Police hunt for three suspected loggers over killing of warden
Dennis Lumiti
A Kenya Wildlife Service game warden in Kakamega Forest in Shinyalu constituency was allegedly killed by an illegal logger on Monday evening.
Raymond Suter, who is stationed at Iloro Kenya Forest Service Camp, died on the spot after he was hacked by a logger he was pursuing.
Shinyalu police commander Robert Makau said the deceased was in the company of two fellow wardens on patrol at Mang’ang’a area in the rainforest when they bumped into two loggers who were illegally felling pine trees.
The other wardens were Alexander Muyukumba and Japheth Mutai.
“The trio came across two men cutting a pine tree near a herd of cattle that were grazing in the forest.
On spotting them, the men started running in different directions,” the police boss said.
He said Suter ran after one of the loggers while Mutai pursued the other one. Muyukumba was left guarding the herd of cattle.
“After a few minutes, Mutai gave up the chase as the suspect was too fast for him and went back to where Muyukumba was,” he said.
The police boss said the duo waited for their colleague for more than 30 minutes but he did not show up.
“They started looking for him on the route he had pursued the fleeing suspect.
They found him lying on the ground dead bleeding from a deep cut on the back of his head and another one above the right ear while clutching on to the AK 47 rifle together with a magazine containing 29 rounds of ammunition,” he narrated.
He said all the suspects vanished into the thick forest adding that no arrests had been made by yesterday.
The deceased’s body was taken to Kakamega County Referral Hospital mortuary.
Meanwhile, the animals were rounded up but their owners had not yet showed up to claim them by the time of going to the press.
