Boy killed by hyena

A 12 year old boy was mauled to death Monday by a rogue hyena at Leleshwa village, Ol Moran area in Laikipia County.
The boy’s parents also suffered serious injuries while trying to save their son and were admitted to the Nyahururu County Referral Hospital.
Only a skeleton of the boy remained after the animal that stormed their home ate large part of the body after overpowering his parents during the early morning attack.
According to the boy’s aunt Anne Wambui, the standard two pupil at Mwireri Primary school was being prepared by his mother to go to school, when the animal stormed the kitchen where breakfast was being made at about 5am.
“The mother was at the kitchen preparing breakfast while the boy and his brother were dressing for school when the animal attacked. On hearing commotion, the father who was asleep inside the same house rushed to rescue them,” said Wambui.
Neighbours said the animal continued feasting on the body after scaring away people, who had responded to the family’s distress call.
“People would hit the animal hard but it charged at them and upon their retreat, the animal went back to the body,” said a taxi driver, Edward Chege.
Speaking at the Nyahururu County hospital after visiting the injured, a senior Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warden in charge of Laikipia West, Mohammed Madela blamed recent fire at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy for driving wild animals into human settlement areas.
“The animals that ran away from fire are now living in Lariak forest which is just one kilometre from the home of the victims.
“For the last one week, we have been receiving reports from residents that animals from the Laikipia Nature Conservancy were roaming in the villages after the fire incident.
“We suspect that the animal that attacked the family was among those that had escaped from the conservancy,” he said.
Madela said that they had deployed adequate officers to trap rogue animals and relocate them back to the parks.
However, nominated MCA Ms. Irene Wacuka who visited the family at the hospital accused KWS officials of sleeping on the job, adding that they have failed to deal with the increased cases of human/ wildlife conflicts in the area.
Wacuka urged both the county and national governments to ensure that the family was duly compensated.
The deceased’s body was moved to Nyahururu County Referral hospital mortuary.
By Jesse Mwitwa