The government has set aside Ksh 1.1 billion this year to compensate victims of the wild-life conflicts, according to Tourism Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza.
Already, there are 2,600 claims which have not been paid for.
Speaking on Wednesday at the University of Embu during the World Tourism Day celebrations, CS Malonza said the government is committed to ensure the victims are paid before the end of the year.
The CS lamented that it has been taking too long to compensate those affected and promised that the matter will be addressed.
She revealed that the government plans to establish an insurance scheme which will ensure timely compensation of people once they are hurt by wild animals or their property destroyed.
“We want to ensure that our people are compensated without delay once any harm happen to them,” she said.
She stressed that the government has intensified the fencing of wildlife corridors to ensure no more wildlife-human conflicts.
“We have been having more claims simply because our population has increased and settled on wildlife corridors, there is a lot of compensation for land,” she added.
She explained that the government was taking tourism as an economic activity and that is why it was investing heavily on it.
She said the sector was still on the recovery path, adding that the government was doing everything possible to ensure that it performs well.
“We are now at 98pc recovery and we are doing quite well,” she said.
She pledged to have Kenyan cultural dancing styles patented so that foreigners don’t continue “stealing” them.
“We have to protect our culture, foreigners are using our culture to make money, this is unacceptable, some of Kiswahili words are also being stolen by foreigners are being stolen Jambo and Hakuna Matata words are gone and are now being used by foreigners to attract tourists in their countries, this is unacceptable,” she said.
Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire, the host said she was happy that such an event has been held in her region.
She said Embu tourism potential lies in sports, cultural, adventure and agriculture tourism.
The governor said they are also pushing for the opening of a new route to Mt. Kenya through Irangi Forest in Embu which will open up the county for tourism.
