Crocodiles kill eighth person in Kasese

TRAGEDY

Residents of Katwe-Kabatoro Town Council, Kasese district, are mourning the death of yet another one of their own after a crocodile attacked and mauled him, leaving pieces of his intestines for them to bury.

The Monday incident that occurred around Rwenjubu Lower Cell in the five-year-old Town Council, which mainly depends on fishing and water supply from Lake Edward and salt mining from Katwe Salt Lake as its mainstay.

The town council is surrounded by Queen Elizabeth National Park and Lake Edward, from which wild animals often attack some of the community members, injuring or even killing their victims.

In some cases, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), captures and relocates some of the crocodiles. Following the latest tragedy, Marine Police and local authorities in Kasese district have launched a hunt for the killer reptile.

The Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area (QECA) Chief Warden, Pontious Ezuma, was unavailable on his known mobile phone but the Marine Police Commander in the area, Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP), Pascal Ecum, confirmed the incident, Ecum identified the deceased as Matovu Ramadhan, saying the deceased had allegedly been grabbed by a crocodile on the Lake Edward while fishing.

Eighth victim
Matovu becomes the eighth person to be killed by the crocodiles on the lake, which strides the Uganda-D.R Congo border in western Uganda.

According to Ecemu, a few pieces of the deceased's intestines were recovered from the lake waters.
AIP Ecemu told the media after launching the search operation that the deceased was involved in illegal fishing activities by the time of his death.

Ecemu regretted the incident but said it was inevitable since the community was living in an area that was part of an area gazette as a national park with wild animals, which comprise crocodiles.
He said on its part, government had constructed water-fetching cages around the landing sites to protect the residents as they fetch water.

Residents implore government
Appealing to government for more protection, the Town Council's Rwenjubu Lower cell LC 1 Chairperson,  John Kasingo  strongly condemned the incident saying Matovu was the eighth victim to be killed by crocodiles since last year.

"About two weeks ago, a crocodile killed a child and injured a man," the Katwe-Kabatoro Town Council LC chairperson John Kananura Omuloodi, told the media.

He urged the residents to guard against accessing the lake without protection, particularly warning children against swimming in the lake. However, one of the residents, Birungi Mariam, said the poor hygiene of the water cages had forced the residents to resort back to fetching water directly from the lake.

"The cages are filthy because of our cattle, which are prohibited from grazing in the National Park, also have to graze around the cages and drop their dung there while some unknown residents also urinate or even defecate around the cages," she said.

She further said the water cages were not protective any longer because their gates had been vandalised.
"This has forced us residents to fetch water outside the cages putting our lives at stake," she said.

Govt injects sh26b into water supply
According to Kananura, despite government having injected Shs26b to supply water to the area, very few residents were consuming it owing to high costs of Sh100 per 20-litre jerry can of water.

The water supply is managed by the National water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)."Residents appeal to the NWSC to reduce the water charges, from the current charges to match with their income status.