A 23-year-old student has died after a buffalo attacked him at Maji Moto village in Narok county.
Jackson Kuntai, a Form 3 student at Kyogong Secondary School in Bomet, was herding his family’s cattle when the rogue buffalo appeared and attacked him, leaving him with serious injuries.
Deputy county commissioner Felix Kisalu said the boy was rescued by neighbours who took him to Narok County Referral Hospital, died while undergoing treatment.
“It is unfortunate that we lost such a young man. I wish to condole with the family for the loss of their kin,” said Kisalu.
He said soon after the attack, Kenya Wildlife Service rangers visited the area to get details of the incident in a bid to facilitate fast compensation to the affected family.
“The KWS rangers have also started tracking the rogue buffalo that escaped to return it to the protected area, in the conservancies,” he said.
The administrator urged residents to collaborate to reduce human- wild conflict by reporting immediately any sighting of wild animals near their homes to enable KWS to intervene in good time.
The body was taken to Narok County Referral Hospital morgue awaiting postmortem.
Last month, a man escaped death narrowly after he was attacked by lions at Talek area, in Narok West subcounty. Three cows were killed by the wild cats.
Land activist Meitamei Olol Dapash said the community was losing many people and their domestic animals to wildlife attacks, a situation that would be contained if there was a proper management of the game reserve.
He alleged that only 35 per cent of the wildlife was living in the game reserve leaving the 65 per cent to loiter around the community where they cause huge losses.
Dapash said the community was paying a huge price for accepting to live with the wildlife as they were losing their domestic animals, which are the only source of their livelihood.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara
