Guards injured by hyena as they fought off over meat

BY KIPCHUMBA KEMEI

Two farm guards were on Wednesday night injured when they fought off attempts by a hyena to snatch the carcass of a Thomsons Gazelle they had set aside for their lunch.

The beast ventured into a makeshift house where the guards were sleeping at Eore-Kule area in Narok North, snatched the carcass and disappeared into a nearby thicket.

The guards woke up shortly after the hyena had disappeared with their meat and pursued it to the thicket where they tried to retrieve the carcass from its jaws resulting into deep injuries in their faces and hands.

“We had killed the gazelle and after skinning it, we set it aside for lunch. We then retired to the house where we kept it. As we were asleep, the hyena broke the door and gained access to the house before taking the meat,” said Leonard Esho.

“We grabbed arrows and spears and pursued it to the forest. When we got it, we fought it in a bid to have it relinquish it. But it was not easy because the daring and vicious hyena put up a fight. Though we managed to get back our delicacy, we suffered injuries,” Esho said.

The guards told The Standard that after snatching the carcass from the hyena’s jaws and taking it to a safe place; the daring hyena pursued them in the hope that it would have it back.

“We were shocked after it came back. We feared for our lives because others would have come. We were forced to light a bonfire to keep the beast at bay,” said John Naishu who added that they could not let the meat go because of the effort they had expended in hunting it.

The duo who were in the morning treated at Narok North District Hospital said it was their first encounter with a hyena, adding that they had all along thought that it could not put up a brave fight but what happened proved them wrong.

“We have all along thought that hyenas are cowards but we have been forced to change that after what we underwent in trying to snatch meat from its jaws. We received injuries from its sharp teeth and claws,” said Naishu.

The Narok Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Senior Warden Bernard Koruta asked residents neighboring forests and Masai Mara Game Reserve to be cautious, adding that the biting drought in the area was responsible for the rise of human-wildlife conflict.

One evening in November last year, a woman gallantly fought off attempts by three hyenas to drag her three-year-old son to a thicket as she was fetching water from a stream near Mara.

Another woman was last month seriously injured in Aitong area near the reserve after she was attacked by a leopard as she was fetching firewood.

Only last week, two morans were injured after they attempted to kill a lion as part of cultural requirement to graduate to moranism.