Two-year-old girl injured in Taita Taveta elephant attack

RENSON MNYAMWEZI 28th Oct 2014 11:49:00 GMT +0300

Taita-Taveta, Kenya: Two people including a two-year-old girl are fighting for their life in hospital in Taita-Taveta County after they were attacked and seriously injured by marauding elephants.

Villagers of Jipe in Taveta district said the victims were attacked by stray jumbos while walking along the road.

The villagers who identified one of the victims as Julius Kibanga Nyerere, 50 suffered broken ribs while the toddler sustained multiple head injuries.

"The old man was carrying his grand child to see her mother when they were attacked by the jumbos. They escaped death by a whisker after villagers intervened," said Paul James, the victim's neighbor.

Speaking to The Standard at Taveta district hospital where the victims had been admitted in critical condition, James claimed elephants had virtually imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew on residents.

At the same time residents and leaders complained that the jumbos had reportedly destroyed hundreds of acres of food crops, an issue that is compounding the already famine situation in the region which is dependent on relief supplies from the government and donors.

"The area has been overrun by marauding elephants. The jumbos have disrupted education among other economic activities in the area. Residents have abandoned their farms for fear of being attacked," he claimed.

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James and two Ward Representatives Tiges Kipambi and Sagurani Kibunungwa accused the Kenya Wildlife Service of doing little to address the menace.

"KWS value wildlife more than human beings. The conservation body personnel do not respond quickly to resident's constant pleas to have stray elephants driven out of human settlement," they protested.

"If the KWS fail to drive the elephants out of human settlement today, we will use other means to deal with the wildlife," said Kipambi without specifying the action they will take.

The incident comes barely a month after Mbulia-Mlilo village in Voi district was thrown into mourning following the killing of a 70-year-old Abigael Samba by a marauding elephant.

The deceased was said to have been collecting fire wood at the time of the tragedy.

The incident comes at a time when the government is still grappling with unrelenting wildlife conflict in the region.

The incident also comes at a time when the government is still yet to constitute the County Compensation committee that will be charged with the responsibility of verifying compensation claims.

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Taita Taveta Human Wildlife conflict Elephants