Residents raise Lion alarm, KWS finds it was photo on shopping bag
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has narrated how it was able to rescue a “lion” that was thought to have wandered inside a person’s compound in Meru.
According to KWS they received numerous calls from locals at Kiangua location, Meru County informing them of a lion hiding in a hedge.
A team was quickly dispatched to the scene in a bid to mitigate the situation.
“In an interesting turn of events, we received numerous reports from locals at Kiangua location, Meru County of a lion hiding in a hedge KWS Meru team swiftly rushed to scene in a bid to mitigate a possible Human Wildlife Conflict case,” it said on Twitter.
However, shock was on them on arrival when they found that the lion that had kept residents of Kiangu in fear was actually a print image of the animal on a carrier bag.
“On arrival, KWS rangers were astonished to find out that the ‘alleged lion’ was a lion printed carrier bag. Despite this being a false alarm, we laud the public for raising an alarm in order to mitigate a possible conflict.”
Brilliant @kwskenya rangers responded to a call from members of the public who thought this @CarrefourKe plastic bag was an actual lion roaming around their village in Meru County. As hilarious as the matter sounds, the professionals at KWS always take these matters seriously. pic.twitter.com/onj2AcxjmS
— Ahmed Mohamed ((ASMALi)) (@Asmali77) May 5, 2022
“Kindly call our hotline/Toll Free number 0800 597 000 for assistance & reporting of any wildlife emergency We also urge the residents of Meru to Zuru Meru National Park & enjoy the magnificent wildlife the park has to offer such as Lions, the endangered Grevy’s Zebra & many more.”
The carrier bag belonged to French retail giant Carrefour that is mostly given to shoppers at their various supermarkets.
And as expected Carrefour decided to ride on the wave of the incident to popularise their brand.
“The lion is not real. The extra low prices are,” responded Carrefour.
Kenyans online have also been having a field day with the incident all day coming up with funny narrations of the events.
According to Kiangua assistant chief Basti Mwandiki, a resident who spotted the ‘paper tiger’ raised the alarm attracting residents who called the authorities.
After visiting the scene he, to, was convinced that it was indeed a real lion.
Mr Nwandiki further explained that when KWS officers arrived, they also affirmed that the image was a real lion.
He says the KWS officer had to climb to the rooftop of a nearby house to get a closer look. This is when they discovered that it was not a wild animal.