Police arrest 7 suspects over killing of 9 lions

Serengeti. Police have arrested four more people on allegations of killing nine lions at Nyihanga in Songambele Hamlet, Nyichoka Village.

That brings to seven the number of people who have been arrested on allegations of poisoning the lions.

 Nineteen lions have been killed in Serengeti District, Mara Region, since 2015.

Seven lions were killed in 2015 after eating cattle meat thought to have been poisoned before three other big cats were shot dead in  2017 when they stormed a kraal in the village.

According to veterinarian Justin Samanche, of the Tanzania Wildlife Institute, an initial investigation revealed that the lions died after eating a poisoned cow carcass whose remains were found at the scene.

Mara Regional Police Commander Juma Ndaki told The Citizen on phone yesterday that the suspects were held for questioning while efforts were being made to arrest the prime suspect in the killing of the animals, in revenge for his livestock mauled by lions.

“In an initial investigation, all the seven suspects named a famous livestock keeper in Nyichoka Village for the involvement in the incident. When we arrest him, we may set free the seven people we are holding,” he said.

The prime suspect is claimed to have escaped to an unknown destination when the lions were killed.

Serengeti District Commissioner Nurdin Babu has directed state organs to cooperate with security and defence committees of Nyichoka Village and Kyambahi Ward to ensure those involved in the killings of lions were apprehended and taken to court to end the habit of killing wild animals.

