Residents of Narosora area in Narok South Sub County are up in arms after a teenage boy was killed by elephants on Tuesday.
The residents this morning matched along Narosora Trading centre protesting what they alleged was failure by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to contain the animals in designated areas.
Led by the area Member of County Assembly, Stephen Kudate, the residents said the increasing cases of human-wildlife conflicts was worrying as many people had lost their lives and others left nursing serious injuries after attacks by wild animals.
According to Kudate, the deceased was a young form three boy who was going to their shamba not knowing there was a herd of elephant feeding on their maize plantation.
“The elephant went after him and though he tried to run away, the animals got hold of him very fast, knocked him down and trampled on him on the ground killing him on the spot,” explained Kudate.
Susan Kisaika, a resident of the Naroosara asked KWS to push all the wild living in the area deeper into the Maasai Mara Game Reserve as they were causing threat to human beings.
“The number of wild animals near our homesteads is increasing every day. There are many hyenas, buffalos, leopards and elephants which threaten our lives. We are asking KWS to take responsibility and remove these animals from our homesteads,” said an angry Ms. Kisaika.
She observed that a number of people had been hospitalized, others suffering permanent disability because of attacks from the wild animals.
Another resident, Patrick Ole Ngweta said for a long time, they have lived with the animals without any conflicts but in the recent past, the animals have been a threat to their families.
“Our crops have been eaten by the elephants, our animals killed by leopards and lions yet no one seems to care. We call upon KWS to act immediately or else we will kill the entire wild in this place,” he said.
The incident comes only a week after a 35 year old man was killed by a hyena in Naikkara area few kilometres from Narosora area.
The Narok County Commissioner (CC), Samuel Kimiti confirmed the incident, saying the concerned department will act accordingly to see the family of the deceased was well compensated.
The increasing cases of human-wildlife conflict could be as a result of increased land under farming hence interfering with the natural habitat of the wild animals.
By Ann Salaton
