Photo: Tourism CS Ms. Peninah Malonza during her maiden appearance in the National Assembly to respond to Members’ Questions
Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage, Ms. Peninah Malonza on Wednesday afternoon made her maiden appearance in the National Assembly to respond to Members’ Questions on different matters concerning her Ministry.
While responding to the question by Mwingi central MP Hon Gedion Mulyungi on Issues to do with human-wildlife conflict, the CS highlighted various short-term measures including stationing staff in all the protected areas, collaboration with stakeholders to help manage or limit wildlife encroachment and instituting wildlife barriers.
The CS also noted that her Ministry had allocated Kshs. 50 million for the Tourism Promotion Fund to fence Kitui South and Mwingi North reserve areas.
She further told the House that her Ministry had taken other measures including providing public education and awareness to residents, establishing community conservancies, providing water in wildlife conservancies, capturing and translocating problematic wildlife, deploying technology to monitor movement and activities of large mammals and payment of compensation claims.
Addressing the long-term solution, the CS cited land registration and titling to correct the land use issues, restoration and regeneration of degraded habitats and restoration of wildlife corridors and dispersal areas, improvement of community livelihoods through benefit sharing, and anchoring wildlife sector economy and Carbon/biodiversity credit and financing, to support the dwindling financing of conservation initiatives.
On compensation of persons affected by human-wildlife conflict, the CS noted that in Kitui County, a total of 219 claims totalling Ksh 129,804,434 are eligible for payment. Further, a partial payment Ksh 52,856,386 will be paid between July and August 2023, while the balance of 29 claims valued at Ksh 76,948,048 will be paid from the Kshs. 1 billion allocations in the FY 2023/24.
Dagoretti South and North MPs Hon. John Kiarie and Hon. Beatrice Elachi raised a concern over monkeys being relocated to Nairobi, with Hon. Elachi noting that there may be a need to create more awareness on how humans and animals can coexist. The CS in response noted that Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is trained in this area adding that the Ministry is in the process of identifying where to relocate them, to move them away from the farms.
“When we call the monkeys problematic, it is not that they are problematic. They are problematic in the space of the farms and the crops being cultivated there. But when they come to an ecosystem that we will have done survey on in collaboration with the Wildlife Research Training Institute, we will come up with a strategy to ensure the numbers are balanced in terms of the ecosystem carrying capacity. I will be conducting public participation on this process”, the CS told the House.