By Joel Ogwang
AT LEAST 180 monkeys have been killed and their tails collected in Koome islands, Mukono district, Patrick Mukasa, the sub-county chairman, has said.
He said about 100 monkeys were killed between September and december last year, while 80 were killed this year.
“There are about 5,000 monkeys. They are a menace here. They have destroyed crops and subjected residents to starvation,†he said.
The government, through the Plan for Modernisation of agriculture, recently released sh20m to fight monkeys.
Mukasa said sh2,000 is paid to a person who produces a monkey tail to the sub-county offices, adding that sh360,000 had been paid out.
He dismissed state minister for agriculture Kibirige Sebunya’s advice to eat the monkeys.
“Monkeys are not a delicacy here. You can’t advise anyone to cook them. We will just kill them,†he said, adding that families were surviving on one meal a day because of poor harvests.
He said monkeys had failed the government’s Universal Primary Education programme.
“Children of primary school going age skip classes because of hunger while others do petty jobs like collecting water for neighbours for food and money,†he said.
