The High Court has ordered the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to immediately pay Ksh5 million to the family of Leonard Asunga Okune, who was killed by a crocodile, after the agency failed to honour an approved compensation award for nearly 18 months.
The court found that once a claim has been assessed and approved by a County Wildlife Conservation and Compensation Committee, the payment becomes a legal entitlement rather than a discretionary gesture from the state. KWS had argued that responsibility for disbursement rested with the Cabinet Secretary and that internal government procedure justified the delay, a defence the court rejected outright.
The judge held that public bodies must perform their statutory duties fairly, efficiently and within timelines set by law, regardless of which office signs off on payment. Under the applicable Wildlife Conservation and Management regulations, approved compensation is required to be processed within 60 days. Okune’s family waited roughly nine times that long before the court intervened.
To enforce compliance, the court issued an order of mandamus compelling KWS to release the funds immediately, a remedy reserved for cases in which a public authority has failed to perform a clear legal duty.
The ruling lands at a difficult moment for the wildlife agency. Parliamentary testimony from Wildlife Principal Secretary Silvia Museiya Kihoro before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee revealed that the human-wildlife conflict compensation backlog has grown to Ksh3.5 billion, with more than 20,000 claims for deaths, injuries and crop destruction still pending. Officials told MPs that KWS is currently processing claims filed only as far back as 2020 and 2021, leaving thousands who filed later still waiting, and that some beneficiaries have died before receiving their compensation.
Although Parliament allocates over Ksh900 million annually to the compensation fund, actual Treasury disbursements have been inconsistent, dropping as low as Ksh65 million in 2018. MPs, including Funyula’s Wilberforce Oundo, have separately accused KWS of “selective compensation,” pointing to discrepancies between attack reports from counties such as Siaya and Busia and the figures recorded at the agency’s Nairobi headquarters.
Legal observers expect the judgment to trigger a wave of similar petitions from families whose claims have been approved but never paid, particularly in areas bordering Tsavo, Amboseli, Lake Victoria and the Maasai Mara. The court’s reasoning removes KWS’s ability to deflect responsibility to the Treasury or the Cabinet Secretary, a defence the agency has previously relied on to explain payment delays.
For KWS, the ruling adds fresh pressure on an institution already facing scrutiny over unresolved compensation claims and questions about internal accountability, as courts and Parliament push for greater transparency in how the agency manages both wildlife and the communities living alongside it.
