Hippo victorious in battle with villagers baying for its meat

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A fuming hippopotamus scares away Kisumu residents who had hopes of slaughtering it after its calf got stuck in the mud near the Nyanza Golf Club on January 5, 2012. Photo/NATION 

By BRIAN YONGA newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, January 5  2012 at  22:30

Kisumu residents on Thursday missed a rare delicacy when a hippopotamus and its young one they intended to feast on was rescued by Kenya Wildlife Service officials.

They had planned to kill the animals and enjoy their meat after the baby hippo got stuck in a the mud and the mother would not leave her baby.

The hippo and its young one had come out to feed — on Wednesday night near the Nyanza Golf Club at the shores of Lake Victoria — as is the norm with the wildlife.

According to David Amos Owiro, an employee at the club, he saw the animal at about 6am on Thursday, when he reported to work.

“I was surprised to see the animal as it was already past 6am and it should have returned to the water,” said Mr Owiro.

On further inquiry, he found out that the animal was unable to return to the water because its young one was stuck in mud.

Club managers contacted KWS officials who soon arrived to take charge of the situation.

When the Nation arrived at the scene, a huge crowd had already gathered at the place, some armed with knives and pangas, ready to pounce on the animals.

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The two KWS officials had a hard time controlling the crowd which grew by the minute. Reinforcement had to be called in.

Residents wanted the officers to kill the animals so that they could enjoy its meat, since their efforts to get near the creatures were thwarted by a hostile mother hippo which scared them away from its child.

“This is a New Year gift for us from above. The prices of food are high because of inflation and no we have free meat here,” said Mr Omondi Oloo, a resident who was armed with a knife.

Control multitudes

The crowds soon grew larger and Administration Police officers were forced to come in to control the multitudes.

Still, the crowds outnumbered the law enforcers and advanced towards the animals, demanding meat.

Mother hippo, now suffering from the effects of both the surging crowd and the scorching sun, grew restless and more hostile after some villagers pelted it with stones.

According to the KWS officials, hippos have an oily skin which when exposed to the sun for long begins to hurt.

Kisumu KWS deputy warden Robert Ouko pleaded with the residents to move back to allow his officers to rescue the baby hippo.

But the crowd would have none of it as their demand for the meat acquired a heightening sense of urgency.

KWS officers fired explosives to scare the mother hippo to the water, but it stood its ground.

The men in uniform feared that sedating the mother hippo would give an opportunity to the restless residents to pounce on the unconscious animal and dismember it.

“Killing the animal is totally out of the question. We are bound by law to conserve the animal,” the deputy warden said, words that fell on deaf ears.

After about five hours of consultation, the KWS, AP and Local Authorities brought in an excavator to rescue the stuck baby hippo.

The excavator dug into the ground and made several failed attempts to rescue the animal.

Mr Ouko was however, not finished with the residents just yet. He urged them to learn how to coexist with animals and said KWS would embark on a campaign to conserve animals.

They finally rescued it and dropped in the lake as the mother followed — to the relief of KWS. But the residents wore forlorn faces.

“In other places like Maasai Mara and Hell’s gate, people coexist with animals. Why can’t our people also do the same,” asked Mr Ouko, but no answers were forthcoming, confirming the widely held suspicion that campaigns rarely work well with empty stomachs.

With disappointment written all over their faces, the residents finally drifted away.