Irate residents of Esarunoto village in Mashuuru Sub County killed an elephant in the area after it trampled one of their own.
According to the area Senior chief, Julius Suyianka, the elephant was killed by a crowd of around two hundred people from the village.
“The crowd decided to go on a spearing spree of elephants within the area following the killing of one of their own, Nelson Lepilal Somoire by an elephant on 15th December in the same area, while riding a bicycle to his home,” said the Chief.
Suyianka says that the animal broke the man’s legs and eventually killed him after chasing him over a distance of one Kilometer.
Several other elephants were forced to scamper to safety though some sustained spear wounds as witnessed by blood droppings on the escape routes.
KWS has already dispatched teams from Amboseli and Kajiado stations in the area to contain the situation.
On a related incident, residents of Enkii area, Oloitoktok Sub County are also threatening to kill elephants in the area after a 30-year-old man namely John Lenku Mukoro was trampled by an elephant in the area Monday morning.
This comes days after Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku urged KWS to keep the wildlife away from people’s farms so as to deter attacks.
” We have set aside our parcels of land to serve as wildlife corridors for the wildlife as they move from Amboseli to Tsavo national parks yet our people are suffering due to the wildlife. We have not benefitted from the wildlife in any way. We will close the animal corridors if KWS won’t listen to us. Kajiado people have suffered enough,” said Lenku.
Kajiado Senator, Samuel Seki has reiterated Ole Lenku’s remarks and noted that it is unfortunate that human-wildlife conflict has become a life-and-death matter in Kajiado County.
“It is painful to keep losing innocent people to this menace. I called the KWS office this morning and directed them to drive all the wild animals away immediately, failure to which we shall take serious measures.
In this regard, I support last week’s comment by Governor Joseph ole Lenku, “If they don’t manage these animals, we shall do it so ourselves,” warned Seki.
The senator added that they will join hands as Kajiado leaders to find out how they can solve the human-wildlife conflict once and for all.
By Diana Meneto
