A herd of buffalos standing in the middle of the road. This type is on the loose in Kalama Sub-County of Machakos. (Photo/The Hooting Owl)
Five stray buffaloes are traversing Lumbwa, Kola and Kyangala areas of Kalama sub-county in Machakos after they broke out from Ulu hills conservancy in Konza.
The Kenya wildlife service (KWS) is alerting the residents of Lumbwa, Kola and Kyangala areas to be vigilant of the roaming Buffaloes. According to the KWS warden Robert Murugi, one of the buffaloes was gunned down after the officers failed to contain.
“The other five escaped and are staying around the neighboring hilly areas people must trade with caution to avoid injuries from the deadly beasts,” said Murugi.
The officer said they had a hard time controlling crowds who were following the beasts.
“The crowds celebrated sharing the meat from the killed buffalo and now are on high alert expecting to share more but I want to tell them not to get their hopes up since KWS preserves wildlife and will work to save and return the beasts back to the conservancy as opposed to killing,” said Murugi.
Machakos County is not new to human-wildlife conflict due to its close proximity to the Nairobi national park and it is a home to a range of game reserves.
Incidents of human Wildlife Conflict have been recorded in Machakos County which neighbors Nairobi national park and also a host of several game reserves.
Wildlife freedom has been interfered with as the crave for land and development expected to take shape at the commencement of construction of Konza techno city. That has limited the movements of the animals prompting them to be on the run.
The crave for land and development at the site of commencement of construction of Konza techno city has disturbed wildlife freedom restricting them to limited confinements than before leading to frequent escapes.