Villagers helplessly watched in disbelief as a 12-year-old was mauled to death by a rogue hyena, injuring those attempted to rescue.
The villagers from Leleshwa village, Ol Moran area of Laikipia who tried to ward off the beast last week were forced to retreat as it charged towards them until it left a skeleton out of the lad.
In fact, the beast injured the boy’s parents badly as they dared to beat it with all the arsenals they laid their hands on. The parents were later admitted at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital nursing serious injuries
“Villagers answered to distress calls and would hit the animal but it kept charging at them with jaws dripping human blood,” said Edward Chege, “The people then retreated giving animal a chance to dig its jaws back in the boy who kept screaming.”
The boy’s aunt Anne Wambui, said the boy was preparing to report to school when the roaming beast entered their house and mauled him at about 5am.
Wambui narrated, “On hearing his child cry, his father who was at the time asleep woke up to defend him. The child’s mother who was in the kitchen preparing breakfast could also come to give help,”.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) official in charge of Laikipia West Mohammed Madela later visited the family and consoled them.
Madela attributed the attack to a recent fire that broke out at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy driving wild animals out of the conservancy into human settlement.
“The animals are now living in Lariak forest, a kilometre from the home of the victims,” he said.
Madela added that for the past week, he received several reports from the residents of animals roaming in the villages suspected to be from conservancy after the fire incident.
However, Madela said officers had been deployed in the area to relocate the stray animals back to the parks