Two men nabbed with 10 reptile skins

By Gerald Tenywa 

POLICE has arrested two men at Mpambire along Masaka Road in Mpigi and also recovered seven python skins and three monitor lizards from them.

The two suspects named Fred Seguya and Willy Senyonga appeared in Court on Thursday where they were charged with illegal possession of the items. The prosecutor wants them to pay shs1.5m for each python and monitor lizard skin or go to prison for five years.

According to Vincent Opyene, the head of Natural Resources Conservation Network who attended court, the suspects were on Wednesday sent to Prison until August 12. The suspects claimed that they were not guilty but failed to produce sh1m for bail.

The anti-poaching operation that led to the arrest of the duo, the Natural Resources Conservation Network, which is an NGO worked with the Police and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). 

The team said they were mounting a crackdown on the dealers in wildlife trophies that are highly demanded for making of drums at Mpambire.

In a separate interview, Laban Muhindo, the media officer at the Natural Resources Conservation Network said the trophies recovered from Seguya and Senyonga were obtained from Kalangala, which is an Island district in Uganda.

This, he said raises a concern given that pythons are solitary animals pointing out that an expansive swamp could have only one or two pythons. He also pointed out that python skins recovered from Seguya and Senyonga were coming from Kalangala suggesting that the central parts of Uganda could be running out of pythons.

“The crafts industry should opt for artificial products or rear domestic animals to generate their raw materials,” said Muhindo.

Aggrey Rwetsiba, the research coordinator at UWA said killing of wild animals contravenes the Wildlife Act and that persons should report to UWA in case they have any unfriendly encounter with wild animals.

The pythons often stay in rocky areas and ant-hills that are close to swampy areas where they easily hunt for prey. The pythons feed on small mammals and without them rodents such as rats could increase in population and overwhelm the farming population.

The monitor lizards, which produce skins for making of long drums also known as “engalabi” also reside in ant-hills and feed on termites.