Agony of families as bats cause havoc in homesteads

Mr Elijah Lugali Ayida speaks to the Standard at his home at Lodenyo village in Vihiga County on October 15, 2023. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

As we watched, pink, yellow and green bat droppings kept on falling all around us. The colouration of these droppings seems to depend on what the bats have eaten. The pink droppings have guava seeds in them.

"These droppings and urine can cause blindness if they get into your eyes, be careful," Ayida warned us and added, "The bats, in their thousands, constitute a serious nuisance during the day with their screeching noise. Every day around 6.30 pm, the colony comes alive and starts circling overhead as if they are warming up. Within a few minutes, they take off into the night to far-off places and come back the next morning between 3.30 am and 4 am without fail."

To demonstrate the sheer number of bats around his compound, Ayida picked up a stick and repeatedly hit a banana leaf. Within seconds, a dark cloud suddenly obscured the sun as thousands of bats simultaneously took into the air screeching. It was a scary sight.

Broken branches and leaning trees attest to the thousands of bats hanging on the tree branches. A similar scenario is replicated at the Catholic Church's St Augustine Parish in Eregi, more than 20 kilometres away from Lodenyo, where there are numerous broken tree branches and leaning trees.

"There are millions of bats around this compound. Their sheer weight causes trees to bend and snap. We have been forced to cut the tops of trees close to the houses in order to drive away the bats. Seemingly, they prefer the cypress around this compound," Father Anthony Tsikalata of the parish says.

"The bats normally live here for months, but they suddenly left on October 19 around 5.30 am. I saw them leave while I was taking my morning constitutional around the parish," Tsikalata recalled.

Father Anthony Tsikalata showing trees they pruned at St. Augustine Parish Eregi in Ikolomani on October 15, 2023, to keep away bats. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

On the downside, scientists warn that 'histoplasma capsulatum', a fungus found in the soil in places where bat droppings accumulate, causes a disease known as histoplasmosis whose symptoms include chills, fever, headache, and muscle aches.

According to scientists, the more serious forms of this disease include acute respiratory distress syndrome and central nervous system breakdown that can lead to brain swelling, impaired thinking and symptoms similar to stroke, which include trouble walking, loss of balance, dizziness, among others.

Ingrained cultural beliefs render bats an endangered species. A report by the Society For Conservation Biology says: "Roosts on private land are endangered as they are easily disturbed, modified, destroyed or even razed down for other uses not conducive to bat conservation."

The report further says, "The situation is aggravated by the lack of laws protecting bats and roost sites in Kenya, and environmental impact assessments are rarely conducted to assess effects of infrastructure development on bats. Furthermore, like in other parts of Africa, Kenyans in general have negative attitudes towards bats, which leads to their persecution and destruction of their roost sites."

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