There are compelling reasons why we must urgently rethink land use and tenure.  To start with, wanton encroachment is approaching epidemic proportions, targeting national parks, game reserves, riparian and water resources land.    

In recent years, there has been massive intrusion into what should be wildlife territory. There is stampede, for example, for the space between the Standard Gauge Railway line and the Nairobi National Park. 

This has prompted the Kenya Wildlife Service’s move to secure the parkland for the safety of resident and wildlife within the park.  

In Nyandarua, Lake Ol Bolossat is fast drying up with predictable terrible ecological consequences in part due to sand excavation. The headwaters of Ewaso Ng’iro and other underground rivers, this lake is a critical bird sanctuary and was gazetted as a protected wetland area in 2018. Residents have now called for the lake to be fenced to stem further degradation.

Indeed, rivers flowing from several water towers including Cherang’any Hills, Mt Kenya and Mt Elgon, which give rise to most water bodies are rapidly shrinking.  These occurrences are replicated across the country.   

Climate change, pollution, encroachment and diversion of water sources for agricultural use contribute to the heightened degradation and inevitable adverse ecological impacts.

Added to these is illegal logging, despite a government ban in 2018. And an emergent threat is the   fencing around game reserves, such as the ongoing frenzy in Masai Mara Game Reserve in Narok county.

Most game ranches in Narok have been sold off to private developers, who have subsequently fenced them off. The Mara ecosystem is crucial for the great migrations of large variety of mammals including the iconic wildebeest whose fabled migration has been described as the world’s eighth wonder and for Maasai pastoralist culture. 

But where once there were open plains or group ranches stretching over thousands of acres, now lie fenced off farms. Hundreds of animals following traditional migration routes have been denied familiar migratory corridors with disastrous results. 

Wildlife is not just key to the success of our tourism sector, with its significant earnings but is also part of heritage for posterity. Cases of human-wildlife conflicts are on the rise with frequent fatalities.    

For Kenya, the writing is on the wall. Unless we strike a balance between human and wildlife needs, we are on a self-destruct trajectory.