Kitengela residents terrorized by huge snake

Moses Wafula a resident of Acacia village in Kitengela, Kajiado county, shows the path used by the huge snake to access his compound. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

A section of Kitengela residents in Kajiado county are crying foul following an alleged attack by a huge snake that has been terrorizing them for a whole week.

Residents of Acacia village situated at the outskirts of Kitengela town are now living in fear of attack, after the snake invaded their homestead killing hundreds of chickens and dogs.

The marauding reptile is said to have been attacking during the wee hours of the night, and later return to a nearby bush.

According to Moses Wafula whose homestead was invaded on Tuesday this week, the snake is too huge to  confront.

He said the snake has big eyes similar to a spot light but red in color, its almost 30 feet long.

"We are worried that we cannot even dare to go out during the night for fear of being attacked by this snake, it only appears during the night, attack and then go back into the bush’’ said Wekesa.

Mary Ngina, a resident of the same village says she is not even able to sleep well for fear of being attacked by the snake.

She says even after making reports to the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), nothing has been done.

"We are appealing to the authorities to come to our rescue, all the chickens have been killed we are not sure what will happened next," she said.

She said her family has tried all, ways to keep the snake off their compound but it keeps coming back.

"We have tried all the methods, including burning used car tires, and poring different chemicals to the compound, however, the snake keeps coming back now,’’ said Ngina.  

When The Standard on Saturday arrived at the village, agitated  residents who had gathered to plan the way forward were still in shook following the incident.

Kajiado County Senior KWS Warden, Daniel Kosgei, admitted to having received the complaint from the residents.

He promised to dispatch a team of officers and snake experts to the scene to trap the snake.

''It is true we have received a complaint concerning the same, however, I will be dispatching officers to the scene to try and trap it, as described, it's a very dangerous animal,'' said Kosgei.

The incident came as Kajiado residents demanded that KWS address growing cases of human-wildlife conflicts.

Under the KWS Act of 2013, livestock owners must be compensated, at the current market rates, for each animal lost in such an attack.

Each sheep goes for Sh10,000 per the current market rates.

This came barely a day after another farmer from a nearby village lost 30 goats in an attack by wild animals.

Kenya Wildlife Service  is mandated to conserve and manage Kenya's wildlife. It is a State corporation established by an Act of Parliament that also has a mandate to enforce related laws and regulations.

Kajiado county Governor Joseph Ole Lenku recently  called on the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to urgently remove problematic wild animals from the residents settlements.

Lenku also asked the KWS to device ways of responding on time whenever a distress call is made by the residents.

The county boss said the recent attack of of people by elephants was very sorrowful.

Lenku was referring an incident of elephant attack where a two year old child was killed by a stray elephant at Olgirai village in Kajiado South Sub-county last month.

In a retaliation move, angry residents later hunted the elephants and spear three of them killing them instantly.