Enraged Residents Kill Elephant Who Trampled 10-Year-Old Boy To Death

Enraged residents of the Kajiando central sub-county of Kenya have hunted down and killed an elephant that trampled a 10-year-old boy to death.

The victim and two other boys were herding livestock when they were attacked by the jumbo, according to area chief Jonathan Ole Munke. The other two were unharmed.

According to Munke, the boy died on the spot. Police and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers transported the body to the morgue at Kajiado Referral Hospital.

Following the tragic incident, the residents pursued and killed the animal.

Kajiado Senior Warden Daniel Kipkosgey said that following the incident, KWS immediately initiated dialogue with the community, urging them not to take matters into their own hands.

“We maintained patrols and aerial surveys in partnership with the Big Life Foundation in the area in a bid to keep the jumbos away from the residential areas, but it is unfortunate that the over 200 residents managed to trail the 35-year-old jumbo and killed it with spears 18 kilometres from the scene of death,” said Kipkosgey.

Kipkosgey revealed that the compensation process has already begun and that the postmortem examination has already taken place at the Kajiado Referral Hospital.

The deceased will be buried tomorrow, with KWS covering all costs.

The senior warden urged residents of Kajiado to be cautious because elephants were roaming freely due to the ongoing rains.

"Residents should avoid taking evening walks, and children should always be accompanied by adults," he advised.

He has also warned residents not to kill wildlife and has stated that all human/wildlife conflicts should be reported to their offices.

"We have increased our patrols to prevent further human-wildlife conflict cases while discouraging retaliation from community members."

"We encourage them to report any cases rather than attempting to take the law into their own hands," Kipkosgey said.

The residents, on the other hand, bemoaned the fact that human-wildlife conflicts have resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of property in the area, and that compensation is taking far too long.