Lioness kills 14-year-old girl at her home near national park in Kenya

A lioness killed a 14-year-old girl at her house near the Nairobi National Park in the Kenyan capital, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) told CNN.

The animal had entered a residential complex near the national park on April 19 after it jumped over a makeshift fence, KWS Senior Corporate Communications Manager Paul Udoto said.

The girl was inside the house with a second teenager when the lioness entered the premises and attacked her. “There is no evidence of provocation from the victims,” Udoto told CNN.

The second teenager raised the alarm, prompting KWS rangers and emergency teams to look for the girl. They found the girl’s body with injuries on her lower back in the Mbagathi river after tracing bloodstains leading to the water body.

According to KWS, the lioness was believed to be disoriented or diverted from her normal hunting behaviour due to scarcity of prey in her natural range and increasing human activity around the national park.

Authorities have set a trap and deployed teams to catch the lioness.

Udoto said security measures were being taken, including electric fencing and AI-powered early warning systems to warn communities of nearby animal movements, CNN reported.

This is not the first such human-animal attack in Kenya.

On April 18, an elephant killed a 54-year-old man while he was grazing livestock at a forest in Nyeri County. The man, who was declared brought dead at a hospital, suffered chest injuries, fractured ribs and internal trauma, KWS said.

“It was the human activity that encroached upon the animal’s range, creating conditions for conflict,” Udoto said.