This archive report was first published on 29 August 2021.
For decades, a large herd of elephants has roamed the Kerio Valley region, but a conflict between the jumbos and farmers has escalated in recent years. The animals take a 400-kilometre walk from Rimoi National Game Reserve in Elgeyo Marakwet to parts of Turkana South through West Pokot and back, following a common route that has been put under crops.
According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the herd of nearly 200 elephants migrates between July and December, their mating season, during which they move out of Rimoi to meet other herds in Nasolot Game Reserve near the border of West Pokot and Turkana Counties for procreation. This has resulted in huge losses for farmers, amounting to millions, as their crops are destroyed.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) attributed the jumbos' movement out of the game reserve to muddy conditions caused by heavy rains in the area since March. The service has been driving the jumbos in parts of Endo area in Marakwet East back to Rimoi using a helicopter, but they declined to return to the game reserve.
“We are now driving the herd of elephants to Nasolot in West Pokot. We attempted to take them to Rimoi but they are unwilling to be driven in that direction,” said a junior KWS warden involved in the operation.
Farmer Ruth Kiptilak recalled how the migrating elephants wreaked havoc in her farm in July, uprooting maize and sorghum and trampling on millet. She said the elephants were moving in two groups of about 40 and had been in the area for several weeks, at times crossing to Tiaty in the neighbouring County.
Ms Kiptilak said she lost maize and sorghum worth over Sh150,000, and another farmer, Richard Rutto, lost an acre of millet after the jumbos camped in his farm one Sunday night recently. Local chief Jacob Tilem also lost an unknown value of maize and sorghum crop during the elephant invasion.
Elgeyo Marakwet KWS warden Zablon Omulako apologised to locals, attributing the conflict between the jumbos and farmers to several human activities, mainly farming along the traditional migratory route, and changing climatic conditions. He assured farmers that they will be compensated for the losses and that a chopper has been deployed to return the elephants back to the game reserve.
