Tourism Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano
Government pledges faster, fairer compensation for communities living alongside wildlife
By John Kariuki
Tourism Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano yesterday met Principal Secretary for Wildlife Silvia Museiya and Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Erastus Kanga to discuss advanced solutions for human-wildlife conflict and reforms to the national compensation framework.
The talks centred on the daily reality faced by host communities living alongside wildlife — lost crops, destroyed property and, in the worst cases, loss of life. Officials acknowledged that protecting those communities and ensuring prompt, dignified compensation is both a legal obligation and a moral imperative.
The government is pursuing end-to-end digital transformation of the compensation process to eliminate bureaucratic delays, restore community trust and deliver faster support directly to affected families.
Miano expressed gratitude to President William Ruto for his directive to fast-track compensation, saying decades of administrative bottlenecks were giving way to a transparent, modern and community-centred conservation model.
Officials said the reforms signal a firm commitment to making peaceful coexistence between people and wildlife a sustainable, not merely aspirational, reality.