Thursday December 21, 2017
A two-year-old boy on Wednesday morning was killed by a hyena in Dertu village, Garissa county.
Salah Abdi was sleeping in their grass-thatched house when he was attacked by the beast at 9am.
His parents were not at home at the time of the incident. The father was out looking after his livestock, while the mother had gone fetch water 5km away from home.
Amina Mohamed, the mother, yesterday told the Star she had left her son sleeping to get water. When she came back she found his lifeless body in a pool of blood.
“Hyenas are all over the place either looking for water or livestock to feed on. I never knew the animal could enter my house, and do this,” a distraught Mohamed said.
Neighbour Abdi Yussuf, said he was drawn to screams from the young one. When he reached the house, the hyena fled. It had already killed the boy.
“I rushed to the house, but it was too late. We looked for the hyena and killed it,” Yussuf said.
The deceased was later buried according to Islamic rites.
By the time of going to the press, officials from KWS had not reached the area. Efforts to get a comment from the agency were fruitless.
Cases of human-wildlife conflict in the area have been on the rise because drought and famine.
Garissa Governor Ali Korane in October launched a water trucking and animal feeding programme targetting areas worst-hit by drought in the county.
In the last few years, the county has experienced poor rains. MCAs urged the county government to prioritise tackling of drought, saying the situation is almost “getting out of hand”.