Victims of wildlife attacks decry long wait for pay

Dozens of families who have lost their kin as a result of wildlife attacks have decried delays in compensation as the government says it is facing a Sh5 billion deficit in the budgets set aside for the purpose.

Fifteen families in Tana River County — who have spent more than six years seeking compensation in vain — represent hundreds of families who have not received a single shilling despite having met all conditions for compensation.

Speaking to the Nation, the victims said their visits to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) offices have been a circus, with officers tossing them from one office to another, only to finally send them into a dusty archive to search for their files.

'We have been to the headquarters for the past three years; every time we get there, we meet new faces and we are taken through the exercise of finding our files once again,” said Hassan Umur, a parent of one victim.

Killed by a hippo

Mr Umur, whose son was killed by a hippo while he was crossing a river to school five years ago, said his efforts to trace the vic-tim's file has been marred with a lot of frustrations from the local KWS office.

He noted that the local officers had initially distorted information in the file to deny him the compensation, only for the family to contest it with post-mortem reports and the police OB when it was rectified and approved for payment.

"I keep weeding my son's grave as I talk to him, I keep promising him that things will be fine someday, his mother has never healed and her condition worsens every day she sees these struggles,' he said.

Ali Sugow, on the other hand, lost his daughter to a hyena seven years ago.

The three-year-old girl was mauled by a hyena while she was sleeping in a manyatta at night.

The father of three noted that he has not made any trips to the KWS headquarters since his last visit in 2017 as he remained optimistic he would be paid after some victims from the village were paid for the loss of their livestock to hyenas.

“They came and took photos in the village, they assessed the area and certified the incident was genuine. But to date, nothing has happened,” he said.

Recent cases paid

The residents noted that some of the victims who have since been compensated were those with the recent cases, while very few were from the early incidents.

They appealed to the Tourism Sabinet secretary to consider files lined up for compensation from Tana River County, citing bias in the claims settlement plans.

“We are told the compensation committee sits once every year. It’s been six years — they have sat six times but files from Tana River are thrown aside every time they sit,” said Salma Rashid.

For Ibrahim Salat, the chase has become hopeless. After several visits to the KWS headquarters in Nairobi and many promises from respective officers, he was shocked to be told that he had been paid.

"Since 2013, they kept telling me that my file was almost being paid. Then two years later in 2018 I walked into the same offices only to be told my file was cleared, that I had received my payment long ago," he recounted.

For the 71-year-old man who did not even have a bank account, he knew there was something amiss about the compensation.

Mr Salat, with the help of his son, challenged the decision. They sought to have details of the bank account the money was de-posited to, but instead of the account number, they were in-formed that the file had been recalled for review after it emerged that there was an oversight.

"They told me my file was cleared by mistake and that it was true I had not been paid but instead another Salat was the beneficiary,” he noted.

The family has been waiting since then.

Leaders in the region have since blamed the committee for undermining victims from the coast region in regard to compensation.

The leaders cited bias in making the list and the procedure of payment, noting that the majority of victims who benefit from the compensation happen to come from communities the members of the compensation committee come from.

Meanwhile, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala blamed the lack of funds for the payment delays.

“We only received Sh1.8 billion as compensation money against Sh6 billion in arrears thus [we are] having huge deficit to cater for compensation,” said CS Balala in a recent interview.

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