Rushed wildlife bill portends trouble for vital Kenya resource

Elephant and rhino poachers and dealers are having it easy in Kenya due to the weak penalties in the current Wildlife Act of 1978. But despite the proposed stringent regulations in the new draft Bill, 17 prominent conservationists have objected to the entire process of drafting the Policy and Bill which went for stakeholder comments on August 29.

The stakeholders conference which was held at the prestigious Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, was described by many as a rubber stamping exercise. Participants had been given less than a week to prepare – it simply was not enough time for people from the far reaches of the country to digest the two legal documents. These new legislations will impact on tens of millions of Kenyans who are affected by wildlife.

Among the objectors include two former Directors of the KWS, Dr Richard Leakey and Michael Wamithi who have jointly written a letter to the PS Wildlife, Mohammed Wa-Mwachai objecting to the process of development of the Bill and Policy which lacked transparency and legitimate stakeholder consultation. They vowed not to legitimize the process by sending in comments by the deadline. Instead they are demanding that more time is given to ensure that Wildlife Policy and Bill are progressive and address the broad principles in the new Constitution, namely environmental sustainability and devolved environmental governance.

It's not that there hasn’t been enough time for the process – it started back in 2007 and we had every opportunity to create a progressive Wildlife Policy and Bill that positioned Kenya in her rightful position as a leader in wildlife conservation in Africa. But that did not happen. What we got was a muddled, half-baked document that threatens wildlife more than protects it.

What’s glaringly missing from the process is stakeholder participation. It is unreasonable to expect comments from all corners of the country in just a week. Stakeholders need to time to read, digest, translate, ask questions and share with their constituents before coming up with their comments. This should take months to weed out the inconsistencies and errors that make the Bill unworkable.

For example, Page 3 under Arrangement of clauses Part VI Conservation and management of wildlife 43: Exchange of part of a protected area with private land – turn to section 43 refers to creation of national parks. The provision mentioned in the contents does not exist in the document. How did a document with such glaring errors go to stakeholder consultation? What exactly are we rubber stamping?

Top down approach
The Bill provides for the creation of three centres of power in the wildlife sector relating to wildlife, A directorate, an Authority and a Service. It’s hard enough to finance KWS from park fees, how will these two other organisations be financed?

By creating new power bases for wildlife conservation, this new Wildlife Bill plays lip service to the new constitution which calls for devolution of the management of natural resources to the lowest possible level. The Bill does not create meaningful opportunities for benefit sharing, incentives and rewards for conservation.

The Bill instead is a heavy handed top down approach to conservation, and it will never work. Take wildlife conservancies for example. Even though they already abound in Kenya on private and community land, the new Bill seeks to tax and control these privately-managed conservation areas.

Conservancies under the new bill will be registered with KWS and managed according to an approved management plan. We all know that we need standardisation of creation and management of conservancies in Kenya, but this Bill seeks to get something for KWS from the hard work of land owners and managers and even threatens to take land from private land owners.

Section 41 allows The National Land Commission to declare any National Reserve, conservancy or sanctuary as mismanaged or neglected, and to declare it a provisional wildlife conservation area. It will then be put under KWS management (at the land owners cost) for 5 years. Hold on a minute - this is private land that we are talking about!

The constitution protects private land owners doesn’t it? No provision is made for taking badly managed and neglected National Parks out of the hands of KWS and into the hands of good private management? The Bill pitches KWS against private land owners as competitors in a tough battle for tourism dollars – and creates an unlevel playing field that give KWS far too much control.

Then there is the age old controversy – compensation for damages, losses, injury and death caused by “problem animals”. A problem animal is defined as “any wildlife which has caused or is using damage to or harm to human life or property."

Problem animals
Communities are vocal about this issue as they are tired of paying for wildlife while they lose crops and livestock, as well as their lives to wild animals. The Bill provides for compensation of all these losses at fair market price of up to Ksh1 million (approximately $10,660).

Individuals will have to submit claims through a county wildlife compensation committee which is comprised mainly of government officials. After the committee has verified the claim it is sent up to the cabinet secretary (the Minister) who will make a decision regarding the award for payment within 60 days. Of course payment will depend on availability of cash. The Bill lists all the problem animals one can make claims for. But interestingly, you are also allowed to kill any of these beasts or any animal you deem to be a “problem animal” so long as you inform the KWS within 7 days and explain.

