Herds of animals from North Eastern Counties have invaded Mitangani region in Ganze, Kilifi county bring some worry for the locals.
The worried residents now want the government to regulate the intercounty movement of livestock.
Their worst fear is that with the presence of the animals, their only remaining vegetation shall soon be wiped out.
They also fear the little remaining pasture and water will be depleted rendering their livestock vulnerable to the ongoing drought.
One of the residents, Jumaa Kitsao, a livestock farmer said the current pasture is not enough for the locals to graze their animals.
“Currently there are over 500 camels and over 2,000 cattle from Garissa, Wajir and Isiolo counties. Apart from the highly depleting pasture, we are also not sure if their animals are vaccinated. Let the government drive these animals away from this region because our animals will perish,” said Mr Kitsao
Last year, residents lost thousands of livestock due to drought. All the water sources in the area dried up forcing some farmers to sell their emaciated cattle for as low as Sh,2000.
Another resident, Safari Katana expressed fear that water sources will dry up before the next rain season.
Katana said three months ago they were fetching water 20 kilometres away due to drought.
“We depend on these water pans for both domestic and livestock use. The foreign herders have water pumps which they use to pump water to troughs for their animals to drink. Some water pans are already drying up,” said Katana
The movement of livestock from other counties to the ranching zones in Ganze sub-county has been the source of many conflicts in the area.
Locals have reported several cases of assault and damage to crops.
The locals accuse administrators and the ranch directors of leasing the pasture to the foreign herders who later graze beyond the areas they leased and sometimes into people’s farms.
“These herders once they lease some area they will disregard even people’s farms. Anything green they see they claim is food for their animals. When they come its chaos altogether,” Katana said
In some instances, locals are refused access to some water sources by the herders who claim to have paid for the water source.
Ganze MP Teddy Mwambire urged the county government of Kilifi to control the cross border movement of animals to stop the spread of diseases.
“Last year several animals died in Ganze. Some died due to pasture while others due to diseases. I am sure these animals are not vaccinated on entry to our county because they do not have designated entry points,” said Mr Mwambire.
