KWS moves in to save villagers from hyenas

 Hyenas prowls and kills livestock in Kiambu County.[File, Standard]

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has stepped in to save villages in Kikuyu and Limuru constituencies where hyenas have been prowling and killing livestock.

The hyenas have been roaming Tharuni, Kiroe and Rironi villages where they have killed tens of sheep, dogs and calves.

According to Joseph Ngigi, a framer in the Kiroe area who has lost several sheep and his family dog to the marauding beasts, the hyenas strike at night, often past 9 pm, searching for food.

“We have suffered for several weeks in these three villages. We don’t understand where the beasts came from. All we know is that the losses are immense. Personally, I have lost several sheep which were attacked right inside my compound,” Ngigi said.

Ngigi said the three villages have been experiencing rains for a couple of months, which has seen tremendous growth of bushes.

“There are a lot of bushes in these three villages. We are also having a season for maize, and the two have given the hyenas a perfect cover during the day. All our efforts to track them during the day are usually futile as the beasts hide in this maize and banana plantations,” Ngigi said.

Patrick Njogu, a bodaboda operator in the area, says he has seen the hyenas several times when taking his customers to the nearby Nakuru-Nairobi highway in the morning.

“There are many hyenas here. Last Saturday, I found one big hyena crossing the road at around 4:30 am, and a few meters away towards the main Nakuru-Nairobi highway, I saw another two as they dived into the bushes for cover,” Njogu said, adding:

I urge KWS to set more traps to tame this menace. We are apprehensive that a human being could fall prey to the animals”

Another farmer lost a calf a week ago, a few meters from where a KWS trap netted a hyena.

The farmer said the hyenas struck in the dead of the night after scaring and intimidating her dogs away before mauling and eating her calf.

“We thank KWS for netting this one, but I can confirm to them that many more are hiding in these bushes,” she said.