Middle-aged man gouged to death by hippo in Kilimambogo, Thika.
A middle-aged man
was gouged to death by a hippopotamus in a vicious attack on Saturday night in
Kisiiki area of Kilimambogo, Thika East Sub-County.
According to the
locals Gabriel Mbugua, who is a sand loader, was heading home from Kilimambogo
shopping centre at around 8.00pm when the incident occurred less than a 100
metres from his house.
“Neighbours heard
him scream at around 8pm and by the time they arrived at the scene, the damage
was already done and the hippos sped towards River Athi which is less than 1 Kilometre from here,” narrated Patrick Kahacho who is a neighbour to the
deceased.
Kahacho said that
the victim seemed to have struggled with the beast for some time before it
eventually overcame him after it badly bit him on the face and stomach.
“By the time we
arrived, he was unconscious but later died before we could rush him to
hospital,” added Kahacho.
Residents we talked
to said that the number of roaming wild animals has greatly increased due to
the drought as the hippos move out of the water at night in search of food and
water. The attacked, the seventh in the area in the recent times, came amid
concerns over rising cases of human-wildlife conflicts in the village. They added
that out of the seven attacks, only one man survived the hippo attacks.
(Related story: Thika MP donates foodstuff, beddings to Kisiiki flood victims.)
They also claimed
that other wild animals such as hyenas, cheetahs and crocodiles have been straying
out of their natural habitats in search of pasture and flesh. They blamed their
predicaments on the local administration and the committees constituted by the
previous leadership of shortchanging them in the issuance of land given to
them by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year.
They accused them of allocating themselves and their cronies most of the land, leaving most families without none or with very small plots of land, thus having no choice but to continue living in the lowlands at the mercy of floods, hippos and crocodiles.
They appealed to the
area MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina and the President to revisit the issue before
thing went out of hand.
Some of them
threatened to kill the world animals as none of the victims of these attacks
ever received any compensation from the Kenya Wildlife Service.
“We will start
killing these wild animals since nobody seems to value human life. All they
care are these wild animals. So many people here have also lost their livestock
to these animals but no one seems to care!” said one residents.
The body of the
deceased has been taken to General Kago Road Funeral Home awaiting postmortem
and burial.
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