The brutal killing of Nairobi National Park’s star lion, Mohawk, by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has drawn major criticisms from Kenyans and conservation organizations as a whole.
Mohawk was shot dead by a KWS ranger yesterday after he strayed out of the Nairobi National Park into Isinya town, Kajiado County.
It is said that the local community and the administration contacted the KWS as soon as the lion was spotted and even went ahead to trail and guard the lion for close to 6 hours before rangers from KWS arrived at the scene.
Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Udoto said the lion escaped from the Nairobi National Park and ended up in Isinya town, 12 miles away. Veterinary teams headed to Isinya after they got word on Mohawk’s whereabouts. But noise and commotion from bystanders agitated the animal, prompting it to attack and injure a man. In order to save lives, rangers shot it to death before veterinarians arrived with tranquilizers.
“This action was taken as a last resort after an escalation of the situation and a concern for public safety,” the Kenya Wildlife Service said.
According to The East African Wild Life Society Executive Director, Julius Kamau, the decision to shoot and kill the black-maned Mohawk negated the principle of community led wildlife conservation which waters down the conservation efforts that KWS itself, the public and partners have championed for years in an attempt to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
“It is hard to understand why KWS would choose to ruthlessly shoot the lion in broad day light as members of the public watched rather than sedate the animal and take it back to the park,” said Julius Kamau.
Mr. Kamau added that the incidence portrays inexcusable incompetence on the part of KWS, an institution mandated to manage and conserve wildlife resources for Kenyans.
“It is a total vacation of their [KWS’] legitimate role and someone must be held responsible,” he further noted that Mohawk’s demise will see the number of lions in Nairobi National Park drop from 35 to 34.
“We can’t afford to buy our silence or be slow in this matter. Let us all act now and defend our lions, because if we don’t we may deny future generations the opportunity to see lions in the wild as we have a population of less than 2000 lions in the entire country.”
This incident is the latest in a spate of cases where the big cats have sneaked into human settlements in the suburbs of Nairobi. In the space of two months, there have been at least three confirmed cases of lions coming into contact with people in Nairobi and the surrounding areas. In early February, several lions strayed from the park at night and wandered into the Lang’ata suburb. In the middle of this month a 63-year-old man was almost killed by a lion as he walked to work along the Nairobi-Mombasa Road. The latest incident left a motorcyclist badly injured.
The incidents of human-lion encounters are on the rise on the rise. The city’s rapid development and land use change has caused an ecological imbalance. New residential estates are increasingly popping up in areas too close national parks and wildlife corridors.
Mr. Kamau adds that, “In the past 3 years, there has been a lot of talk around the issue of Nairobi National Park and the Southern Bypass and the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). These developments have caused serious negative impacts on the environment and natural resources. It is however possible to have economic prosperity and environmental sustainability complementing rather than competing with each other. This can only happen if the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and issuance of the NEMA licence to all proposed developments is well informed, objective and uphold the principle of sustainable development. It is unfortunate that the EIA process in Kenya has been compromised and influenced largely by economic forces.”
