A teenage girl has died after she was pounced on by a hungry lion while walking home with a friend. Peace Mwende was heading to her home in Rongai, a shanty town suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday.
She and a friend were walking along the edge of a big game wildlife park when she was dragged off by the big cat, and her body ripped apart. Her desperate friend attempted to raise the alarm, but by the time keepers from the Nairobi National Park arrived, only her remains were found.
Experts believe the juvenile lion had strayed from the park, looking for food at Peace’s village. It was suggested that the rapidly expanding village of Rongai has spread too close to the park for safety, to ensure residents safety.
Three sides of the refuge are now fenced off to divert wildlife heading to Nairobi, just six miles away, with one side left open to allow animals to migrate.
Scores of lions, buffalo, giraffes, leopards and cheetahs roam the grounds freely. Trackers from the Kenyan Wildlife Service are trying to find the killer lion.
Back in 2023, a safari guide who had gone to collect water from a river for the group of tourists he was leading was dragged away by a 12ft crocodile that leapt from the murky water.
Ranger Mark Montgomery who was attacked at Kruger National Park managed to escape to tell the tale. Shaken Mark, 52, said: ”It was so quick, so quick. I didn’t even see it come out the water. I only had time to say “Oh s**t!” and I was in its jaws and underwater and being taken down.
“I had managed to pull my hand back as it struck otherwise it would have had my whole arm in its mouth and I heard people shouting as it took me in but I knew I was on my own.
“I put my hand round its neck and tried to poke its eyes and to get my hand in his mouth to open it and deter him and was kicking up off the bottom to get to the surface.”
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