Hyenas kill 1 person and injure 2 near Kenyan university

Family and friends gathered to mourn Anthony Shungea Pasha who was thoroughly dismembered and killed by hyenas while he was collecting firewood at a forest neighboring his homestead, in Kajiado, Kenya Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. The wild animals from the Nairobi National Park have been distressing the community. “Everything has been killed in this homestead. Cows were killed, goats and now its people. We haven’t found any part of the deceased. We have not been given any help,” Gladys Maingu, relative to Pasha, echoed. AP

NAIROBI, Kenya — Marauding hyenas killed a man and wounded two people near a university outside the Kenyan capital, officials said Tuesday, prompting hundreds of students from the school to block streets to protest what they called a lack of security.

One of the wounded was a student at Kenya’s Multimedia University who was attacked by the hyenas late Monday on a road that borders the Nairobi National Park in Ongata Rongai. Students from the university disrupted traffic there Tuesday as police used tear gas to disperse them.

“The university is not safe because we are near the national park,” said Ochieng Kefah, a student at Multimedia University, who was among the protesters. “The government should, maybe, put some restrictions on the movement of the animals.”

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The injured student was identified as 21-year-old engineering student Kevin Mwendwa, who lost a thumb in the attack.

A team that was sent to investigate the scene of Monday’s attack found body parts of another victim of the hyenas, the Kenya Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

KWS’ Problem Animal Management Unit team promptly put down one hyena and moved to identify any surrounding hyena dens. The carcass was being examined to determine if the hyena had rabies or other diseases.

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The man who was killed was Anthony Pasha, whose relatives said he was killed while collecting firewood.

“The hyena came, it attacked him, chased him from the forest, put him down here,” Kaaji Lesian, the victim’s cousin, told The Associated Press. “He left his firewood exactly where you are seeing them … down there.”

Hyena attacks have become increasingly frequent on the outskirts of Nairobi, prompting KWS to release guidelines on how to react when confronted by the animals. “If faced with a hyena, do not move away until it does and continue facing its direction. Be loud, look aggressive, and appear frightening to deter the hyena,” the KWS advises.

The guidelines were released in January, after 10-year-old Dennis Teya was attacked and killed in a field in Kiambu County, north of Nairobi.