Hyena severs four fingers of a secondary school student in Taita-Taveta County

He was awoken by the distress call of his helpless mother. When he rushed outside, the secondary school student found his mother attacked and wrestled down by a hyena.

“At first, I did not know what exactly has happened to my mother until I came face to face with the ferocious beast.  The hyena left my helpless mother and turned on me,” said Christopher Mwachaka, a form two secondary school student at St John Secondary School in Taita Sub County.

The 16-year-old student is now living in agony as four fingers of his left arm were severed off by the beast that also critically injured his mother Tabitha Mwachaka and his two neighbours identified as Mathias Mwangemi and Flora Wandoe.

As he wrestled with the hyena to rescue his mother from the jaws of the wild animal, Christopher also suffered clavicle fracture while his mother had three of his fingers, right breast and thigh critically injured. 

The other victim Mwangemi, 33 a neighbour who responded to the alarm was also injured on his ankle and hand at Mwaroko village.

At Iparenyi village, the beast attacked Florah Mukubwa, 47 in her house. The victim sustained animal bites on her both thighs and arms.

In total, the attack left five family members sustained serious injuries who are currently recuperating at Wesu Sub County Hospital where they were immediately.

When The Standard visited the victims of wildlife attacks on Tuesday at the hospital, they found a relative Ruth Nyange feeding the student at his hospital bed. The victim is the first borne son in the family of six.

“I have only been left with a thumb as four of my fingers have been severed off by the ferocious beast. I do not know what to do next,” lamented Christopher.

“I heard screams from outside and went there only to find my mother wrestled down by the beast. The hyena turned on me severing off my four left-hand fingers,” stated the student.

He says the injury has badly affected his education. “I have to contend with one arm which will be very difficult for me. I will go back to school when I am discharged from hospital to continue with my education,” said the tearful boy.

Ms Mwachaka says she was attacked when she went to see what was happening outside after she heard noise from her cow shed.

In the process, the 36-year-old woman was attacked and injured on the right breast and thigh by the beast.

Her neighbour Mwangemi who was armed with a machete went there to assist his crying neighbours only to be attacked. “I tried to attack the animal with a machete but it turned violent. My left ankle was injured in the process of scaring it away,” noted the 33-year-old man.

According to the villagers, the hyena had been terrorizing residents in the past one month killing several livestock besides threatening human life. They noted they had seen the animal for the first time. “The bizarre incident has never happened in the area before,” said an old man at the hospital.

An assistant Chief Vigilance Kiongo disclosed that the animal had so far killed about 20 goats in the recent past.

Christopher becomes the latest victim of wildlife-related attacks in Taita-Taveta County that has of late been grappling with persistent human-wildlife conflict in the recent past.

 In one of the recent incidences, a primary school pupil was attacked and killed while dozens of other villagers sustained serious injuries when a stray lion invaded a village in Maungu Township at night.

The standard seven Marasi primary school girl met her death as she went home from a trading centre in the town along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

In the latest attack, the hyena is believed to have strayed from Tsavo West National Park and terrorized residents in Mwaroko and Iparenyi villages last Wednesday.

Police and senior Kenya Wildlife Service officials confirmed that the victims of wildlife attacks are still recuperating at Wesu Sub County Hospital where they were rushed after the attack that caused public outcry and condemnation.

Tsavo Conservation Area Assistant (TCA) Director George Osuri confirmed that only four victims are still recuperating at Wesu hospital.

He, however, said angry villagers mobilized themselves and eliminated the stray and ferocious wild animal.

“We have confirmed that the troublesome Hyena has been killed by residents. The animal could have been sick, hungry or strayed into people’s settlements in search of food,” said Mr Osuri.

“It is abnormal for hyenas to stray into people’s settlement areas. The animal could have been sick and KWS Veterinary Doctors are carrying out investigations on the animal,” stated the TCA boss.

“The Vet doctors are working on it and we will get a full report,” added Osuri.

The incident comes at a time when thousands of compensation claims continue to be delayed by the national government.

Records from TCA offices in Voi town shows that there were about 1,700 pending deaths, injuries and uncounted cases of destruction to property caused by wild animals among them snakes.

There were 20 death cases reported and out of which Sh 35.6 million had already been paid to 10 victims of wildlife attacks while the rest are still pending in Nairobi, said Osuri in a recent interview.

Many compensation claims, a KWS report show had never been paid out mainly because they lacked important documents, such as a national identity card of the claimant and missing or incomplete information.

Up to 2013, compensation for loss of life was Sh 200,000, Sh 50,000 for permanent disability and less than that for other human injuries. There was no compensation for loss of livestock, crop destruction or livestock predation.

However, this has since changed with a lost life being compensated at Sh 5 million, permanent disability at Sh 3 million and other injuries at less than Sh 2 million.

Loss of property, livestock or crops is assessed and compensated at market value.