The beauty of a long Valley stretching from Nakuru to Turkana is the beauty of trumpeting jumbos, but the sad side is the massive destruction of crops, as farmers count losses.
Panic is now gripping several areas of Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet counties as herds of elephants in Rimoi and Kapnorok in the two counties leave trails of destruction in farms, reversing gains made in new agricultural ventures.
From watermelon to butternut squashes, paw paws to bananas, millet to sorghum, farmers in Keiyo South, Marakwet East and Baringo Central areas narrate stories of how their efforts to sustain food security are frustrated marauding elephants.
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The jumbos migrate annually from Rimoi national game reserve northwards to parts of Turkana South and back to the reserve between August to October.
The migration, according to Kenya Wild Service officials is still a subject of research.
In the past few years, the untamed elephants have left farmers counting huge losses along the migration over 300 kilometre migration corridor.
The elephants also migrate south of the two game reserves to parts of Keiyo South in Elgeyo Marakwet county where they wreak havoc in farms as well as endangering lives of residents as they search for natural salts.
At Soi North area, Gilbert Serem, a watermelon and butternut squash farmer is a distraught man.
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Serem’s farm has been invaded by eight marauding jumbos suspected to be from Rimoi, destroying crops worth Sh860,000 on his 2.5 acre farm.
“I have invested so much and was expecting good returns only to be destroyed by elephants that turned the entire farm into a play ground, trampling on almost all the crops,” he says.
He accuses Kenya wildlife service officials in the county for laxity in containing the jumbos as well as delays in responding to distress calls whenever the animals move out of the game reserve.
The 27-year-old farmer says KWS rangers who visited the area left local farmers surprised after they (rangers) blamed some of their senior officers for the straying of jumbos in the county.
“We are left confused when KWS officers visit our farms and start complaining and blaming their senior officers on the problems we are facing instead of offering solutions,” an agonized Serem adds.
The young farmer says the melon and butternut farming are new agricultural ventures in an area where farmers traditionally grew maize and millet.
He says pipes for a water project supplying irrigation water to his farm have been destroyed by the jumbos.
At neighbouring farms, farmers tell tales of animals that are among Kenya’s key tourist attraction wild animals destroying ventures that are a culmination of hard work among farmers.
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Barnabas Kimitei painfully explains how, in six days, the stray jumbos visited terror on his 2 acre pawpaw farm, dashing his hopes of earning at least Sh250,000 before end of December.
Kimitei, who points out how he took a bank loan to optimize production on his fruit farm, says he is staring at poverty as he has no money to repay the loan and pay for his two children in colleges and another one in secondary school.
“I watched helplessly as elephants pulled down my paw paws, even uprooting and breaking others. I fear my farm will be auctioned to repay the bank loan,” says Kimitei.
He says several attempts to seek compensation from KWS have been futile, claiming he has been taken in circles.
He reveals how he travelled to Iten town for the claims where he was asked to record statement with the police station.
At the police station, he says he was turned and asked to record the statement at the KWS offices.
In Chepsigot area of Keiyo South, locals led by an activist, Michael Tuitoek warns that locals will kill the jumbos if they will not be tamed by KWS.
Tuitoek says residents have no option but to take the law into their own hands if there will be no measures put in place curb straying of elephants.
The massive destruction of crops will discourage youth who have recently ventured into farming after white collar jobs became extremely hard to come by, he says.
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Youth who abandoned search for jobs in major towns, Tuitoek says, are now wallowing in poverty as over Sh15 millions of their ventures are destroyed by wild animals.
He lauds local chiefs for swift response when jumbos invade farms, noting the administrators made distress calls to KWS rangers whom he claims, often fail to respond timely.
As they migrate north en route to Turkana, farmers in sections of Marakwet bear the brunt of the migrating elephants, since they leave a trail of crop destruction.
The elephants have destroyed 30 acres of millet and sorghum estimated Sh1.2 million since within a week in August in parts of Murkutwo, Kibaimwa and Kabetwa locations as they make their longest annual journey.
Benjamin Yego, a farmer in Murkutwo said at least six jumbos destroyed a fence and fed on millet and sorghum crops on a 10-acre farm which he co-owns with two other farmers in the Valley.
Yego claims that the migrating elephants also destroyed 20 acres of the crop at neighbouring farm owned by a group of farmers.
“We called KWS officers but they arrived after three days when the elephants had already destroyed our crops,” a distraught Yego said.
He accuses KWS of laxity when jumbos destroy crops and injure locals, yet they respond swiftly when wild animals are killed or endangered locals.
“We were expecting a bumper harvest at the end of the year but all our crops have now been destroyed,” he adds.
Local agricultural officer Benjamin Sum says the elephants uprooted most of the crops. as they fed on them.
Sum says agricultural officers have prepared an assessment report that has been submitted to KWS. He said the animals fed and stampled on the crops.
Elgeyo Marakwet KWS senior warden Dominic Kilonzo confirms that the jumbos have been straying out of the reserves, attributing the perilous movements to natural reasons.
Kilonzo says the elephants that destroyed crops in Keiyo South moved out Rimoi and Kapnorok in search of muddy playgrounds.
The movements, Kilonzo says, took place following rains witnessed in area after a long dry spell.
“Elephants stray out of the reserves for various reasons. These animals often get excited when it rains and you can see them playing on the mud and whirl waters after a heavy rain,” he says.
Kilonzo blames increased agricultural activities near the Rimoi and Kapnorok ecosystems and along the elephants’ migration corridors.
He says farming and charcoal farming along River Kerio has disoriented elephant movements between the two ecosystems, adding it has caused the frequent movement of herds of jumbos outside the game reserve as they search for alternative routes to neighbouring reserves.
“Rimoi and Kapnorok are one ecosystem and elephants, being the most intelligent animals, find ways of interacting with other elephants in neighbouring areas,” he observes.
He assures farmers that KWS will compensate their losses after carrying out assessments in all the affected farms.
The KWS official says compensation of losses in a long process that involves several stakeholders before it is effected.
“Compensation is not a one-man process. It is handled by county compensation committee that is composed of Agricultural officers, the police, community members and KWS,” he says, adding that recommendations of the committee are forwarded to KWS headquarters in Nairobi for consideration and determination.
Kilonzo says the service has deployed more rangers to many areas of Elgeyo Marakwet as well as establishing an additional a new KWS posts in Tot and Arror in Marakwet East and West respectively to contain marauding jumbos.
He adds the service has mobilized more vehicles to facilitate movement of officers in a bid curb human-wildlife conflicts.
During the re-launch of Rimoi national game reserve in February this year, governor Alex Tolgos fronted elephant migration as one of the key tourist attraction phenomenon in the country.
Tolgos said a herd of 300 elephants move at a go time from Rimoi to Turkana and back to the reserve, adding the reserve has the biggest elephant in the country.
Conflict among communities living in the elephant migratory route has also been pointed out as a factor exacerbating human-wildlife conflict.
Frequent gun shots in most parts Marakwet and Baringo, according to reports by KWS, have scared elephants, sparking movements of the animals southwards, to parts of Keiyo South.
Wildlife experts have pointed out depletion of natural resources in ecosystems as the leading cause of elephant movements to resource-rich areas.
