Garissa women representative Shukran Gure has stated that she will push for the degazettement of Boni National Reserve from being managed by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to county government.
According to Gure, the degazettement of the forest reserve will offer a lot of benefits to the local Ijara residents and among them local conservationists who can build hotels and attract tourist, expansion of grazing lands.
"Forests and conservations are in different parts of this country, these phenomenon helps it's residents in the other parts of the country in terms of tourism attraction and conservations, why not residents of Garissa particularly the people of Ijara Constituency?" she posed.
If the mission sees the light of the day, Garissa county will finally be the biggest beneficiary owing to the various wild animals present in the forest.
The Boni National Reserve is a national reserve for conservation in Garissa County. The reserve covers an area of 1,339 km2 and is managed by Kenya Wildlife Service.
The forest was gazetted in 1976 as a dry season sanctuary for elephants. It covers Ijara, Lamu districts in Kenya and Somalia. Unfortunately, the elephant population has been greatly reduced by poaching.