Furious residents of Nyacaba and Witeithie villages in Juja, Kiambu County blocked armed police officers from collecting the body of a middle-aged woman who was mauled to death by a pack of hyenas on the morning of December 2, 2023.
The woman is said to have been walking from Nyacaba area to Ndarugu for work when she was attacked.
The wild beasts consumed part of the woman’s stomach and and neck before they abandoned her remains by the roadside.
Irked residents denied police access to collect the body for preservation at Thika General Kago mortuary saying the government has been doing nothing to protect them.
In their hundreds, the residents barricaded the road leading to where the body was abandoned.
“We cannot allow them the collect the body when they have been doing nothing to protect us. They only collect the bodies and leave the hyenas behind to continue attacking us. This will be the last person the hyenas are attacking. Police have two things to do, to collect the body together with the hyenas or leave the body here,” James Munyao, a resident told journalists.
The incident happened days after a nine-year-old boy was attacked by hyenas.
The boy, a son of former Witeithie Ward MCA, was buried a week ago.
Residents blamed the increased hyena attacks on abandoned quarries and bushy chunks of land that have remained undeveloped for years.
They called for the immediate burying of the quarries and the clearing of the bushes to avert further attacks.
Area MCA Mwibiri Ngugi Ngugi and Kiambu County majority leader Godfrey Mucheke tried to calm the agitated locals to allow sleuths to collect the body in futility.
By the time of publishing this story, police were still trying to convince the irate residents to allow them to collect the body.
Incidences of hyena attacks in Juja have been rife since 2021.
In June 2021, hyenas attacked a drunk man and ate his whole body leaving just bones.
In February 2022, Juja residents threatened to take legal action after three people were mauled to death by the killer hyenas.
In September 2022, a grade 3 male pupil was mauled to death by hyenas in Nyacaba village in Juja.
