Fearing wild animal attacks, Buliisa residents abandon gardens

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The residents of Buliisa sub-county in Buliisa district are living in fear of wild animals, including elephants, reportedly straying into their gardens from the neighbouring Murchison Falls National Park.

As a result, many of them say they have abandoned their gardens fearing potentially deadly attacks.

By extension, this has caused another source of worry: food insecurity.

Kigoya village resident Geoffrey Byakagaba is one of the affected people.

"Many people here have now [abandoned] their gardens. So we have a lot of hunger in this area. We have no food," he says.

Another immediate concern among residents is that abandoned gardens means no earnings from their garden produce to afford to take their children to school. 

And even the children that go to school fear potential encounters with invading wildlife on the way.

"This matter is very serious. Even the children themselves are fearing to go to school," says Byakagaba.

"We need help from the government."



Julius Mugenyi, the LC1 chairperson of Kigoya village, says there has been persistent invasion of especially elephants in the area.

He says the few learners who go to school always go late.

Common sightings have been of elephants, baboons, and monkeys, according to residents.

They say the animals stray from the park into their gardens and in their pursuit of what to eat, they end up destroying crops such as maize, sweet potatoes, jackfruit, and cassava.

Henry Kugonza's mother, the late Eunice Kutegeka Kyabadiri, was reportedly killed by a stray elephant recently.

He is now urging immediate intervention by the government.

"At any point when we report back [elephant invasion], we don't see any big action," he says.

"They [authorities] will promise they are coming for them, but some of us might summarize it as an intention by either the government or whoever is responsible.

"In any other situation, we can't allow the animals to come and live in areas which are not gazetted and live for all this long," says Kugonza.