Residents of Kimoso village in Kabarnet-Soi, Baringo Central Sub-County have spotted a stray hyena which allegedly killed their 14 sheep and goats on Saturday.
At least nine residents are counting thousands of loses after their 6 flock of sheep and 7 goats were attacked by the wild beast on Friday night.
“We walked up this morning to the sad incident from the farmers complaining they have just found their missing livestock dead in the nearby bushes, some were eaten while other carcasses were abandoned with bloody wounds” a resident Israel Kiplimo said.
After an impromptu search the residents managed to spot the deadly hyena and they immediately informed the media which rushed to the scene to take some photographs before it suddenly disappeared into the thick bushes.
Salawa Location Chief Christopher Chemjor confirmed the incident saying he has already informed the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers.
However, the angry residents armed with pangas, poisoned bows and arrows have already regrouped vowing to hunt and kill the heartless beast if the KWS team took too long to salvage the situation.
Chemjor said the stray wild animal also pose a great danger to the residents’ especially young school-going children.
The farmers believe the same stray hyena is the one which terrorized them since last year. They complain it massacred their 39 sheep and goats at Kiboino village in the same sub-county on July 15, 2018, bringing total number to 53.
Led by Simon Kiptegen the farmers said they were yet to be compensated for the loss of their 17 sheep and 22 goats.
“We thought maybe it was a Leopard but today we have managed to spot the Hyena that may have escaped from the nearby Rimoi game reserve across Elgeyo-Marakwet County” Kiptegen said.
He said the animals were his only source of livelihood calling upon the government through the KWS to move urgently to compensate them.
However, Senior Baringo KWS warden Dickson Tonui regretted the incident promising to order some officers immediately to the scene.
Although he could immediately ascertain the number of the stray hyenas but he assured the farmers that KWS officers shall help arrest the roaming wild animals.
"We had earlier laid some traps to capture the animals in order to transport them back to the game reserve but we didn’t succeed" he said.
Tonui cautioned the local residents to be careful while walking outside at night saying leopards were also dangerous to human beings.