By Lilian Munini
Fear is creeping into classrooms and homesteads across the outskirts of Machakos town as rising human–wildlife conflict places learners and families on edge.
With prey becoming scarce in the forests and rangelands, predators such as hyenas and leopards increasingly ventured into villages in search of food.
“The safety of people is our priority,” he said, outlining several measures communities must adopt immediately.
Children should move to school in groups rather than alone. Parents should escort younger pupils.
Communities should avoid hunting wildlife, which disrupts ecological balance and forces predators closer to human settlements. And in the rare event of a direct encounter, residents must know how to defend themselves—targeting a hyena’s face can drive it away.
At Kyasila Primary, Head Teacher Rebecca Ngina, pictured below(R) while receiving geometrical sets from Rotary Club District 9212 Governor Wairimu Njage, said the school has already introduced strict safety rules. No pupil is allowed to walk to school alone, and younger children must be accompanied by older classmates.
Rotary Club members led by Athi Kapiti Charter President Silvia Njambi right leading a human-wildlife sensitization at Kyasila Primary
Yet beyond the classroom gates, the fear remains real and deeply personal.
Residents recount painful encounters that have left families traumatized and livelihoods shattered.
In villages stretching from Kyasila in Mua to Miwongoni, Kwakatheke, Yaitha, Kimutwa, Muumandu, Kola, Vota and even the fast-growing Konza corridor, residents say hyenas now roam openly—sometimes even during daylight hours—snatching goats and sheep and sparking tense confrontations with herders.
It is a reality that has forced communities to rethink how children move to school and how families secure their livestock in daylight and at night.
In Kyasila, the Rotary Club of Athi Kapiti, working with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), has stepped in with a community safety initiative aimed at helping residents and learners coexist with wildlife.
Club President Silvia Njambi said the focus of the intervention is simple but urgent: protect children while educating communities on how to live alongside predators whose natural habitats now overlap with human settlements.
At Kyasila Primary School, Rotary officials conducted an intensive safety session with pupils, taking them through simulated scenarios of hyena encounters and the actions that could save their lives. The lessons were practical and direct—walk to school in groups, avoid isolated bush paths, remain alert at dawn and dusk, and understand how to react if confronted by a predator.
The seriousness of the threat was underscored by Joseph Dadacha, Deputy Director of KWS Southern Conservation Area, who acknowledged that the problem has worsened in recent years.
According to Dadacha, the devastating 2022–2023 drought disrupted the natural food chain in surrounding ecosystems.
Agnes Mutuku still lives with the aftermath of the day a hyena attacked her only son in December 2023. The young man, now 25, survived the mauling but has never fully recovered.
Elsewhere in the same community, Eunice Munyao lost ten sheep in a single attack, wiping out the small herd she depended on for income.
James Musau tells a similar story: nine sheep and two calves killed despite repeated attempts to trap the predator responsible.
Local administrators confirm that these incidents are not isolated.
Mua Location Chief Albanus Ndeti said at least four serious attacks have been recorded since 2022, including the death of a secondary school student and the mauling of a three-year-old child.
The impact on everyday life has been profound. Some parents now send children to boarding schools at unusually young ages simply to guarantee their safety.
Evening movement has become restricted, and herders increasingly find themselves fighting off hyenas when livestock is attacked in open grazing fields.
But the problem is no longer confined to remote villages. Residents across the outskirts of Machakos town report similar sightings. In Miwongoni, Kwakatheke, Kimutwa, Muumandu, Kola, Vota and the expanding Konza belt, hyenas are now said to roam even in broad daylight.
Dogs that once guarded homesteads are now locked indoors at night while others have vacated to ascape becoming hyena meal .
Their raids on goats and sheep often trigger confrontations with herders determined to protect their animals.
These growing encounters raise difficult questions about how communities and wildlife authorities should respond.
Some residents demand relocation of the problematic animals. Others argue for stronger surveillance, including regular patrols, predator monitoring and rapid response teams to capture or eliminate aggressive hyenas. Gone are the days of hyena folk tales, depicting proverbial greed. Now residents, including children are daylight witnesses .
Yet conservationists warn that the answer is not so simple; for hyenas play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance. As scavengers and predators, they help control disease and regulate animal populations in the ecosystem.
Eliminating them indiscriminately could disrupt the delicate natural systems that sustain wildlife and rangelands.
The challenge, experts say, is to find a balance between protecting human life and preserving the natural order.
For communities around Machakos town, that balance may lie in a combination of sustained education, better wildlife surveillance, and targeted relocation of animals that repeatedly attack livestock or humans.
Without such intervention, residents will continue enduring endless tension between two realities: the need to protect their children and livelihoods—and the knowledge that they share their landscape with wildlife that once kept a safer distance.
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