Buliisa district farmers continue to shed tears as elephants find their way into communities, destroying crops and properties despite the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s (UWA) efforts to install electric fencing.
Farmers from Bugana village, Bugana parish, Buliisa sub-county are the most affected by this development.
According to the farmers, the stray elephants from Murchison/Kabalega Falls National Park (MFNP) find their way to communities through the seven-kilometre existing space between Bugana and Kakora villages.
They say that the existing space remained free and unfenced when UWA was gazetting the conservation area off communities. The fencing was implemented to provide long-term solutions to human-elephant conflicts in Buliisa District.
Muhereza Asaba, a resident of Bugana says the ongoing destruction by elephants on their crops depicts no efforts by UWA to give solutions on wildlife conflicts in the district.
Asaba notes that it is greatly contributing to food insecurity.
According to her, most of them have resorted to buying food to feed their family members from markets and neighbouring communities since they can no longer plant and harvest from their own gardens.
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“The situation we are in now has made us buy food for our families and yet some of us have never bought food in our lives. Even buying food itself is hard since we rely on agriculture for money,” Asaba said.
Currently, some of us rely on fruits to raise money to buy food. Unfortunately, the very fruits including mangoes and jack fruits, are being destroyed by elephants, she told tndNews, Uganda.
Asaba calls for a quick speed in undertaking electric fencing to reduce elephant invasion given the delayed compensation by the concerned authorities.
Mugisa Mereki Muhereza, another farmer, noticed the gap within local government leadership to push for community well-being.
On January 22, 2026, Mereki said he lost two acres of watermelon to elephants which strayed and destroyed the garden but was not compensated although he reported to UWA.
“We are continuously getting affected by elephants at least four times every week,” he said.
Okumu Michael, a Waiga resident but also a Community Action Researcher (CAR) attached to Hoima Caritas Development Organisation (HOCADEO) wonders why the government takes so long to respond to community outcry.
He urged the concerned authorities including UWA to speed up the process of electric fencing to overcome the situation.
Besides crop destruction, some individuals have also reported that the continuous elephant incursions in the area have also greatly affected the education of their children since they fear their children being attacked by elephants on the way to and from school.
Kamanda Kabagambe, the LC3 chairman of Buliisa noted a decrease in human-elephant conflicts in the area given UWA’s intervention to construct the electric fence which has helped to prevent elephants from invading communities.
However, Kabagambe urged the concerned authorities like UWA to address delayed compensation issues since many people remain uncompensated for a long time.
From 2019 to date, several cases including loss of lives, crops and property destruction in human-elephant conflicts have been raised, the growing trend which attracted the government’s attention through UWA to initiate the construction of an electric fence around Murchison Falls National Park.
In this about nine lives were lost in elephant attacks, and thousands of crops and property destruction complaints were reported.
In response to the concerns, Wilson Kagoro, the Chief Game Warden at Murchison/ Kabalega Falls National Park (MFNP), says UWA remains committed to providing long-lasting solutions to the ongoing challenges facing communities.
As part of the solutions, the Authority has already completed 30 km of electric fence stretching from MFNP to Buliisa.
Communities are assured that all remaining unfenced areas including 7 km of Bugana to Kakora and other remaining areas will be completed by this year.
Speaking on compensation, he said that the Authority remains committed to compensating all damages given a timely response by the victims to report.
However, when contacted, the district agricultural officer Doreen Babihemaiso was unable to respond.
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