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{
    "id": 849568,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/849568/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina: T",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "hank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to support this Motion by Sen. Mwaruma, which calls for compensation of victims of human-wildlife conflict. From the outset, I congratulate Sen. Mwaruma for thinking about something that has bothered most of us. When I was growing up in Olombogishi every single day we used to have human- wildlife conflict. In most cases, it was as a result of the increased population of our people. Most of our people were encroaching into the territories which were mostly reserved for wildlife. By so doing, a lot of this wildlife would encroach into our land and destroy our crops. As I speak, my father has never been compensated for heavy losses, despite seeking support from the courts and getting an award. In fact, I was just mentioning to the Attorney General Emeritus, my good friend, Sen. Wako, that this country has completely neglected the importance of human co-existence with wildlife. Madam Temporary Speaker, today, if we look at the amount charged to a person who kills an animal against how much a person is compensated when they are killed by an animal, it is something that is very embarrassing. There is no doubt that human- wildlife conflict has a huge negative impact on our people in this country and their way of life. If we have a Government that does not care about its increasing population and the only thing that we seem to be caring about is wildlife because of the tourism Dollars that we get, then we have a serious problem. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is need for the Government to develop policy that will encourage co-existence of the animals and the human population that is rapidly increasing. For instance, when you go to Narok, you will find that for the human population that lives next to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, the land policy there is detrimental to them. This is because new people are going there and when the group ranches are subdivided, the land is sold and, on a daily basis, you will find animals competing for pasture. Most of them end up dead. What then happens? The people who end up paying for that are the Maasai who live there. We have to think about how to control our growing population, particularly where there are game reserves. Tourism is a very important industry in this county. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}