Like the infamous kneeling on the neck of the late African-American George Floyd, by a rogue US cop, KWS is using the County Directorate of Criminal Investigation to suppress people’s voices
By Letuati ole Umash
The arrests of former Matapato North Member of County Assembly Lesalaon ole Seki popularly known as Masaa has brought to the fore systemic injustices being meted out against Kajiado County residents by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
Like the infamous kneeling on the neck of the late African-American George Floyd, by a rogue US cop, KWS is using the County Directorate of Criminal Investigation to suppress people’s voices, to cover-up their own failure to address perpetual human-wildlife conflict that has left a trail of destruction and death — including of livestock and the community’s main means of livelihood.
In parts of Matapato North and Matapato South, for instance, residents grow crops in vain, while others have lost their livestock, and their loved ones to marauding wild animals, and yet no one can dare raise a voice out of fear of arrest.
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The situation is replicated in; Magadi, Sholinke/Oloorsikuon, Poka/Kinyawa and many other parts of the county, but people are silently suffering.
Rogue KWS officers have indiscriminately and occasionally beaten up our young people, mercilessly, under the guise of protecting the animals.
Women have been rendered widows, men widowers, and children orphans yet the promise of compensating them remains a pipe dream.
Lesalaon ole Seki speaks for many of us and police must drop those baseless allegations against him unconditionally.
The opinion expressed in this article are personal and not in any way the views of the publication.
