Safe at Last: How the Naibunga Community Triumphed over Tragedy and Human-Elephant Conflict

Elephants in Naibunga Central Community Conservancy, Laikipia County.

For years, Naibunga Community Conservancy has grappled with the issue of human-wildlife conflict.

Elephants have caused loss of human life and property, injuring some residents, and displacing others. Children heading to school, and women fetching water, have lived in constant fear of encountering an elephant on their way.

40-year-old Tom Putunoi, from Kimanjo, Laikipia County laid his mother to rest in 2014. She was herding her family’s goats when she was attacked by an elephant. Her grandchildren were playing nearby and they watched helplessly as their grandmother was trampled to death by the elephant, just a few meters from her farm.

Several other community members have sustained injuries or lost their lives after encountering elephants, just like Putunoi's mother did. Understandably, this has been a major source of concern in the Conservancy.

Community fencers in Naibunga Central Community Conservancy.

Naibunga Community Conservancy borders Isiolo County to the north and covers 466 square kilometers of Laikipia North Sub-county. Due to its extensive acreage, in 2018, the community divided the Conservancy into three units: Naibunga Upper, Naibunga Central, and Naibunga Lower.

The Naibunga Central and Lower Community Conservancies serve as an elephant corridor, connecting the Laikipia-Isiolo-Samburu-Marsabit wildlife circuit. A feasibility study conducted in 2019 by NRT in collaboration with Naibunga Community Conservancy revealed that children and women were most at risk of being attacked by elephants.

More recent data from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) shows that since 2021, Laikipia County has reported 47 injuries and 12 fatalities, with two of the 12 occurring in Laikipia North.

According to the Naibunga Central Community Conservancy Chairman, Solomon Kaparo, many of the fatalities happened in settlement areas, and learning was disrupted as children missed classes for fear of being attacked by an elephant on their way to or from school.

To avert further loss of human life and prevent incidents of human-elephant conflict, in 2022, Naibunga Community Conservancy and the KWS jointly erected a 40-kilometer electric fence in Naibunga Central to keep elephants out of settlement areas while still allowing the free movement of people and livestock.

The Laikipia North KWS Warden, Dhadho Makorani, reports that since the fence’s construction, no deaths or injuries have been recorded. The two-line fence limits elephant movement within settlement areas while allowing other wildlife and cattle to move freely.

The fence was also designed with camel access gates so herders could move their camels in and out with ease. "People who live in settlement areas now feel safer and can finally go about their daily lives without fear,” says the Conservancy Chairman.

Naibunga Central Community Conservancy scouts on patrol.

The KWS, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, and other partners funded the fence’s construction, which is wholly managed by the Naibunga community conservancies and maintained by professional fencers.