Residents of Kaongo village in Meru County were in a state of panic when an elephant went on a rampage on Monday afternoon and damaged a house besides trampling a cow to death.
Some villagers who saw the elephant coming started panicking and made frantic moves to drive it away. The disturbance caused the tusker to go on a rampage, marching ahead and running over several fields, damaging the crops.
According to locals, elephants have been continuously rampaging in the neighbourhood, damaging houses, crops and household commodities. The villagers spent hours trying to control the elephant but to no avail.
“The elephant should be killed and left for the people to eat because it has destroyed a lot of property which has resulted in a lot of losses to members of the community. I urge the members of the community to avoid getting too close to it as they will be the ones to incur losses in the event of death of a member of the community,” said an eyewitness.
“I left my work to come to see the elephant that killed a cow belonging to an elderly member of the community who depended on it for milk. I urge the members of the community to stay calm and avoid getting too close to it,” an eyewitness said.
“When someone goes in front of the elephant, it becomes angry, but when you are behind it it doesn’t. The elephant suffered deep cuts on the tail and limbs inflicted by irate residents armed with machetes,” an eyewitness said.
KWS officers were mobilised immediately to drive the beast out of the village.
