There is a need to put up elephant fences anywhere where human-elephant conflict is deemed to be severe. Elephants and other big wild animals have been known to cause destruction to agricultural land in Kenya. As such, there is a need to protect human settlements and farms from losses that are caused by elephants. The local ecology and movement pattern of elephants must be reasonably well known. Disregarding established movement routes may put a fence under such severe challenge that the maintenance demand cannot be met. Commercial fencing contractors or people with relevant experience should always be consulted when erecting wildlife fencing. Electric Fences Kenya is one of the leading commercial fencing contractors in Kenya. Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya are the most effective fencing solution to protecting farms, dams, water pans, forests from either damage from animals or from people.
Maintenance of Electric Fences and Wildlife fences in Kenya
Maintenance is the number one problem with any type of wildlife fencing. A fence is only as good as its maintenance, which has to be continual and meticulous.
Vegetation contact causes power leakages and overgrowth conceal the fence from being an obvious barrier to elephants. As such, vegetation, have to be kept short and out of the electric fence line at all times. In Kenya, the maintenance of electric fences needs constant surveillance. Any vegetation growth has to be cut or sprayed with weed killers such as Round-Up or Clamp-Down.
Constant high voltages (> 5Kv – more than 5 Kilo Volts) in electric fences will deter most elephants. However, low voltage, a frequent manifestation of poor maintenance, may merely irritate a determined elephant or any big wild animal. An electric fence energizer such as Stafix X18i, powers several kilometres of fencing, disruption of the power supply at one point inactivates a long section of the fence. In the same breath, if power is not restored promptly the adverse conditioning associated with the barrier is lost. The long sections of the conflict-boundary quickly become porous to elephants.
In this regard, Electric Fences Kenya can offer, one-time maintenance service of your game electric fence or a contractual maintenance contract either quarterly, half-yearly or annual service contract. Call us on 0722708034 for an affordable maintenance contract.
A success story of a game electric fence that has helped a community in Kenya: Reprint
In Kenya, electric fences protect forests from human destruction
By Edwin Waita
2 MIN READ
NAKURU, Kenya (Reuters) – What can stop wandering elephants, illegal logging and protect sources of water? Kenyan environmental group Rhino Ark Trust says: electric fences. Lots of them.
The trust has put up fences around two key areas where rainfall feeds Kenya’s rivers. It is adding more fencing around a third area in Mount Kenya, where 250 kilometres out of a planned 450 kilometres (280 miles) has been constructed.
A fence is already encircling the sprawling canopy of the Eburru Forest in Kenya’s Rift Valley. The 43-kilometre long fence, set up in 2014, cut rampant illegal logging and charcoal burning to almost nothing, said Joseph Mutongu, the fence community manager at Rhino Ark Trust, a private conservation group that financed the fence.
Rhino Ark Trust
Alarms on the fence alert rangers to any breach. Rhino Ark Trust estimates that its fences protect 570,000 hectares of prime mountain forests that are Kenya’s key rain catchment areas.
Kenya aims to increase its forest cover to 10% of its land mass by 2022, attaining the standard set by the United Nations, from about 7% in 2015, data from the ministry of environment showed. Private conservation groups are vital help and fencing is being used more often after the success of the Eburru project.Slideshow ( 5 images )
Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya help protect wildlife from hunting and trees from being chopped down. But they do not cut off local communities – Rhino Ark encourages the Ogiek community in Eburru to harvest honey and wild fruits.
“This was our only source of livelihood. We were greatly dependent on honey, meat and wild fruit,” said Maseto Kusen, a member of the Ogiek.
Local farmers who had planted potatoes in the Eburru Forest have been resettled in land adjacent to the forest, where they grow fruits like tree tomatoes.
Farmers believe the trees will help ensure the rain, said fruit farmer Joseph Kariuki.
“It is green everywhere,” he said. “The environment has really changed thanks to Rhino Ark Trust
Reporting by Edwin Waita; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
Kenya: Solar Fence to Help Keep Jumbos From Taita Homes, Farms
9 OCTOBER 2021The Nation (Nairobi)By Hellen Shikanda
As you relax on your couch in a gated estate, a brick-walled fence, a security guard and a short electric fence on top of the wall is enough protection from outsiders.
In Mlengwa village, Taita Taveta County, however, the situation is drastically different. Locals live within or near one of Kenya’s largest national parks -Tsavo. When we visited some of the homesteads, we found the hedges that they had tried to put up had been trampled by elephants.
This year, unlike before, locals say that the jumbos are encroaching their spaces earlier than usual. They blame one thing; climate change. While the climate change effects in the area have not been documented through research, the locals say that the animals are looking for water and food in their homes
Before, the jumbos would come between December and February. This time, they were in people’s homesteads as early as August. That, to them, is unusual.
The good thing is that a climate-friendly solution – solar-powered fences – is coming up.
Harvested water
Healthy Nation meets Amanda Ndau sitting outside her house on a slab that has been used to erect a water tank. The tank is empty; an elephant quenched its thirst with the harvested water as Amanda slept. On her farm, we see two visible elephant footprints.
“You are lucky to be here at this time. Had you come two hours ago, you would have met an elephant and it could have killed you. They were here, they stepped on my crops,” she says.
Amanda tells us that her frequent frantic calls to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) have made her well-known at the agency. She is one of the villagers living in an area where solar-powered fences have been erected.
“I rarely sleep. When I try to, I hear the elephants walking around and that scares me. I call the KWS all the time, and I think that is why the new fence to keep elephants away has been erected near my homestead. I hope to be at peace now,” she says.
Amanda’s Story
A few metres from Amanda’s home is Edward Mwashigadi’s residence. He is sitting in front of his house, holding some papers.
“This is a letter from KWS that I got in 2016. Elephants came here and destroyed my crops. KWS promised to pay me Sh200,000 as compensation. I am still waiting,” he tells us.
Since Mlengwa village is a generally dry area, he had acquired pipes to use for drip irrigation. All the 15 pipes he had bought were trodden on by the jumbos, Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya would have prevented this huge loss.
“I lost my money and the food I was hoping to have in store for my children. Buying food is expensive and we do not have many shops here,” he narrates.
We find another villager, Constance Wanjala, in the family farm. Her husband has gone to the forest with the goats. Last year, they lost a family member to an encounter with an elephant.
“We love the animals, but they are killing our people. This man (the late Juma Mwashighadi) was the breadwinner and had gone to Voi town to get some items for his family. On his way back, a female elephant was walking around with her children and saw him as a threat. It crushed him to death,” Constance narrates.
Harrowing stories
These people are just but a representation of the many harrowing stories in this area.
The World Wide Fund for Nature-Keny,a funded by BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through WWF-Germany, has liaised with KWS to put up the solar-powered fence to help the locals.
“Through this project, we have also been able to mitigate Human-wildlife conflict by using solar-powered elephant deterrent fences to fence villages that are within the conflict hotspots,” Dr Yussuf Wato, Head of Science, Research and Innovation at WWF-Kenya says.
Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya Project
Jimmy Muli, the foreman in charge of the fencing project, says the fence will protect about 3,000 people in the Sagalla area, Mlengwa village.
“Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya has a flow of current ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 volts. When an elephant tries to cross, it will be electrocuted but not to the point of death. This means that it will not dare pass there next time,” he explains
Because there is a seasonal river bank in the area, the National Environment Management Authority advised the KWS that the fence can only be erected 30 metres away from the bank to allow the animals to also take water from the river.
Locals have received training on maintenance of the fence before it is handed over to them. There is no cost that will be incurred since the solar panels use a natural source of energy. Game and Wildlife fences in Kenya
Read the original article on Nation.