Baboons Relocation Exercise Kicks-Off In Taita
In dozens of villages at the edges of the vastly scenic Taita Hills plains, hordes of pillaging primates have been invading farms and destroying crops with unprecedented impunity.
For years, bands of belligerent baboons have terrorized villagers in Wundanyi Constituency prompting an exasperated area MP Danson Mwashako to trigger public giggles after he demanded Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) administer compulsory family planning pills on these troublesome apes.
A week ago, the Principal Secretary for Wildlife prof Fred Segor toured Wundanyi where the baboon issue generated a heated debate. The PS admitted the primates were a headache and promised they would be relocated. Most farmers were left wondering how the sneaky primates will be captured and where they will be relocated.
However, a group of environmentalists from the Voi Rotary Club and Mvosa Water Resource Users Association (WRUA) believe their conservation efforts to rehabilitate Voi River could offer a lasting solution to this perennial menace.
Mr Zacchaeus Maganga, the Chair of Water Resource Users Association (WRUA) believes that planting trees along the riverbanks of the 210-km long river holds the key to this problem.
He says that the trees would eventually create a dense canopy and a network of protected zones that would link up Taita Hills to the vast Tsavo East National Park thus creating a corridor for the primates to go back to the park.
“This initiative can help increase the forest cover and create a corridor for the baboons to return to Tsavo East National Park,” says Maghanga who is also the Vice President of Rotary Club in Voi.
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