For years, residents of Lamu West lived under the dark cloud of insecurity, constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of Al-Shabaab terror attacks. Today, peace has largely returned to the region thanks to sustained multi-agency security operations, but a new, equally devastating threat has emerged.
Villagers in Mikinduni, Juhudi, Poromoko, Salama, Widho, Mashogoni, and Marafa are counting massive losses as marauding elephants run amok, destroying hundreds of acres of crops and bringing academic activities to a standstill. Locals now accuse the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) of sleeping on the job as their hard-earned livelihoods vanish.
For farmers like Simon Gacheru from Marafa village, the irony is bitter. After surviving years of militant sieges and bullets, they feel the government has left them at the mercy of wild animals. Mr. Gacheru noted that since the government boosted security, it has been three years since the last terrorist attack was witnessed in the area.
However, he lamented that their peace and joy have been short-lived, as hundreds of acres of farmland have in recent times been converted into pasturelands for dozens of roaming elephants who continue to ravage the area indiscriminately. The rogue jumbos have wiped out high-value cash crops and subsistence food reserves alike, including coconuts, cashews, mangoes, bananas, cassava, pawpaws, beans, and peas.
Peter Kangangi, a farmer in Mikinduni, stared hopelessly at what remains of his livelihood, explaining that his once-vibrant two-acre piece of land, previously bustling with coconut trees, has been reduced to a flattened wasteland of trampled stalks. He recalled the painful past years where they used to lose money, property, and the lives of their loved ones at the hands of terrorists who completely stripped them of their peace.
While he remains grateful for the security operations that restored order, he noted that the wildlife menace, particularly the recurrent invasion of farms by elephants, is now taking away their very survival, calling for urgent government intervention. Mr. Gacheru echoed these sentiments, stating it is heartbreaking to watch a coconut tree tended for over eight years get torn apart and eaten in minutes, leaving behind immeasurable damage.
The wildlife menace has extended far beyond the farms and into the classrooms, severely disrupting the school calendar and raising serious safety concerns for children.
Teachers interviewed in the affected areas admitted that academic activities have been heavily compromised, forcing school administrations to adjust hours to protect learners from being trampled on their way to and from school. Margaret Kimani, a local teacher, revealed that instead of students reporting to school at 7:00 AM as is the norm, they are sometimes allowed to arrive as late as 9:00 AM if elephants are spotted along the paths.
Similarly, learners are often released as early as 2:00 PM instead of the usual evening hours to ensure they trek back home before the animals become active. Amos Mithamo, the headteacher of Juhudi Primary School, added that chronic absenteeism is on the rise as frightened parents keep their children at home for their own safety.
Disgruntled residents have castigated KWS wardens for using ineffective, temporary methods to manage the human-wildlife conflict. According to locals, whenever they report an invasion, KWS officers respond quickly but only fire shots into the air to scare the animals away without tracking where they flee to.
Joseph Mwangi, a resident, criticized this approach, stating that firing in the air without monitoring fails to provide a lasting solution because the jumbos simply move from one farm to the next to continue their destruction. Furthermore, residents expressed fear over the constant sound of gunfire echoing through their villages every evening, admitting that the psychological trauma of past terror attacks makes them worry they might fail to differentiate between KWS scare-tactics and a real militant ambush.
When contacted for comment, KWS Assistant Director in charge of Lamu, Ibrahim Ahmed, confirmed the heavy presence of elephants in the concerned villages but defended his team, stating that officers had been actively dispatched to the ground to deal with the jumbos.
Mr. Ahmed, however, turned the blame back on the residents, accusing them of invading designated wildlife territories. He appealed to the locals to stop encroaching on wildlife habitats and turning them into human settlements, warning that by doing so, they are creating problems for themselves.
