Second stray lion found dead in Kenya

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) confirmed Thursday that a two-and-half-year-old male lion called "Lemek" was speared to death after it strayed out of the Nairobi National Park early Thursday.

KWS spokesman Paul Udoto said patrol rangers discovered Lemek's speared carcass near Old Kitengela township, about 20km south of Nairobi.

"The offenders of this act, which is forbidden under the Wildlife and Conservation Management Act, 2013, could not be immediately identified. Investigations are underway to establish the parties responsible," Udoto said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

Udoto said a KWS team working in collaboration with the local administration discovered Lemek's body under a large thicket beside a dry riverbed.

The wildlife agency had earlier Thursday received a report of two or three lions sighted in the Oleshei area near Old Kitengela Township, which prompted KWS to mobilize aerial search.

Udoto said the search, which was intended to observe and drive the reported lions back to the park, lasted three hours and yielded no results.

"KWS is currently establishing if Lemek was one of the lions reported earlier in the day," said Udoto, noting that a community meeting will be held next week to explore ways in which KWS can better work with communities living near Nairobi National Park to mitigate human-lion conflict.

The latest incident came just a day after KWS rangers killed another lion, Mohawk, that pounced on a man in a crowd in the same location after it escaped from a park.

The death of the 13-year-old Mohawk, so named because of the shape of his black mane, sparked an outcry from Kenyans and African conservationists, who said it heavily dents the lion conservation spirit in the country.

In the space of two months, there have been at least three confirmed cases of lions coming into contact with people in Nairobi and the surrounding areas. Endit