Community leaders in Chyulu,within Imbirikani Group Ranch in Kajiado have threatened to attack wild animals roaming their villages if the Kenya Wildlife Service ( KWS) does not drop charges against 8 of the local herders.
In a tense community meeting attended by senior KWS officials, the community led by their chairman Daniel Metui gave the agency upto Monday to ensure 8 of their herders are released from Makueni remand Prisons.
The eight are said to be held in remand after they were arraigned in court and slapped with bonds of Sh 200,000 each.
There was near fistcuffs as angry residents confronted KWS senior officers who were heavily armed after the locals narrated the harassment they were undergoing in the hands of KWS.
“We take care of the animals including lifting them up when they fall because of hunger. But when our livestock step into the park to look for pastures, they are held up and driven to Makueni where they are stolen,” said Mr Metui.
Tempers flared as each leader spoke on the deteriorating relationship between KWS and the community- a situation that has been worsened by the raging battle for pasture between livestock and Wildlife.
Moses Sentu and Isaac Ole Mathayo demanded that KWS drives all Wildlife to Tsavo if they cannot live harmoniously with them.
“We are only facing a hard time. If the rains come, you will not see us near the park. But we cannot have a friend and neighbor who has no mercy for us when we are in trouble,” said Sentu.
The charged community meeting was convened four days after Kajiado Governor Joseph Ole Lenku castigated KWS for inhumane treatment during his Jamhuri Day address in Kajiado town last Monday.
The Governor said Imbirikani and Poka Kenyawa Wards had borne the brunt side of KWS harassment and vowed to join the community in seeking an alternative solution to protect themselves from the wildlife.
On Monday, Lenku threatened to mobilize locals to seal off the wildlife corridors with electric fences if KWS does not desist from arbitrary arrests of innocent herders.