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Farmers from Kwa Mang'eli village in Athi River have raised alarm on what they termed losses incurred through hippopotamus who raid their farms at night thereby destroying crops.

Gideon Makau, a farmer on Saturday said the animals had caused him huge losses.

"We as farmers from this region continue incurring great losses from destruction caused by hippos who raid our farms each and every night," said Makau.

According to Makau, the hippos who live in River Athi come out of the waters at dusk to feed on their crops which include vegetables, maize and fruits on daily basis.

John Chege, a second farmer with his farm adjacent to Makau's, said their farms were more vulnerable because they are situated along the river banks.

Chege said farmers along the banks had joined hands and made trenches to control movements of the hippos by barring them from accessing the farm's in vain.

"We us farmers with farms along the river have come together and joined hands in constructing trenches to bar the hippos all in vain, they still gain entry and destroy the farms," said Chege.

Jane Mwaniki on her part regretted that the destruction had led to great losses claiming she had taken loans from a micro-finance institution to practice agribusiness.

Mwaniki expressed her fears that if the situation was not averted, she might not be in a position to pay back the loans as required by the bank which she said earned a lot of interests as time goes by.

The farmers, therefore. called on the government through its Kenya Wildlife Services to come to their rescue as soon as possible to avoid more losses.