Kenya Wildlife officials kill hippo following deadly attack on Taiwan tourist

Kenya Wildlife Service officers have neutralised a hippopotamus that attacked and killed a tourist from Taiwan who was taking photographs on the shore of Lake Naivasha, local media reported on Monday.

The man was pronounced dead on arrival at the Naivasha District Hospital, while another tourist survived the attack on Saturday evening, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Sunday.

“We are tracking the hippo,” the service said on Twitter on Sunday.

Nation media reported that Hell’s Gate Park warden Nelson Cheruiyot confirmed the tracking and killing of the deadly hippo.

KWS OFFICERS have killed hippo that attacked and killed a tourist from Taiwan at Lake Naivasha, Hell’s Gate Park warden Nelson Cheruiyot says. pic.twitter.com/ii0l7sLhJa

— NationBreakingNews (@NationBreaking) August 13, 2018

KWS identified the dead man as Chang Ming Chuang, 66, and the survivor as Wu Peng Te, 62, and said they were from China but Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the two were from the self-ruled island.

Several people have questioned the rationale of killing the hippo, which they say was provoked in ‘its natural habitat’.

Deadly times in Naivasha

The attacks brought to six the number of people who have been attacked and killed by hippos in Naivasha since the year began.

Kenya’s the Star newspaper quoted the head of a boat owners’ association in Navaisha as saying higher-than-normal water levels were causing hippos to wander from the lake on to nearby farms and hotel properties searching for pasture.

Naivasha is a city on the lake 90 km northwest of the capital, Nairobi.

After a severe drought last year, Kenya had several months of heavy rain this year that caused serious flooding, including around Lake Naivasha.