A Form 4 student was on Friday shot dead by Kenya Wildlife Service rangers at Tsavo National Park.
Benedict Kyule Kioko, 17, was with another man who escaped. The tragedy happened in Kibwezi East, Makueni county.
KWS officers took Kioko’s body to Mtito-Andei police station where his father had reported the shooting. Kioko Kasangali said his son made a distress call at about 4am, saying he had been shot and was unable to walk.
Residents warned Kasangali not to go to the park and instead report to the police.
“My son told me he had been injured on one leg and hand and that he was hiding in a thicket. He told me to hurry up and rescue him,” the father said.
KWS said the two were poachers. Agency spokesman Paul Gathitu on Saturday said the case involved suspected poachers who were armed with high calibre rifles.
Kibwezi police boss Ben Chagulo said the matter was being investigated. “It is true the schoolboy was shot at the park but a probe is underway,” Chagulo said.
Kioko’s body was taken to the station after police contacted KWS officers about the shooting.
The agency’s vehicle arrived with the body and Kasangali was asked to identify it.
“I positively identified the body. It had a wound on the chest. I suspect they went back and killed him after they learned the case had been reported,” Kasangali said.
He said the rangers showed him a gun they said was recovered from Kioko. The rangers went out of the station and returned with another gun, an AK-47, which they said was recovered from the suspect on the run.
Kasangali denied his son was in possession of a gun. “I don’t know how the boy got into the park at night because we all went to sleep. But the rangers should have arrested him instead of shooting him dead,” he said.
Gathitu said KWS rangers had launched an operation to arrest a suspect who escaped.
He said three rangers on routine patrol at Tsavo West National Park near Mang’elete boundary encountered two armed suspected poachers at about 10am.
He said the suspects shot at the rangers who returned fire.
“One suspect was killed while his colleague, who is believed to have sustained injuries, managed to escape,” Gathitu said in a statement.
His time contradicts Kioko’s father who said the boy made a distress call at 4am. KWS said they recovered one heavy calibre rifle, one heavy calibre rifle cartridge, three automatic rifle cartridges and a phone.
But residents suspected foul play. They denied the slain boy was a poacher.
“The boy is a young man who can’t even manage the weight of a rifle,” Nzambani/Ivingoni MCA Harrison Mutie said.
He called for thorough investigations. Kioko was the second-born in family of eight. Neighbours said he was hunting for antelopes to sell to raise school fees.