When the mainstream media highlight this issue we only get to read about the mischief of elephants after they have either killed or maimed people; or when they end up in people’s farms and daytime finds them around residential areas; the menace that is wildlife can be very painful considering the damage they are capable of doing. At the coast and especially Kilifi and Kwale districts elephants and primates are a consistent

occurrence. At every attack the casualties are only community members every time.

The weight of the conflict has not seen the light of day mainly due to well-choreographed policy provisions that suit the state authorities in the name of guiding the sector of wildlife. The locals believe that; the policy in place is a deliberate system to disenfranchise them; the free seedlings sometimes given by the government in some areas contribute to the broader problem (elephants are property to government so are the seeds and the subsequent crops); the compensation provisions in law are both an abuse to humanity and sarcastic to the power of a citizenry that votes;

"The injustice lies in the compensation (a paltry Kshs 30,000) mechanisms and the results of the same compared to the government spending Ksh 224 million to relocate elephants while it cannot compensate people their harvest. (News on TV on the 26th August 2005). The distribution of wildlife revenue for long-term benefit to the communities is laughable when chiefs give an affected villager a 2kg flour packet in lieu of destroyed crops in the farm"

The Center has organized the groups concerned to address a protest note to the then District Commissioner Kilifi Mr. Chelimo in regards with continuous harassment from elephants and baboons in Roka. There are elephant committees now active in these two districts and ongoing consultations are underway to a memorandum to be presented to the concerned authorities; mobilize the people of the affected areas and create an inter-district collaboration for purposes of strengthening the advocacy initiative.

There is an immediate activity to show solidarity with an affected community in Mazola in which a village elder who was mobilizing for Ujamaa lost his life in the hands of an elephant. Seeking options that are available to the communities in the event that attacks continue and no positive response from the Kenya Wildlife Services and the Government is forthcoming is a continuing process. There is need to comprehensively map this problem (part of this endeavor has been met in Kwale) while at the same time the issue of benefit to the community of the presence of wildlife in their vicinity need to be addressed. Some communities have weighed the option of torching the Sokoke forest and it is therefore important that Ujamaa continues to stress the importance of non-violence in dealing with this issue.