Kenya’s environment minister Judi Wakhungu says that compensation funds are overstretched, meaning rarer cases where people have been killed are given priority.
And without compensation from the government, the worst hit farmers can see poaching as an alternative to survive.
“Poaching is a problem, yes, but the biggest challenge we face in terms of wildlife conservation, is finding space for wildlife,” said Wakhungu.
“As our human population grows, there’s a lot of pressure to develop facilities and infrastructure.”
In the past, rickety old fences were easily broken down by elephants hungry for the farmers’ harvests.
When the elephants came, villagers would gather together, lighting fires and beating drums to scare them away, but to little effect.
Other methods have been tried: including smearing rope fences with chili paste, or burning chili mixed with elephant dung, methods that are not feasible over long distances.
The new fence carries a 7,000 volt pulsing electric shock, with dangling metre-long wire strips, to stop the elephants well before they can use their tusks to uproot posts as they did in the past.
“What it means is no more lost crops, a better income, and a better chance to pay for important things like school for my children,” Njoroge said.
More than 20 people in the district have died in battles with elephants in the past two years, he said.
“We will continue to live here,” he said. “We bury our neighbours and life is returning.”
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