Starving Monkey Mauls Infant to Death in Wajir.

Wajir, Kenya.

A 20-day-old baby was killed and partially eaten by a starving monkey in Argane village, Wajir South on Monday, in one of the most shocking cases of human-wildlife conflict to hit Kenya’s arid north.

According to local residents, the infant had been left asleep inside a Somali hut as his mother walked to a neighbor’s home to fetch a jerrycan of water. When she returned minutes later, she found her baby lifeless — his stomach and eyes devoured by the wild animal.

Neighbors responded to her cries and drove away the monkey with stones, but it was too late to save the child. The baby was buried later that evening in a shallow grave as grief engulfed the village.

Officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) visited the scene, documented the incident, and reportedly handed the grieving mother a small cash token before leaving — a gesture locals described as “insulting” and “inhuman.”

“This is not compensation; it is salt in the wound,” said a distraught elder from Argane, calling on the government to deliver justice and address the worsening human-wildlife crisis driven by drought and hunger.

Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Act provides that the family of a person killed by wildlife is entitled to compensation of up to KSh 5 million. Locals are demanding that the law be enforced in full and that KWS provide water tanks to reduce animal intrusion into homesteads.

Persistent drought and depletion of natural water sources have driven monkeys and other wildlife into human settlements in northern Kenya, increasing attacks on people and livestock.

Speaking to Frontier Eye over the phone, Abdullahi Ali, a local elder, called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to compensate the family as stipulated in law.

“The law is clear: when wildlife kills a human being, the family must be compensated. KWS must pay the full amount and take action to stop these starving animals from invading our homes,” he said.

As the mother mourns her child, residents of Wajir South say the tragedy serves as a grim warning, that in villages where people and wildlife now compete for every drop of water, even babies are no longer safe until relief efforts and lasting mitigation measures are put in place.