The recent killing of a stray lion, Mohawk, by the Kenya Wildlife Service officers in Isinya, Kajiado County has not been received lightly by a section of Nakuru residents, with a majority accusing the officers of destroying the country's national heritage.
The Wednesday morning incident also draw a social media outrage, with many Kenyans in and outside the country openly expressing their discontentment with the manner in which the King of the Jungle was killed.
A majority of residents who spoke to this writer on Thursday said the officers had a chance of destabilising the beast before returning it to the park but instead chose to shoot it, killing it mercilessly on camera.
"Our wildlife is a national heritage but seeing those mandated to conserve them destroy them as if nobody cares was a shame to our beautiful country. Why then do they (KWS officers) fight poaching, was killing the lion the only solution?" posed Lydia Nyambura.
Moses Njuguna, a conservationist and animal rights expert believes the relevant authorities must openly apologise to the whole world and the officer who shot the lion punished, arguing that the incident negatively affected the tourism sector.
"You can imagine how a foreigner who has heard all the good things about Kenyan wildlife has perceived this incident because the pictures and videos are all over the press, YouTube and social media. Truth be told, this act was irrelevant and totally uncalled for," he said.
Nevertheless, in a statement, KWS has defended the decision to shoot the lion, arguing that the crowd was provoking it to an extent of causing more harm.
"We had to kill it because it was going to endanger people's lives after they provoked it and once it reached that extent, it could have been unmanageable," read the statement in part.
The lion is among three other that escaped from the Nairobi National Park a week ago without trace through a culvert destroyed by road construction machinery on the Southern bypass in the area.