Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
They came from all directions. Men and omen with sharpened knives, machetes and other sharp instrument ready to scramble for the five tons meat of a dead Hippo in Kisumu Town.
The dram took pace at Dunga Beach within Kisumu Municipality. A huge dead bull of Hippo weighing close to five tons was washed ashore. The animal died apparently in fight with the other bull over the territorial control.
Women rushed with baskets while bear chest muscle men were readying themselves for the job of cutting the meat. But before the scramble could begin, the officials of the Kenya Wildlife Service {KWS} got the wind and moved in ready with their guns readily cocked.
Others brought with them axes ready to share the meat of a dead hippopotamus and were at the point of getting ready for the battle of the fittest for at least a kilogram of free meat. But the he crowd was mesmerized and puzzled when the KWS official appeared from nowhere and stopped them from touching the animal.
According to the local fishermen, there was a big fight between the two bulls of hippo the previous night along the eastern shoreline of Lake Victoria. Those versed with the character of the huge animals says, the fight could have been caused by another bull trespassing in the territory of a much stronger bull.
It was a combined team of members of the Dunga Beach Management Unit and the KWS. They pulled the carcass using a motor boat to the nearby Impala Park, despite of loud protest fro the crowd, which at one point threatened to cause chaos.
Members of the fishing community around Dunga fish landing beach complained that when they discovered the dead animal nobody went fishing as they knew that there will be enough meat for every family. The meat of the dead hippo, they said would have compensated nearly every fisherman around.
However, the KWS official clarified that the dead hippo might have been infected with a disease and thus unfit for human consumption. The KWS later buried the dead animal in according to KWS policies.
It could not be confirmed whether the animal was killed by its rival or had suffered some mysterious animal diseases such as the deadly anthrax, though some of the fishermen claimed to have heard a big commotion around the lake shore the previous two nights and assumed that the two bulls of hippos were fighting, but the KWS could not take a chance and high risk by allowing the local to consume its meat in the absent of the scientifically established cause of its death.
Ends