Man mauled by lion in Ongata Rongai
By Hilary KimuyuA middle-aged man was mauled by a lion at Tuala, Oloosirkon Ward Kajiado East Constituency over the weekend and his remains found on Monday morning.
Only the victim’s head and an arm were found at the scene with the lion still in the vicinity and still guarding the body parts.
BODY PARTS
The man identified as Rono Kipkurui Simon had left his work of place on Friday evening heading to his residence.
“He cooked food for some of his friends and at 10 he said he was going home. No one thought of anything until Sunday when he didn’t report back to work,” said his brother Wilson Kibet.
His body parts were found on Monday morning by passersby at a bridge near Nazarene University, a few kilometers from Ongata Rongai town.
The lone lion had escaped from Nairobi National Park sending panic among people living around the park.
Area residents said they are living in fear because the wild animals have been roaming around their homes for a long time now with authorities ignoring their complaints.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said it had launched a search operation to locate and sedate the lion on Monday night.
“We are reaching out to the family of the deceased with a view to visiting and consoling with them. KWS urges members of the public to stay calm and not to venture out at night until the lion is captured,” KWS said in a statement to reporters late Monday.
STRAY LIONS
The incident occurred outside the park’s southern periphery, KWS said. The park is ringed by electric fencing in parts but is not entirely sealed off, enabling traditional migration by game in search of grazing.
In October, a pride of lions strayed from the Nairobi National Park and spotted walking past the Africa Nazarene University in Tuala area.
In 2016, in a shocking incident, a pride of lions attacked and partly ate a man in Rongai on the outskirts of Nairobi.
The attack took place at around 9pm at the Rongai-Rimpa area along the Rongai-Kiserian road.
It later emerged that the lions, which had strayed from the national park, have been roaming the neigbourhood the whole night.
In another sighting the same year, two lions strayed from the park and were spotted in Ngong Road forest along the Southern Bypass.
The park near Nairobi’s central business district is largely surrounded by an electric fence to keep the animals inside.