Two herdsmen injured in hyena attack in Ijara district

Saturday, November 02, 2013

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Two herdsmen were seriously injured by a marauding hyena in northern Kenya on Sunday afternoon, an unusual incident that highlighted the escalating tension between farmers and wildlife struggling for land.

The victims were attacked furiously in Ijara district, Garissa County in the area bordering the war-torn Somalia, by the lone hyena in broad daylight.

Speaking at Ijara district hospital during a visit to the victims, Regional Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Warden Juma Bakari said the two were attacked by hyenas, after they attempted to stop it from further killing their goats.

“It is not normal for hyenas to be so stubborn and fight back as in this case. We suspect the involved hyena is suffering from some behavioral change or certain disease presumably the contagious rabid. But we shall exactly establish what could be the cause of the hyena unusually approach after further investigations into its blood samples,” he added.

Conflict between land for wildlife and land for farmers and pastoralists in Kenya has reached crisis level with rampant killing of lions and elephants among other types of important wildlife.

Data from KWS also indicates that total wildlife mortality resulting from human-wildlife conflict since January is more than 50, including 26 primates.

Conservationists say there are thousands of elephants, hyenas and many rhinos that are under private and community conservancies that the KWS may not be in direct control of.

As a measure to reduce this disconnection, KWS has started training community wildlife rangers from various parts of the country to enable them to manage wildlife in a better way.

The KWS boss said the two herdsmen injured by the carnivorous animal were being treated at Ijara district hospital.

Last year, KWS disbursed 210,000 U.S. dollars to the eight conservation areas for payment to people killed or injured by wildlife across the country as human-wildlife conflict escalates in the East African nation.

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