A Crocodile has been killed after a fatal attack on a child in Siaya County, Kenya, on Saturday 7 April 2022. The Animal is reported to have snatched a three-year-old boy and mauled him to death while his helpless mother looked on. in the East Asembo area, where the family has gone to collect water from Lake Victoria. The same Crocodile, described as over five metres in length, was later killed by local fishermen who caught the Animal by offering it meat attached to a hook and rope, before dragging it from the water and attacking it with pangas and axes.
The Kenya Wildlife Service has warned against villagers taking such matters into their own hands, asking that instead such attacks are reported so that the problem can be addressed by proffesionals who may be able to relocate problem Animals. Nile Crocodiles, Crocodylus niloticus, are considered to be of Least Concern under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, but are still protected in many countries, due to historic hunting which decimated populations in many areas. The number of attacks on Humans by Crocodiles and Hippopotemus on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria have risen sharply in recent years, something which is thought to be driven by a rising Human population encroaching on areas where the Animals live. In August 2020 a 32-year-old woman was killed by a Crocodile while collecting water from the same beach.
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