living from growing tea and fresh produce for sale. They say there is nothing much they can do to fight the elephants as killing wildlife is a crime in Kenya.

"The only thing that stops us from killing them is fear of trouble from the government. We would have killed them a long time ago," said Marungo.

The farmers say that forest guards and KWS game rangers, whose duty it is to herd the elephants back into the forest, do not do their job.

The KWS could not be reached for comment.

"I am not allowed to step into the forest to cut down some trees to fence my farm, but the elephants are free to do whatever they want," said Anderson Mwenda, Nyaga's 45-year-old son who once hid from a charging elephant behind a chicken pen.

Cutting down trees in the protected forest could result in a fine or a jail term.

The villagers say the government values elephants more than human life.

"Animals are more important to the government than we are. If the animals earn it so much money, why doesn't the government kill us all so that the animals can have more room to roam?" said an angry Lydia Nyawira, a 33-year-old mother of two.

And who was it that outlawed hunting in Kenya?

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
The villagers say the government values elephants more than human life.

"Animals are more important to the government than we are. If the animals earn it so much money, why doesn't the government kill us all so that the animals can have more room to roam?" said an angry Lydia Nyawira, a 33-year-old mother of two.

Maybe Africans could try birth control for once and not keep encroaching more and more into what was once virgin bush and habitat.