The TAITA Taveta Ranchers Association claims that the Kenya Wildlife Services is actually neglecting their duty by allowing some influential people especially politicians from North Eastern to graze their livestock from Tsavo West National Park.
Richard Lesiyampe who is the Environment principal secretary was told by the Mwatate residents and their MP Andrew Mwadime that the locals that the park has been turned into one big ranch. The ranchers’ chair Mcharo Bong’osa said while talking to the press that the livestock in the park are more than those you can find in the 28 ranches in Taita as they are about 50,000 of them.
According to him, MPs from North Eastern pay money to senior KWS officials in Nairobi to let them graze in the park. This means that the recent campaign by Taita Taveta county government to vaccinate 50,000 animals may not be productive because the livestock from the park interact with their livestock in their homes when they come to drink water at the ranches which makes the spread of diseases from wild animals to domestic ones very easy.
It is sad because some of the owners of these animals are the same people executing poaching of elephants in the park and no one has so far been charged under the new Wildlife Act for grazing in the park which makes one wonder why KWS is applying the law selectively, Bongo’sa added.
This act will slowly affect the tourism because tourists visiting Tsavo West National Park have already started complaining that all they see in the park these days is livestock other than wildlife. Because of this, the tourist numbers have dropped from 60 to 25 per cent during the high season so said Mwadilo, who is also the manager of Sarova Taita Hills and Game Lodges.
What is sad is the fact that KWS has not taken the matter serious though tourists are complain that they waste their time visiting the park yet it is flooded by cows. This is a matter that has to be worked upon immediately.
