Residents from four Buliisa District sub-counties neighbouring Murchison Falls National Park have demonstrated as away of showing their dissatisfaction over the persistent attacks by elephants.
The residents accuse Uganda Wildlife Authority of giving their concerns a deaf ear.
The affected sub-counties include Buliisa, Ngwedo, Kigweera and Buliisa Town Council.
Carrying placards bearing various messages, the protests at Bugana Trading Centre in Buliisa Sub-County qas away of showing their discontent, they said.
They said elephants continue to attack and destroy their plantations, with pupils currently unable to go to school due to fear of coming across the largest land animal that they say have killed several people.
“Children are no longer going to school due to fear of being attacked by elephants, our gardens have not been spared, while we lose property,” Ivan Businge, a resident of Kisoke village, said
Tearful Darlison Kunihira, also from Kisoke, sai she lost her son to an elephant attack but UWA has never compensated her.
“You lose a son, I know money can’t bring my son back, but you make calls to UWA and you never get compensation, this is so painful,” Kunihira said.
Grace Ndoreriire, a resident of Bugana, said elephants destroyed her 2-acre cassava plantation, leaving her with nothing to depend in coming months.
“Is being in the neighbourhood of the park a bad thing? We have lost plantations and this may eventually see us in food insecurity, so if demonstration is not heeded we may have to start staging options of killing these animals that attack us,” Ndoreriire said.
Kamanda Kabagambe, the Buliisa LC 3 chairman, said they have tried to speak to UWA but the authority seem not ready to cooperate.
“So when these people demonstrate, as leaders we support the cause, because they have spoken,” Kabagambe said.
However, Bashir Hangi, the UWA publicist, said they are currently setting up an electric fence at Murchison Falls National Park in order to contain cases of human wildlife conflict.
“We understand the plight of the community, and we are making strides to ensure that we have an electric fence so deter animals including elephants from crossing to the community, as for compensation it’s a process and we have done compensation before, but it’s a subject of verification,” Hangi said.
