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Delamere farm in Gilgil is counting losses after lions believed to have strayed from Soysambu Conservancy and Lake Nakuru National Park attacked and killed over 100 cows and sheep.
The loss, according to the farm management, is estimated to be over KES 10 million.
Delamere Farm Security Manager Jeff Mito said that the lions escaped from Lake Nakuru National Park on Monday, straying into the farm that deals in livestock and livestock products.
Mito indicated they have lost 123 heads of cattle and hundreds of sheep to the marauding lions.
“We now fear for the workers in the farm because it is possible the lions will start attacking them also,” Mito said.
However, the Nakuru County Senior Community Park Warden Muteru Nduta refuted the claims that the lions strayed from the park.
He pointed that it was misleading for the farm management to claim that the lions were from Nakuru park saying Delamere have a conservancy that has lions.
“Soysambu Conservancy belongs to Delamere and therefore the lions might have strayed from there and not the Nakuru Park,” he said.
Muteru also indicated that lion attacks have been ongoing for the last two years.
“It was not an overnight attack. It is a problem that has been experienced in the last two years,” Muteru said.
The Warden though did not rule out lions straying from the park citing it was not fully sealed off.
Mito added that the farm would be seeking compensation from KWS adding that they were looking for ways to reining in the wild animals.
But the warden pointed that compensation will be a farfetched move because it is hard for the management to determine whether the lions strayed from the Nakuru National Park or Delamere’s own conservancy.
