Horror in Lake Victoria as killer crocodiles now target humans

A sign warning about crocodiles on an island in Lake Victoria, Uganda

The calm and tranquil waters of Lake Victoria belie a horrifying situation that people living near its banks are facing, in the form of ferocious killer crocodiles lurking in the shallows.

According to reports, hardly a month passes without these predators pouncing on and snatching human beings who venture to the edge of Africa’s largest lake - also the world’s largest tropical lake - to fetch water, wash domestic appliances, go fishing, or make other use of the available waters.

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The latest recorded attack was on January 16 this year when eight-year old Avelina Vitus, a Standard Two pupil, was fatally ambushed by a crocodile while in the company of her sisters Mispina (16), Adventina (10) and Sophia (6) in Chelameno village, Nyamboge ward, Geita Region.
Narrating the ordeal, eldest sister Mispina said they were washing their school uniforms in the lake in readiness for class the next day when the crocodile pounced.

“We heard a big splash of water behind us. When I turned back, I saw a huge croc dragging my younger sister away as she struggled in vain to disentangle herself from its clutch,” a tearful Mispina recalled.

The sisters backed away and yelled for help. Other local residents soon assembled at the scene, and a search for the crocodile and its victim was immediately launched, coordinated by the village chairman Majura Ruhwirabache. 

The croc was spotted lying on a rock about an hour later, but without its prey. The search party assumed it had stashed its catch somewhere underwater, as crocodiles usually do. The hunt for the girl’s body continued, but was called off that night after it proved futile. 

Residents of the area say the same crocodile has recently been seen still prowling the nearby waters.

According to the Geita game officer, Msese K Msese, the hunt for man-eater crocodiles in Lake Victoria remains a big challenge due to a continuing scarcity of resources.

“It is very difficult for us to respond quickly to requests to deal with crocodiles which are terrorizing villages adjacent to the lake without, for example, Other Charges (OC) funds which we have not received for the past one year,” Msese said.

Explaining further, he said: “(OC funds) are allocated to cater for such activities like dealing with wildlife emergency incidents. An OC fund statement is necessary for auditors to verify if the funds were used for the purpose”.

“Because I have no such allocation, I am unable to get the (official) funds for such activities. I normally have to spend my own money – or get help from people in the affected areas - to foot accommodation, transport and other incidental costs that come with attending to such incidents.”

 “It is on very rare occasions that the district provides me with funds to deal with a wildlife situation.”

And with the district priority for this year being education, there is even lesser hope that sufficient funds will be allocated to the game section, Msese added.

“That’s why I see no likelihood of my being provided with any OC funds this year,” the game officer noted, explaining that this lack of funds meant he could only spend short periods of time in villages experiencing wildlife problems, and could only offer limited help in dealing with the problems.

He also cited the lack of personnel and modern equipment to do his job well, including basic transport in form of “a simple motorcycle, at least.”

“I am the only game officer in this office. That means if two incidents take place at the same time, I am unable to deal with both of them,” Msese said.

“Also, the guns we use are old. I have two weapons, an old shotgun and a rifle. Sometimes they misfire when a wild animal is just a few metres away. This is dangerous for me,” he added.

He proposed that the game section be placed under the wildlife department in order to access funding straight from the central government. 

Meanwhile, according to the Nyamboge ward councilor Daudi Mlekwa, the local people would continue to be threatened by the crocodiles because they depended on the lake for many of their daily activities.

“The lake gives us access to water for drinking, washing and for construction activities. At the same time, we have a conservation area near us. The crocs have multiplied to the extent that they have spread to many villages, including ours,” Mlekwa said.

He said at least three people had been killed by the crocodiles within the past year, and suggested that the local residents should be given permission to deal with the reptiles themselves.

“If a local kills a croc without the government’s permission, he or she will be held answerable. So many local people are scared of being prosecuted for killing crocodiles which have killed fellow villagers,” Mlekwa said.

He also called on the government to build at least five wells along the banks of the lake, to help keep people away from the lake itself. There was also a need to cull the local crocodile population, he added.

Mlekwa’s call for the building of wells was echoed by Christopher Mhariri, chairman of the Chelameno Beach Management Unit in the area, who said the increased rains this year had brought about many crocodile breeding sites near the lake’s banks.

“The crocodiles feed on fish and if they miss those, they turn on human beings along the banks of the lake,” Mhariri said. There is no piped water in Nyamboge ward, forcing women and children to fetch water from the crocodile-infested lake. It is at these fetching points that crocodiles and humans ‘meet’ and deaths occur.

Fishermen who use weak boats in their fishing expeditions also end up being eaten by crocodiles. Mhariri also expressed concern over their use of illegal dragnets in shallow waters to hide themselves in during fishing, making them even easier targets for the ferocious reptiles. At times, in such cases, their deaths go unnoticed.

BMU is a local non-governmental group responsible for environmental protection, stopping illegal fishing and making sure that fishermen have valid licenses for carrying out their activities.

According to the Geita district executive director Ali Kidwaka, there have been many incidents of wildlife attacking people in the district.

“Whenever such an incident occurs, we pool the little resources we have from every department in the district office. We have never failed to handle such situations when they occur,” Kidwaka said

He also noted that many people in the district were attacked by wild animals because they did not take precautions like to avoid walking around unaccompanied at night or clearing their compounds some metres away from their houses.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN