A 65-year-old woman was on Monday, August 29, 2022, trampled to death by an elephant in the Parmomplile area while she was on her way home from Olposimoru market, along the Kenya-Tanzania border in Narok County.
The woman who was identified as Nayiolo’ang Nairoti, was in the company of another woman identified Bikatu Shololo, 59, who was seriously injured.
Witnesses said the two women were walking on foot back home from the market at around 7:30 pm when the elephant attacked them.
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An eye witness, Mankeso Nairoti, who reported the matter to Olpusimoru police post, said the survivor was rushed to Lenana medical facility before being referred to Narok county hospital.
The body of the deceased was also transported 200 kilometres to the Narok county hospital morgue awaiting postmortem.
Narok county police boss Kizito Mutoro said immediately after the incident Kenya wildlife officers were deployed to the area to track down the killer elephant, chase it away from the area and collect details of the deceased and the injured women with purposes of compensation by the government.
“Yes the elephant trampled on the two aged women who probably could run fast enough from the rogue Jumbo and investigations have commenced and there is a team of KWS officers in the area to drive away the elephants from the human habitat area,” Mutoro said.
Human-wildlife conflict in Narok
The tragic incident comes only one month after an eight-year-old girl was killed by another elephant in Narok South.
According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, such conflict in areas surrounding the Maasai Mara Game Reserve is mainly attributed to increased human population and loss of wildlife habitat due to uncontrolled human activities, especially crop farming, charcoal burning and human settlements.
Mara Serengeti ecosystem chairman Nick Ole Murero says the Human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) in the area around National reserves are often caused by human population increase, high livestock and wildlife population densities and changing land use and climate.
“These conflicts are typically most intense in human-dominated systems where people, livestock and wildlife share the same landscapes and during severe droughts,” Murero said.
