Residents of Lwero and Emerikwai in Busia County scramble to get a steak of the hippo they killed on January 11, 2020. [Ignatius Odanga, Standard]
It took residents of Lwero in Matayos and Amerikwai in Teso South Constituency at least four hours before they fell a stray hippopotamus on Saturday.
The mission started at 6 am when the animal which mostly lives in water was sighted at the home of a village elder.
She raised the alarm that the ‘enemy’ was within and the public responded on time. Everyone including women walked out of their houses with weapons at their disposal to face the hippo.
The jumbo-sized animal had left a trail of destruction in the area. Crops were destroyed and some structures particularly latrines were brought down.
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Police officers from Adungosi Station who arrived in Lwero while locals were hunting down the animal watched helplessly from a distance.
The killing of the hippo came one day after another one injured a woman in Busibwabo, Matayos Constituency on Friday morning. The woman was rushed to Nambale Sub County Hospital for medication.
The Village Elder of Emerikwai Florah Senedwa narrated that she woke up as usual on Saturday and saw a very big animal standing outside her house in Amerikwai.
She raised an alarm and the response from her fellow villagers was timely. Angry locals surrounded the hippo with all manner of crude weapon.
They attacked it with all manner of weapons. It became powerless after its back limbs were chopped off while still alive.
After it fell, scrambling for the meat started. Those with sharp machetes were luckier. They could cut steak albeit with much struggle because of the hard and thick skin of the hippo.
“I sighted the hippo in my home and notified other people. They responded and we started chasing it with weapons.
We managed to kill it. We must feast on it since it has caused a lot of destruction in our farms and homes,” said Senedwa.
Bahati Geoffrey said it was not an easy mission. To neutralize the hippo, he said they had first to cut the back limbs.
Bahati disclosed they reported the matter to Adungosi Police Station but they were told to leave it until officers from KWS would come for it.
“There are many hippos in Busia, the earlier KWS moves with speed and start hunting for those animals the better otherwise we shall kill them,” said Bahati.
River Sio is infested with hippos. At night they come out of the water to graze which leaves massive destruction in farms located near the river banks.
The killed hippo is believed to have lost while it was grazing.
