Kenya Wildlife officials kill hippo following deadly attack Lake Naivasha
Official at Kenya Wildlife Service have neutralised a hippopotamus on the shore of Lake Naivasha following its attack on a tourist from Taiwan who was taking photographs.
The man was pronounced dead on arrival at the Naivasha District Hospital, while another tourist survived the attack on Saturday evening, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Sunday.
“We are tracking the hippo,” the service said on Twitter on Sunday.
Nation media reported that Hell’s Gate Park warden Nelson Cheruiyot confirmed the tracking and killing of the deadly hippo.
KWS identified the dead man as Chang Ming Chuang, 66, and the survivor as Wu Peng Te, 62, and said they were from China but Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the two were from the self-ruled island.
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Several Kenyans have questioned the rationale of killing the hippo, which they say was provoked in ‘its natural habitat’.
Meanwhile, the latest attack add up to a total number of six deaths by hippos in Naivasha since the year began.
Kenya’s the Star newspaper quoted the head of a boat owners’ association in Navaisha as saying higher-than-normal water levels were causing hippos to wander from the lake on to nearby farms and hotel properties searching for pasture.
Naivasha is a city on the lake 90 km northwest of the capital, Nairobi.
After a severe drought last year, Kenya had several months of heavy rain this year that caused serious flooding, including around Lake Naivasha.
