Kenya Wildlife Service rangers have come under sharp criticism after reports emerged on the brutal torture of a young bgirl who had gone to fetch firewood near Tsavo National Park.
The girl, who has been since identified as Mueni was caught by the rangers at the foot of Chyulu hills.
She was to undergo brutal torture that left her face deformed after the rangers baked her in hot burning charcoal and hitting her with the butt of their guns.
“One of the rangers thrust me between his legs and started battering away at me using the stock end of his rifle,” Ms Mueni disclosed in her statement.
They then accosted her and demanded to know the whereabouts of the logger as she was found a just a few metres away from a charcoal kiln that was burning away in a fiery blaze.
Her claims of innocence fell on deaf ears and the officers decided to take the interrogation session a notch higher by throwing her into the charcoal kiln where she baked under the smouldering flames in between questions.
The rangers allegedly held her over the kiln until her shrieks became unbearable, at which point they’d pull her out and ask her more questions regarding the logger.
This went on for a while until she finally passed out and was thrown over the kiln and left for dead by the rangers.
Her parents who had since gone out in search of their daughter, who had taken longer than usual to collect firewood, found her passed out next to the kiln and rushed her to Makindu Hospital.
Ms Mueni medical report made for grim reading as she had suffered first-degree burns on her head and neck, multiple bruises on her thorax and abdomen, second-degree burns on both her palms, wrists and all her fingers as well as second-degree burns on her right leg.
There have been numerous other similar gory tales of locals suffering, and at times dying at the hands of the rangers.
A 2016 report presented to the Senate by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights stated that KWS officers allegedly made bribe demands from locals, with torture and death as the alternative to non-compliance.