Girl mangled by a hyena on Mombasa Road demands compensation from KWS

A 23-year-old girl from Machakos County seeks justice from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) after she was mangled by a hyena along Mombasa Road.

According to Usikimye, Irene Mbithe left home for Mombasa looking for a job as a domestic help. When she got to the seaside town, she was met by the woman who had offered her a job on the bus stage.

However, her journey to a perhaps better life was abruptly stopped by her employer. She asked Irene if she had an identity card (ID) that the young lady did not have.

The need to make sure she employed an adult exceeded her need for domestic help. To avoid conflict with the law, the future employer sent Mbithe home to get her ID.

Unfortunately, Mbithe only had a bus ticket to work and that left her stranded. She shared her predicament with her friend, who advised her to ride one of the trucks on the Mombasa-Nairobi route.

She managed to secure a lift to Machakos with a truck driver, an option she wasn’t comfortable with, but she had to because she needed the job. What started as a friendly gesture quickly turned into a sticky situation.

The driver made advances on the young, helpless woman. She politely refused. Nonetheless, he insisted on his bad motive and forced Mbithe to stand firm, at which point they were driving through the Tsavo.

Frustrated, the driver ordered her to get out of the vehicle and drove off, leaving her in the merciless cold and pitch-black darkness.

Mbithe decided to sit by the road, it would be safer there, hoping that the lights from the vehicles would ward off any impending danger – the animals in the park.

However, some vehicles were on the way. A hyena emerged from the bushes and started attacking them.

Fortunately, a good Samaritan saw them driving down the street and hurried to the next town to find the police. When the police returned to the scene, they found the blood in the bushes.

They found the hyena pulling flesh from Mbithe’s body, which lay motionless. They shot in the air to scare the beast away before examining Mbithe, who they thought had died.

Even so, the Samaritan insisted that she was alive and asked her to take her to the hospital where she was treated.

Mbithe lost her left arm and eye in the attack and is lucky enough to be alive. She also cares for internal and external injuries, suffers from chest pain, headache and a high pulse.

Since her attack, Mbithe has tried to seek help from KWS in order to get at least adequate medical care, but all is well. Her family is now asking for help to compensate Mbithe or at least see that she is treated appropriately.

KWS officers during a parade

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