Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
HERDS of about 13 full grown up hippo and their two calves have imposed dawn to dusk curfew on in the villages within the outskirt of Kisumu City forcing the residents to stay indoor for day and night.,
The hippos all female under the territorial command of one huge bull estimated to weigh more than five tons have raided a villages in Nyamasaria in Central Kolwa Location forcing the residents to spent most of their day time indoor not to dare outside on fear of possible attack by the huge animals after they killed one bull owned by a local farmer.
The animals have destroyed crops in an area of six miles radius and stay out of the water most of the time.
Kenya Wildlife Services {KWS} officials have said there was a mass movement of the animals from the lake due to floods.
The animals are said to have been wondering around the villages day and night in an area of covering a radius of eight kilometers from the lake after escaping the surging water level.
When this writer visited the area, residents were counting their losses with one farmer by the name Reuben Obunga claiming that the hippos have killed one of his bulls. “This is the bull which is providing my family with the livelihood and I am using the animal to plough my farmers and also for my neighbors on fees.”
Mzee Obunga aged about 54 threatened to mobilize the villagers to attack and kill some of the animals so tat he could sell the meat and replenish his losses unless the KWS drives them back to their designated natural habitat along the lake shore. The animals he added have destroyed his four acres of maize and food crops.
Women and children have now stopped from coming home late from the nearby market places as the animals comes out of the water as early as in the late afternoon around 4 P.M. and chases everyone on their sight.
There are no longer free movement of people in the villages neighboring the lake shores, This I was told have also been curtailed. And even the herdsmen are no longer grazing their animals close to the shore of the lake on ear of being attack by these huge animals.
Civic leader representing Kolwa Central Ward in the Kisumu Municipal Council has appealed to the KWS to come to the escue to the villagers who she said were living in fdear. Coiun.Agnes Nyagol said thee were so many hippos on the loose, and yet no action has been taken to contain them. The amphibian animals which are nocturnal normally coming out of the lake water only after darkness have changed their behaviors to the amazement of the residents,who fear for their lives
“We are prone to attacks because many animals are on the run. An urgent solution to this problem must be found or else next time your will hear of a human casualties,” said the Councilor.
Residents have urged members of parliament to enact the law that would ensu5re that those incurred losses were compensated.
An official from the Kisumu town base of the KWS who visited the area promised that they would try and capture h animals and relocate them somewhere else far from Nyamasaria due to big concentration of human population in the area. He said he roaming bulls probably were edged out of their habitat during battles over territorial turf.
There are usually forced out by the dominant bulls during the mating season and this a bit cumbersome to contain them. The cases are higher during flash floods,” explained Corporal Laban Kiptui of the KWS.