Victims of shark and whale attacks will receive compensation from the government if lawmakers pass a new Bill in the National Assembly.
The Wildlife Conservation and Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023 sponsored by Lamu East MP Ruweida Obo also seeks to secure compensation for victims of stonefish and sting ray aggression.
“The principal object of this Bill is to amend the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, No. 47 of 2013 to include sharks, stone fish, whales and sting rays among wildlife species,” reads the proposed law.
The inclusion of sharks, stonefish, whales and sting is in respect to compensation as a result of death or injury.
“This will ensure that persons who live along water bodies are entitled to payment of compensation as a result of death and injury from the specified wildlife species,” reads the Bill in part.
Currently, wildlife species in respect of which compensation may be paid for death and injury include elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, hyenas, crocodiles, cheetahs, and buffalos.
The Bill comes hot on the heels of a petition by residents of Isiolo North, Tigania East, Tigania West, and Lunga Lunga constituencies that have sought the intervention of MPs to address human-wildlife conflict.
In a petition to the National Assembly, the residents want the Ministry of Water to construct water pans for wildlife and dams for farmers who live nearby parks and game reserves.
The petitioners said they are pastoralists and subsistence farmers who have suffered fatalities and injuries caused or inflicted by the animals.
“We have witnessed, in the last two seasons, enormous herds of wild game in our farms and homesteads. Elephants have destroyed crops, water pipes, storage tanks and homestead structures,” they said.
They further appealed to MPs to empower Kenya Wildlife Service to do community projects for villagers around parks and reserves for the communities to embrace wildlife conservation.