* * If no #mcl-market-ticker element exists, the widget inserts itself right * after this var sel = thisScript && thisScript.getAttribute("data-target"); if (sel) { var t = document.querySelector(sel); if (t) return t; } // 2) A dedicated mount element the host page provides. var el = document.getElementById(CONFIG.targetId); if (el) return el; // 3) Fallback: insert right after this script tag. el = document.createElement("div"); el.id = CONFIG.targetId; if (thisScript && thisScript.parentNode) { thisScript.parentNode.insertBefore(el, thisScript.nextSibling); } else { document.body.appendChild(el); } return el; } // ---- Data pipeline (identical logic to the standalone banner) ------------ function apiUrl(path) { if (!path) return path; if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(path)) return path; return CONFIG.apiBase + (path.charAt(0) === "/" ? "" : "/") + path; } function toNum(v) { var n = parseFloat(String(v == null ? "" : v).replace(/,/g, "")); return isFinite(n) ? n : null; } function fmtNum(v) { var n = parseFloat(String(v).replace(/,/g, "")); if (!isFinite(n)) return String(v == null ? "" : v); var d = Math.abs(n) >= 1 ? 2 : 4; return n.toLocaleString("en-US", { minimumFractionDigits: d, maximumFractionDigits: d }); } function changeClass(d) { if (d == null || Math.abs(d) < 1e-9) return "flat"; return d > 0 ? "up" : "down"; } function arrow(d) { if (d == null || Math.abs(d) < 1e-9) return "▬"; return d > 0 ? "▲" : "▼"; } async function fetchFiles(category, count) { var res = await fetch(apiUrl("/api/files?category=" + category)); if (!res.ok) throw new Error("list " + category + " " + res.status); var list = await res.json(); return Array.isArray(list) ? list.slice(0, count || 1) : []; } async function parseSheet(meta) { var res = await fetch(apiUrl(meta.url)); if (!res.ok) throw new Error("download " + res.status); var buf = await res.arrayBuffer(); var wb = XLSX.read(buf, { type: "array" }); return XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(wb.Sheets[wb.SheetNames[0]], { defval: "" }); } function buildStocks(rows) { var items = []; rows.forEach(function (r) { var sym = r["Symbol"] || r["symbol"]; if (!sym) return; var close = toNum(r["Close"]); if (close == null) return; var prev = toNum(r["Prev Close"] || r["Previous Close"]); var delta = prev != null ? close - prev : null; var pct = (delta != null && prev) ? (delta / prev) * 100 : null; items.push({ sym: sym, val: fmtNum(close), delta: delta, pct: pct }); }); return items; } function buildForex(rows, prevRows) { var pmean = {}; (prevRows || []).forEach(function (r) { if (r["Currency"]) pmean[r["Currency"]] = toNum(r["Mean"]); }); var items = []; rows.forEach(function (r) { var cur = r["Currency"]; if (!cur) return; var mean = toNum(r["Mean"]), buy = toNum(r["Buying"]), sell = toNum(r["Selling"]); if (buy == null && sell == null && mean == null) return; var pv = pmean[cur]; var ref = mean != null ? mean : (buy != null && sell != null ? (buy + sell) / 2 : (buy != null ? buy : sell)); var delta = pv != null ? ref - pv : null; var pct = (delta != null && pv) ? (delta / pv) * 100 : null; items.push({ sym: cur, buy: buy != null ? fmtNum(buy) : "—", sell: sell != null ? fmtNum(sell) : "—", delta: delta, pct: pct }); }); var order = CONFIG.majorCurrencies; items.sort(function (a, b) { var ia = order.indexOf(a.sym), ib = order.indexOf(b.sym); if (ia === -1) ia = 999; if (ib === -1) ib = 999; if (ia !== ib) return ia - ib; return a.sym < b.sym ? -1 : 1; }); return items; } function chgHTML(it) { var cls = changeClass(it.delta); if (it.delta == null) return ''; var pctTxt = it.pct != null ? (it.pct >= 0 ? "+" : "") + it.pct.toFixed(2) + "%" : ""; return '' + arrow(it.delta) + " " + pctTxt + ""; } function stockHTML(it) { return '' + it.sym + '' + it.val + "" + chgHTML(it) + ""; } function forexHTML(it) { return '' + it.sym + "" + '' + CONFIG.labels.buy + ' ' + it.buy + ' · ' + CONFIG.labels.sell + ' ' + it.sell + "" + chgHTML(it) + ""; } function pill(t, k) { return '' + t + ""; } function render(track, stocks, forex, dateLabel) { if ((!stocks || !stocks.length) && (!forex || !forex.length)) { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; track.style.animation = "none"; return; } var parts = []; if (stocks && stocks.length) { parts.push(pill(CONFIG.labels.stocks)); stocks.forEach(function (s) { parts.push(stockHTML(s)); }); } if (forex && forex.length) { parts.push(pill(CONFIG.labels.forex, "forex")); forex.forEach(function (f) { parts.push(forexHTML(f)); }); } if (dateLabel) parts.push('' + CONFIG.labels.updated + ": " + dateLabel + ""); var content = parts.join(""); track.innerHTML = content + content; // duplicated for a seamless loop requestAnimationFrame(function () { var dur = Math.max(20, Math.round((track.scrollWidth / 2) / CONFIG.pxPerSecond)); track.style.animation = "none"; void track.offsetWidth; track.style.animation = "mcl-scroll " + dur + "s linear infinite"; }); } async function load(track) { try { var results = await Promise.allSettled([fetchFiles("hisa", 1), fetchFiles("fedha", 2)]); var stocks = [], forex = [], dateLabel = ""; if (results[0].status === "fulfilled" && results[0].value.length) { var hf = results[0].value[0]; dateLabel = hf.date || ""; stocks = buildStocks(await parseSheet(hf)); } if (results[1].status === "fulfilled" && results[1].value.length) { var ff = results[1].value; var curRows = await parseSheet(ff[0]); var prevRows = ff[1] ? await parseSheet(ff[1]) : []; forex = buildForex(curRows, prevRows); if (!dateLabel) dateLabel = ff[0].date || ""; } render(track, stocks, forex, dateLabel); } catch (e) { if (!track.querySelector(".mcl-item")) { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; track.style.animation = "none"; } } } function mountAndRun() { injectStyle(); var mount = getMount(); mount.innerHTML = '
' + '
' + CONFIG.brand + "" + '' + CONFIG.live + "
" + '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; var track = mount.querySelector(".mcl-track"); function go() { load(track); setInterval(function () { load(track); }, CONFIG.refreshMs); } if (window.XLSX) { go(); return; } var sc = document.createElement("script"); sc.src = "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/xlsx/0.18.5/xlsx.full.min.js"; sc.onload = go; sc.onerror = function () { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; }; (document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(sc); } if (document.readyState === "loading") { document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", mountAndRun); } else { mountAndRun(); } })();