Hundreds of farmers near Mount Kenya blocked a major highway for three hours this week, protesting against an invasion of their farms by elephants, a news report said on Wednesday.
The farmers said the authorities had done nothing to help them get rid of four elephants that had terrorised their fields for weeks, and in protest blocked the major highway between Nyeri and Nanyuki with stones and bushes, reported the Daily Nation newspaper.
Officers from the Kenyan Wildlife Service later arrived and drove the elephants into a nearby forest, but said they do not have the personnel to control all the elephants that regularly wreak havoc on farms in the central Mount Kenya area.
Villagers said the elephants usually come at night and have in the past few weeks destroyed more than 80ha of crops.
In a recent aid agency report on the severe hunger situation in many parts of Kenya, marauding wild animals are listed as one of the causes. With the drought, wild animals leave the game parks in search of water and pasture, and in the process damage crops. — Sapa-DPA