By OUR REPORTER.
Kitui Deputy Governor Mr Augustine Kanani with officials from Kenya National Museum in Mutomo Reptile and Botanical Garden.
The Kitui Ministry of Tourism is reclaiming a habitat to host reptiles and a botany for purposes of research and tourism.
As human activities become more irresponsive to nature, reptiles habitats are being destroyed, closing the gap of co-existence between man and them!!
As man is advancing his niche into reptiles’ territory, he is clashing with them more and especially snakes, therefore, snakebites are becoming more rampant, especially in Kitui!!
Globally, there are over 14,000 reported snakebites daily which account for more than 300 human fatalities. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2021 report on African Epidemiology which further regards snakebite as a neglected tropical disease!
However, in the intervening, Kitui’s Deputy Governor Mr Kanani in his Ministry of Tourism is partnering with the Kenya Museums of Kenya to operationalize the *Mutomo Reptile and Botanical Garden in Kitui South. The garden will have an outstanding Snake Park in it, a crocodile 🐊 cage, some small animals and a nature trail.
In the park there will be a collection to weed out all if not the excesses of snakes roaming across human habitats. It will also be a tourist attraction as snakes and other reptile enthusiasts will have a parked collection of different species!!! This will not only bring revenue to the county but also increase human reptile acceptance as people get to know the many advantages the reptiles has to the ecosystem.
Some of the species expected in the park are the *Nile Crocodile, pancake tortoise 🐢, black mamba (ikuua), puff adder (kimbuva), Red-Spitting Cobra 🐍(nzoka ila ndune), pythons (itaa) among very many local species.
The Kitui Ministry of Tourism will also seek to partner with universities and other research institutions to use the park as a research center where venom extraction will be carried out as well as a conservation center for endangered snake species.
In Governor Malombe’s administration, healthcare is in the heart of his 16 point manifesto and out of the recent medicine 💊 distribution, snake anti-venom was considerably factored. This is because Kitui being in the tropics harbours the majority of the venomous snakes.
The venom extraction will therefore mean Kitui will have access to quality and affordable anti-venom, increasing chances of survival of snakebite victims, bringing interministerial co-existence in the county between Ministry of Tourism and that of Health.
As the world 🌎 is facing triple planetary crisis of Climate change, Biodiversity Loss, Poverty and Disease, activities of man have been faulted as they are interfering with nature. In order to reverse the ticking clock ⏰ of human extinction, *actions like those of Kitui Deputy Governor Mr Kanani remains acts of global acceptance.
The Kitui County Promise
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