Several Kajiado farmers across the county are counting losses after marauding lions and hyenas attacked their livestock.
In the past few months, cases of wildlife attacking livestock in the dead of the night in homes have increased with no action from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
Iloodokilani Location Chief, Wilson Letema, said for the past few days, two lions have been marauding in the area, causing fear among the residents as they do not know when and where the predators will attack.
“The lions came from Oltepesi into Iloodokilani, and it is unfortunate that they killed two cows in Daniel Letema’s homestead on Monday evening," Latema said.
"I want to urge KWS to relocate the lions immediately before the residents incur more losses, leading to the killing of the lions."
Nicholas Korinko, a resident in Iloodokilani says human-wildlife conflicts have been rife in the area, yet KWS is taking no action.
“Elephants have been destroying our farms and water infrastructure for a while now. There were no lions in the area, but since it rained, the marauding lions are attacking our livestock at night," Korinko said.
"Despite reporting the matter to the KWS, they have not been relocated, nor have we been compensated for the losses already incurred.”
In the Olooloitikoishi location in Isinya Subcounty, the situation is reported to be the same as lions and hyenas attacking livestock at night, forcing desperate farmers to hold night vigils to protect their animals.
“For several months now, we have been forced to guard our animals at night to prevent attacks from hyenas. Though we do not see them during the day, they begin howling at 10 pm as they approach our homes. They not only attack our sheep but cows too,” Ian Saruni, a livestock keeper in Olooloitikoishi said.
Despite the night vigils, the hyenas are said to manage to get into the kraal and kill the sheep during the early hours of the morning.
A few kilometres from Olooloitikoishi, a farmer, Christopher Pakine from Erankau village, is counting his losses after the hyenas killed eight of his sheep on Monday night.
The farmers are urging KWS to help them install solar lights at their homes to protect their animals from predators.