Victims of human wildlife conflict in Kajiado South have called for speedy processing of compensation by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which they accuse of unnecessary bureaucracy even when it is given requisite information.

Led by their area Member of Parliament Sakimpa Parashina, the residents lament the compensation process takes too long and they have to wait for years for their claims to be approved and paid.

“You will find that claims that were made in 2018 have not been paid to date yet in some cases the victim was the breadwinner. It is not fair that compensation takes more than 10 years to be paid. We want it to take at most one year for it to be helpful to the victims,” said the MP.

The MP said KWS ought to carry out sensitisation forums on compensation as most of the residents are not aware of where to report attacks and when.

“Our people should know how much is paid and when it will be paid either for death, injury or crop destruction. That will help in curbing retaliatory cases where the community kills the wildlife in retaliation to the damage caused,” said Parashina.

Jeremiah Ngashngash, a village elder in Elang’ata Enkima, says hyenas and lions usually kill their livestock yet KWS takes long to compensate them yet the livestock are their source of income.

“The compensation usually long and sometimes it does not even reflect the market value of the livestock killed. Although we have benefitted from other activities such as boreholes from KWS, we are requesting for more compensation and installation of solar lights to ward off the wildlife at night when they prey on the livestock at the bomas,” he said.

He also wants KWS to introduce a tree planting exercise in the area as elephants have destroyed most of the trees in the area.

Simon Olashumpai, a resident of Kuku Ward says the residents usually incur losses when they have to reach out to agricultural officers to assess and validate the damages they incur due to wildlife.

“Some of our farms were destroyed years ago and we are still following up on payment. A hyena also killed 20 goats in January last year and we are still awaiting compensation despite KWS promising to compensate them on time. Let them act fast in matters related to compensation,” he lamented.

William Tajiri, a resident of Elang’ata Enkima lamented that the elephants also destroy their crops when they come looking for water near their bomas and wants KWS to drill boreholes and water pans for the wildlife far away from their bomas to curb human-wildlife conflicts.

Kenya Wildlife Service Kajiado Assistant Director Francis Mbaka is urging the community to report all incidences involving wildlife by dialing *202*09# for them to experience fast, fair and digital compensation.

• A Tell / KNA report / By Diana Meneto