A rare moment was captured on video in Gilgil Nakuru county as an enraged hippopotamus tore a motorcycle apart before beating a hasty retreat to the bushes.
From the footage shot from the upper floor of a nearby building, the hippo is seen charging from the bushes towards parked motorcycles as screaming crowds watch from a distance.
Two shots rent the air, seemingly from park rangers, or perhaps the police, soon as the animal broke into a sprint, her eyes trained on a lone motorbike parked by the roadside.
“Wewe ndio hiyo,” a man shouted as a woman let out a sharp scream.
The animal first knocked the bike off its stand with her front feet before clamping its jaws at the rib cage of the bike and started swirling it.
In a split second, the motorised piece of metal engineering was in shreds with bits of its body parts strewn on the all-weather road.
Two more shots rent the air and this time round, it appeared the animal got the message and took off back into the bushes.
One more shot went off as the hippo disappeared into the bushes as crowds watched, some from the top of a perimeter wall of a nearby compound.
The video elicited reactions on X with some wondering how the crowds of people watching from a distance underestimated how quick hippos can be.
“Do those bystanders have trust in the speed of their legs?” one asked.
“It carried a whole motorbike in its mouth...damn!” said another.
“It's too aggressive. The way it's tearing that motorcycle,” concurred another user.
“How do you explain that to your insurance?” one user asked.
“Utaelezeaje insurance haikuwa accident?” observed another.
“Enyewe hakuna mtu anapenda watu wa nduthi,” was yet another comment on the incident.
One saw it as a feasting opportunity gone to waste: “Hao wanawatch tu supu ikienda hivo.”
The exact location of the incident wasn’t immediately established but within the Gilgil area lies the Kigio Wildlife Conservancy right between Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha.
The protected Conservancy is owned and operated by the local community.
White settlers used the ranch to rear cattle but after buying it, the community turned it into a wildlife habitat.
The conservancy is home to impalas, elephants, waterbucks, buffalos, zebras, gazelles, elands, hyenas, hippos, giraffes, leopards, and many more animals.
It is fenced with an electric fence to protect the animals from poaching but the east side that borders Malewa River is open.