Butterfly Farmers Up in Arms Against Mismanagement of Project
New Era Conservationist. (Photo/ Courtesy)
By The COAST Reporter
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Disgruntled butterfly farmers held a peaceful demonstration to protest mismanagement of the Kipepeo Project within the Arabuko-Sokoke forest in Kilifi County on September 9, 2024.
The placard and twig-waving protestors took the sleepy Gede trading centre of Kilifi North Constituency by storm as they marched to the Gedi Museum, shouting slogans against the curator, Hussein Aden, and others whom they claimed were responsible for the woes facing the project.
In the commotion, one person was arrested after the demonstration as police officers from the Gede Police Post and the Watamu Police Station were called to barricade the gate of the Gedi Museum.
The farmers, who claimed that they were representing more than 800 of their colleagues living around the largest tropical forest in East Africa, accused the curator of allegedly short-changing them by failing to pay them according to their deliveries of butterfly pupae.
They also accused Aden, the manager of the community project, of allegedly using local security officers to crash dissenting voices.
They called for his immediate transfer from the station, failure to which, they would abandon the project, whose aim was to conserve the forest by involving the communities bordering it to sustainably utilize its resources.
Samuel Katoi, one of the farmers, said the Arabuko Sokoke Forest is one of Africa’s largest tropical forests that was under threat since disgruntled farmers had started encroaching and destroying it since they were no longer benefitting from the Kipepeo Project.
He called on President William Ruto and Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro to intervene and have the officer removed.
He also wants the office of the Auditor General to audit the books of the project and recommend sanctions if issues emerge of any misappropriation or mismanagement.
According to him some Sh1.26 million meant for the community was misappropriated under the watch of the curator, who doubles up as the manager of the project that was started in 1997 with the aim of protecting the forest.
Mwambire Kingi and Muramba Charo Nyule echoed his sentiments adding that the farmers’ efforts to get help from relevant offices had been futile as the manager and his cronies allegedly bribe the officers in order to disregard the cries of the disgruntled farmers.
“The curator has gone to the extent of causing the arrest and incarceration of some of the dissenting farmers and workers in order to intimidate them to submission, while some aggrieved farmers have been barred from taking their butterfly pupae to the Kipepe Project office for export,” Mwambire claimed.
However, efforts to get a comment from Aden were not successful as he neither responded to calls or messages to his mobile phone number.