So, as a victim of wildlife depredation, you have four options: 1. Do nothing, 2. Submit claims for compensation and “hope” there are funds which will be reimbursed many months after the fact. 3. Kill the problem animal or 4, claim and kill the animal.

Compensation could take months and in that time even more of your crop or livestock will be attacked. It’s a no brainer, the Bill create an incentive for a country-wide killing spree of “problem animals” which include elephant, rhino, cheetah, lion, wild dogs, …never mind that some of these are critically endangered species.

The Bill provides for KWS to enter any property with or without the owners permission to “destroy” any “problem animal”. You can also kill the “problem animal” yourself so long as you report the case no later than 7 days after the event and deliver the trophies to the nearest KWS office or police station.
Nobody cares about the killing of problem animals, but the question of compensation caused an uproar.

The Bill provides for a maximum of Ksh1 million as a compensation for injury or loss of life. But participants of the stakeholders workshop argued that hospital bills after being bitten by hyena or crocodile would exceed that amount and demanded a minimum of Ksh1 million and a maximum of Ksh10 million (approximately $106,660), currently the maximum compensation is Ksh150,000 or $1,600).

This issue is hugely political and when the Hon. MP Boaz Kaino who attended the workshop spoke, he first admitted that he hadn’t even read the Bill and then threatened that he would mobilise members of parliament against the Bill if it did not satisfy his constituents concerns about compensation.

There is a huge risk that the clauses on compensation will be kept in the Bill to satisfy politics and get the rest of the bill approved. But nobody has really calculated the economics of this folly. In the first 6 months of 2011 claims for losses of cattle, sheep and goats predated on by lion and leopard in a small part of the Kitengela just south of the Nairobi Park amount to over Ksh1 million.

What we lost

If the Bill goes through, the community will be able to claim for loss of pasture and crops to the wildebeest, zebra and other antelopes on top of all the predation cases. The cost to the government will be astronomical. Where will the money come from you ask? “The Department responsible for Wildlife shall make appropriate budgetary arrangements for funds to compensate for damage occasioned by wildlife”.

What we lost in rushing this Bill, was the putting together of the country’s top brains to come up with real opportunities for incentives, benefit sharing and investment in wildlife conservation for communities, park neighbours, investors and private land owners. There are no provisions for rewarding communities and private land owners for protecting wildlife which would be a much more sustainable way of enlisting support from the general population towards the national conservation goals.

We must find innovative ways of addressing the human-wildlife conflict issue through prevention and reducing the demand for compensation. For example predator proof stockades. These are in use in the Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Chullus, Samburu and Laikipika - almost all are private sector initiatives. We just can’t afford to rush this process or we will get it wrong and risk losing Kenya’s most important assets, our spectacular wildlife treasures and the tourism industry that depends on it. Who will take responsibility for that?

Nobody can explain why there is such a rush either. What’s more, the Forest Act, Water Act, Land Act and environmental Management Act (EMCA) are all under review. The Wildlife Bill needs to be harmonised with these otherwise it will be being re-written as soon as it gets passed.

If the Ministry won’t listen to the concerns of conservationists, then the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) should delay completion of the process and demand that adequate time is provided for legitimate stakeholder participation and input as well as harmonisation with the Forestry Act and Environmental Management and Conservation Acts which are under review.

Others who signed onto the letter include Allan Earnshaw (Trustee of the Kenya Wildlife Trust), James Isiche (Regional Director International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)), Michael Mbithi (Land owner Lisa Ranch), Dr. Melita Semoilys (Coastal Oceans Research Development – Indian Ocean CORDIO), Nickson Parmisa (Kitengela Ilparakuo Land Owners Association (KILA)), David Sorimpan (Manager Olerai Conservancy Kipeto), Stephen Itela (Executive Director Youth for Conservaiton), Onesmas Kahindi (Executive Director Ecotourism Kenya), Judy Kepher-Gona (CEO and Programs Director, Basecamp Foundation), Dickson Kyaelo (Naboisho Conservancy), Paul Matiku (Executive Director, Nature Kenya), Ambrose Njagih (Nakuru Wildlife Conservancy), and Hadley Becha (Executive Director, Community Action for Nature Conservation (CANCO)).

Dr Paula Kahumbu is the Executive Director of WildlifeDirect and the winner of the National Geographic/Buffett award for conservation leadership in Africa 2011 and National Geographic Emerging Explorer 2011

pkahumbu@klct.or.ke