Suicide bid after sex with goat

2005-09-01 12:50

Nairobi - Kenyan police have arrested a man accused of strangling to death a goat with which he was having sex in a region where reported acts of bestiality are increasing, officials said on Thursday.

The 22-year-old suspect, who tried to kill himself after being caught with the female goat in Kenya's central Rift Valley province, is to be charged with attempted suicide and "engaging in unnatural acts", they said.

"The goat died as a result of strangulation," said Ndaya Ngalia, a local government official in the province's Bomet district where the assault took place overnight on Tuesday.

A growing trend?

After being scared off by the goat's owner and neighbours, the man hid but was discovered by villagers at whom he threw stones before running away and jumping into a pond in an apparent bid to take his life, said Ngalia.

The incident, first made public by the state-run Kenyan News Agency (KNA), is the second known case of such behaviour in the past three months in Bomet where villagers say largely unreported acts of bestiality may be a growing trend.

In June, a cobbler suspected of sorcery was attacked and nearly lynched by outraged residents after being caught having sex with a female sheep.

The man, who witnesses said had earlier been seen having sex with a dog, admitted assaulting the ewe.

District commissioner Samuel Otieno, however, downplayed fears that Bomet is winning a dubious reputation as a hub of bestiality.

"These things happen all over the world, there is nothing peculiar about Bomet," he said.

- AFP