Farmers in Kisiriri, Naisoya and Olekito areas in Narok North Sub County are a crying foul after elephants evaded their farms and destroyed their crops.
The residents led by Raphael Ole Kuluo, said the herd of elephant that evade their farms at the night hours is causing them a sleepless night, as efforts to get rid of the wild animals from the farms did not bear fruits.
“The elephants have caused great losses amounting to hundreds of thousands and if something is not done, there will be food shortage in this area because of the animals,” he said.
Ole Kuluo said the animals have already destroyed several acres of barely, maize farms, wheat farms and potatoes causing huge loses to the residents who mainly depend on farming to earn a living.
“Despite attempts to use the traditional ways of burning firewood and hitting metal to scare the big animals, they seems relaxed as nothing moves them. They feed the entire night and disappear to the bushes during the day,” he said.
He called on the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to act immediately and help to relocate the animals from the area failure to which they will take a legal action against the service.
“We love elephants because they bring many foreign visitors to the country. That is why we are patient with them. However, we will not entertain the animals destroying our individual farms,” he reiterated.
The area that borders the Maasai Mau forest is rich in agricultural production as it produces a lot of potatoes, maize, carrots, barley, wheat and peas that is sold in far counties.
But the Narok KWS senior warden Richard Chepkwony told KNA that officers had been deployed in the area to relocate the wild animals.
He confirmed that an assessment of the damage caused by the animals is yet to be done so that the farmers can be compensated accordingly.
“We apologize for the losses caused by the wild animals. We have however moved on the ground to relocate the animals. The department will carry out an assessment on the destruction caused and recommend that the farmers be compensated,” he told KNA