This archive report was first published on 12 January 2020.
On January 11, 2020, a stray hippopotamus was spotted in Lwero, Matayos, and Emerikwai, Teso South Constituency, Busia County. The animal, which mostly lives in water, had left a trail of destruction in the area, destroying crops and bringing down structures, including latrines.
Residents, including women, armed with various weapons, responded quickly to the alarm raised by a village elder, Florah Senedwa, who first sighted the hippo outside her home. The locals surrounded the hippo and attacked it with crude weapons, eventually chopping off its back limbs while it was still alive.
After the hippo fell, the residents scrambled to get a share of the meat. Those with sharp machetes were luckier, managing to cut steak despite the hard and thick skin of the hippo.
Florah Senedwa, the village elder, said, 'I sighted the hippo in my home and notified other people. They responded and we started chasing it with weapons. We managed to kill it. We must feast on it since it has caused a lot of destruction in our farms and homes.'
Bahati Geoffrey, another resident, noted that it was not an easy mission, requiring them to cut the hippo's back limbs before it could be neutralized. He also expressed concern about the presence of many hippos in the area, calling on the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to take action to hunt them down.
