Woman in hospital after jumbo attack

A 42-year-old woman has been admitted to Nyahururu District Hospital with serious injuries after she was attacked by an elephant in Rumuruti Forest, Laikipia County.

Lydia Wangare was collecting firewood in the forest when she was attacked by an elephant. Her colleagues who had accompanied her to the forest managed to escape unhurt.

The incident occurred barely a day after six members of the same family were attacked by an hyena at Mifugo and one of them is admitted at he same hospital.

Margaret Nyamurwa, who was among those who had accompanied Wangare to the forest, said the marauding elephant grabbed the victims and tossed her in the air twice.

"When we spotted the five elephants we fled but Wangare was unlucky as one of the animals grabbed her with its trunk and tossed her in the air," Nyamurwa recalled.

Nyamurwa said Wangare was later rushed to the hospital with serious injuries on the head and ribs.

The victim's husband, John Nderitu, said the women had permits from the local forest department to collect firewood at the forest.

He said the elephants were wreaking havoc on the farmers and called on Kenya Wildlife Service to put up electric fences around local forests to human-wildlife conflicts.

Compensate victims

"We are hardly harvesting anything from our farms and we are therefore urging the Government to help us solve this problem," he said.

Laikipia West Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation Deputy Chairperson Irene Wachuka, who visited the victims at the hospital, demanded that the Government compensates victims of the attacks.

Residents yesterday held a demonstration in Kinamba Township to protest increased cases of human-wildlife conflicts in the area.

According to the locals the marauding elephants had destroyed hundreds of acres of green maize.

In the Mifugo incident, the hyena is said to have attacked the forty-year-old woman when she tried to save her children from the beast. The family's neighbours later killed the hyena.