Residents of Juja, Kiambu County barricaded the Thika superhighway for nearly two hours to protest against the killing of a young child by a hyena.
This caused a traffic snarl-up on both sides of the busy highway that stretched for over three kilometers leaving travellers, among them secondary school students reporting back for the third term, stranded.
The residents of Nyacaba village in the stone-mining area blocked the road after the five-year-old boy identified as Njoroge Gitau was attacked and killed by a stray hyena that caused havoc and deaths.
Villagers said the boy had followed other children who had been sent to the shop when the beast pounced around 7:00 pm on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.
“The other children managed to flee, but young Njoroge was not lucky as the animal mauled him to death. As they were going back home the hyena accosted them, it grabbed the boy but others screamed and ran away but by the time neighbours came it had partially devoured the boy,” Jane Njoki, a neighbour, said.
Juja police commander Michael Mwaura said a meeting with Kenya Wildlife Service officials agreed to put traps for the hyenas which roam the area.
“The hyenas are believed to be rabid, that’s why they are attacking people,” Mwaura said.
Area Member Parliament George Koimburi called on residents to take up the idle land which was left out by quarry owners, saying he has also borrowed some traps from a colleague from North Eastern to trap the animals.
“It is unfortunate and regrettable that the child was killed less than a month after the hyenas claimed the life of a woman at Juja South Estate,” Koimburi said.
“I’m asking residents here to occupy these disused quarries whose owners abandoned them, hence making them habitat for these animals.”
This comes after five other people were killed by the hyenas in the area amid rising human-wildlife conflict cases.
Woman mauled
The latest was a woman mauled in mid-last month and whose dismembered body was found in the Juja South area.
Previously in the year, another woman and a schoolboy were similarly killed, with residents saying nearly 15 people have lost their lives to marauding hyenas.
