MALINDI, Kenya, Mar 11 – Residents of Chakama in Kilifi County have attributed the failure by most parents to take their children to secondary school to severe drought and elephant invasion.
Despite government efforts to have a 100 percent transition rate from primary to secondary school, many students are still at home as their parents have no means of raising their fees due to the prolonged dry spell and invasion of their farms by marauding jumbos.
The residents said the drought had pushed them to farm along the Galana (Sabaki) River, but the crops they produce are usually eaten up by the wild animals that have moved out of the dry and parched Tsavo East National Park in search of water and pasture.
The jumbo’s, they said, had also become dangerous as they maraud homes thus affecting daily economic activities. School children have to be escorted by adults and many times they reach school late.
They were speaking at the Chakama Primary School where Adu Member of County Assembly Samson Zia launched the issuance of school fees cheques worth Sh5 million from the County Ward Scholarship Fund to sponsor about 1,300 secondary and tertiary education students across the ward.
The residents, who were led by Bahati Lughanje, Shamban Ziro and Samuel Kambi called on the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to drive away the jumbos which they claimed had imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in many parts of the location.
Zia pleaded with Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza to personally intervene and save the residents from further distress, claiming that KWS officers had failed to address the matter.
“Whenever we ask KWS officers to drive away the elephants, they either tell us that their vehicles have broken down or they do not have fuel. I urge the Cabinet Secretary to personally intervene and have these animals driven back to their habitat,” said Zia.
Raymond Musinda Charo, the Chief Chakama location said the government had done its best to achieve the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school but noted that drought and the elephants had affected the efforts.
He however assured the residents that the government was doing everything possible to help them and called for their patience and cooperation.
