A 23-year-old girl from Machakos County is seeking justice from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) after she was mauled by a hyena along Mombasa Road.
According to Usikimye, Irene Mbithe left her home for Mombasa in search of a job as a househelp. When she arrived in the coastal city, she was received by the woman who had offered her a job at the bus stage.
However, her journey to a perhaps better life came to a sudden halt by her employer. She asked Irene whether or not she had an identification card (ID), which the young lady did not have.
The need to ensure that she was employing an adult surpassed her need to have a house-help. In order to avoid run-ins with the law, the to-be employer sent Mbithe back home to get her ID card.
Unfortunately, Mbithe only had bus fare to work, and this left her stranded. She shared her predicament with her friend, who advised her to hitch a ride in one of the trucks that ply the Mombasa-Nairobi route.
She managed to secure a lift to Machakos with a truck driver, an option she was not comfortable with, but she had to because she needed the job. What started as a friendly gesture soon turned into a sticky situation, fast.
The driver began making advances at the young, helpless woman. She turned him down, politely. Nonetheless, he persisted with his ill-motive, forcing Mbithe to firmly stand her ground, by this time, they were driving through the Tsavo.
Frustrated, the driver ordered her out of the vehicle and drove off, leaving her in the unforgiving cold and in pitch darkness.
Mbithe decided to sit by the road, she would be safer there, hoping the light from the vehicles would ward off any imminent danger – the animals in the park.
However, there were a few vehicles on the road. A hyena emerged from the bushes and began attacking her.
Luckily, a good samaritan who was driving along the road saw her and rushed to the nearest town in search of the police. On coming back to the scene of the incident, the police traced the blood into the bushes.
They found the hyena pulling flesh from Mbithe's body which lay motionless. They shot in the air to scare away the beast before assessing Mbithe, whom they thought had died.
Nonetheless, the samaritan insisted that she was alive and asked them to take her to hospital, where she was attended to.
Mbithe lost her left arm and eye in the attack and is lucky to be alive. She is also nursing internal and external injuries, experiences chest pains, headaches and high pulse rates.
Since her attack, Mbithe has tried to reach out to KWS for help to at least get proper medical attention but all in vein. Her family now seeks help to get the wildlife agency to compensate Mbithe or at least ensure she gets proper treatment.
