This archive report was first published on 21 June 2020.
On Saturday evening, a 9-year-old boy was attacked by a rogue hippopotamus at Nyamagonglo beach in Bondo Sub-County, leaving him seriously injured.
According to Lawrence Nyamolo, a villager who witnessed the incident, the boy had gone to fetch water with his 13-year-old sibling when they were ambushed by the hippo.
As the hippo attacked and bit the boy's buttocks, his sibling screamed, and the hippo dropped the boy before returning to the water.
Resident who were nearby rushed to the scene and rescued the boy before calling his parents, who took him to the Bondo Sub-County Hospital for treatment.
Meshack Okuku Ndiege, the chairman of the Siaya County Beach Management Units Network, has called on the government to take swift action to control the hippo population and reduce the increasing rate of human-wildlife conflict in the region.
This incident comes just a week after two fishermen were attacked and killed by a hippo in Utonga beach.
