By Bob Aston
Families in Wangwaci rarely spend the
night together. At night men normally leave for their farms to protect their
crops. ‘‘If you don’t spend the night in the farm all your products will be
destroyed.’’ said Ibrahim Mutahi. They have devised an indigenous way of
scaring the elephants.They burn dry elephant droppings mixed with pepper in a container.
The burning scent normally scares the elephants away. This trick does not work
for all Wangwaci residents as the area is big and the elephants will still find
farms to invade.
Most Wangwaci residents had the same
sentiments as Douglas. Their hard work in their farms is normally destroyed
within minutes by the elephants. David Njogu had prepared a seedbed of
tomatoes, cabbages and kales. He was planning to plant them on Friday but the
elephants ensured that it would not happen. His seedbeds were completely destroyed.
He now has to start preparing another seedbed.
A middle aged man was attacked and
seriously injured by an elephant in Wangwaci location, Sipili division on
Wednesday morning. Paul Wahome was in his farm when it was invaded by three
elephants around 6:00 am. He raised an alarm and local residents joined him in
trying to drive the elephants away. Along the way one elephant turned back and
attacked him.
Paul was lifted by the elephant and hurled
up in the air three times. He started screaming for help, and neighbours came
in and rescued him from being trampled on by the elephant. He was later on
taken for treatment at Nyahururu district hospital by the Kenya Wildlife Service
(KWS) officers. He is currently recovering from the injuries he sustained
during the attack.
Elephants from Ol ari Nyiro (The place of springs) Nature Conservancy have been a common occurrence in Wangwaci location. Every night elephants normally come out from the ranch and invade farmer’s crops. At times elephants appear as early as 6:00 pm. Most of the farmers were set to harvest their maize before the end of October but that will not happen as the elephants have not only ‘‘harvested’’ maize for them but they have cleared all the maize cobs from the farms as well.
Area where Paul was attacked by the elephant |
Elephants from Ol ari Nyiro (The place of springs) Nature Conservancy have been a common occurrence in Wangwaci location. Every night elephants normally come out from the ranch and invade farmer’s crops. At times elephants appear as early as 6:00 pm. Most of the farmers were set to harvest their maize before the end of October but that will not happen as the elephants have not only ‘‘harvested’’ maize for them but they have cleared all the maize cobs from the farms as well.
Wangwaci farmers have been forced to erect
makeshift stalls at their farms, where they spend the nights to protect their crops.
During the night they light fire to scare away the elephants. Initially this
used to work but of late the elephants do not easily get frightened by the fire
at the farms.
Wangwaci residents normally retire to
their homesteads by 6:00 pm as elephants normally start roaming the area around
this time. In the morning they start the day’s activity at 6:00 am when the
elephants are returning to Ol ari Nyiro,
Laikipia Nature Conservancy.
Most farmers in Wangwaci say that
they will not be harvesting this season as all their farm produce have been
eaten by elephants. There is a huge dam in the location and the area is good
for horticulture but most farmers say that they cannot risk venturing into
horticulture as the elephants will destroy their crops.
Farmers living along the 40
kilometres stretch of Ol ari Nyiro to
Mugie ranch have abandoned their farms. The farmers who used to live along the
stretch cited numerous challenges that they faced in their farms. During the
day baboons used to invade their farms while as nightfall approaches elephants,
lions, hyenas and buffalos would leave the nature conservancy and roam in the
area.
Two months ago a consultative meeting was held which brought together
various stakeholders who included Laikipia Governor, Laikipia West member of
Parliament , Laikipia County Women Representative, Members of County assemblies
from Githiga and Ol-Moran, Kenya
Wildlife Service( KWS) representatives, Ol
ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature Conservancy owner, Community Development Trust
Fund and Laikipia Wildlife Forum.
The meeting was held to resolve the
elephant menace. During the meeting Laikipia Governor promised that the County
government would allocate eighty (80) million Kenya shillings to build a live
fence covering Githiga ward, Ol-Moran ward and Sosian ward. The stakeholders
also passed a resolution to cooperate and work together to solve the various
issues that were raised.
Previously there was a fence by Ol ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature
Conservancy and another fence by the community. The elephants destroyed the two
fences. Currently the fence around Mwenje has been rehabilitated while the one
in Ol-Moran has not. Elephants normally leave Ol ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature Conservancy through Ol-Moran ward as
fence has not been erected there.
Farmer accessing what is left of his crops |
One of the farmers called Douglas
Kariuki had his five acre farm destroyed by the elephants. Douglas had planted
maize in the farm but one day the elephants invaded his farm. He came out from
his stall and tried to scare them away but he could not manage. Other residents
joined him but they could not manage to scare away the elephants. Douglas
watched helplessly as the elephants ate maize cobs from the five acre farm
within minutes.
“I had invested so much in my farm. I was expecting to
harvest mid October. The money that I was to get from my farm was supposed to
take care of my family.” said Douglas.
“Are elephants more important than
human beings. How will I be able to feed my family and pay school fees for my children.
I still do not know how I am now going to take care of my family.” added
Douglas.
One of the paths used by the elephants |
“Life here is tough. It seems like
elephants are more important than us. If an elephant would have been killed,
the government would have arrived here with choppers to arrest us, but when our
farm produce are destroyed no one even cares about it.” said David.
Formerly an operating cattle ranch, Ol ari Nyiro was transformed by Kuki
Gallmann into a nature conservancy. The Conservancy is over 100,000 acres
private wildlife sanctuary and nature Conservancy situated on the extreme
Western edge of the Laikipia Plateau. The ranch also borders Samburu and
Baringo Counties.
Wangwaci residents said that erecting a live fence will help
to curb the problem with elephant and other animals from the ranch.
“Elephant corridor in Laikipia should
be made to solve the problem of elephants. The elephants normally pass through
Nyandarua forest then proceed to Rumuruti, Marmanet forest and finally Ol ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature
conservancy.” said Ibrahim Kitawi who is among the farmers affected in the
location.
“The fence should be rehabilitated to be up to standard, baboon
proof wire mesh should be put as well as employing of scouts to man the fence.”
added Ibrahim.
Wangwaci residents do not know what the future holds for them,but one thing that they are sure about is that every night elephants have to invade their farms.
Wangwaci residents do not know what the future holds for them,but one thing that they are sure about is that every night elephants have to invade their farms.
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