KWS to move 143 elephants from settlement areas

By Kipchumba Kemei

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) plans to move 143 elephants from settlement areas of Narok to Masai Mara National Reserve.

KWS will also move another 14 male elephants, which returned to the settlement area after they were translocated to the reserve last year.

This follows a meeting convened yesterday by KWS to gather stakeholders’ views on whether to move the elephants to another habitat.

“Even if you take them back to Mara, they will return to cause more damages to our crops. We hope that after the 143 elephants have finally been moved out settlement areas and the 14 out of Narok, human-wildlife conflict will be a thing of the past,” said Mr Moses Marima, a wheat farmer in upper Narok.

Marima, a former Narok North MP said farmers in Siyapei, Olkeri, Ntulele and Olonkabobok areas in the upper zone will be able to rear cattle and engage in farming after the animals are moved.

In the first phase of translocation, which took place last year 52 elephants were moved to the reserve.

KWS Senior Assistant Director and the head of species conservation and management Patrick Omondi, said they will move the elephants to Masai Mara next week while the other 14 will translocated later to a suitable habitat.

“We are looking for an appropriate habitat for them. We had earlier planned to move them to The Aberdare but studies have to be carried out to determine the habitat that will suit them,” he said.

Security

Mr Omondi advised the residents to plant trees that were destroyed by the animals once they are moved and warned them against burning charcoal.

He was optimistic that once the animals are moved, cases of human-wildlife conflict will reduce significantly. KWS would move all the remaining elephants in the third phase of translocation.

Meanwhile, Narok County Commissioner Kassim Farah has decried the killing of elephants in areas bordering Masai Mara Game Reserve.

He blamed the killings on foreigners and claimed that their influx in the county posed a threat to survival of wildlife and security.

Farah warned that residents found hosting illegal migrants will face the law. “The influx of Somalis and other migrants is worrying. They are a threat to the wildlife survival and general security in the county. Those who habour or associate with them will face the full force of the law,” he said yesterday.

He asked residents to collaborate with KWS intelligence unit to end poaching.

The administrator spoke when he opened a tourism stakeholder’s consultative workshop at a Narok hotel, which was sponsored by KWS.