Senior Reporter
The Kinkiizi West member of Parliament Hon James Ruugi Kaberuka has revealed that the government will soon launch the construction of a 25 km electric fence along Queen Elizabeth national park which will bring to an end wild animals encroaching on people’s gardens.
Last year the state minister for Tourism Martin Mugara and other Kanungu district leaders visited the area where they told residents that an electric fence would be erected along the Queen Elizabeth national park borderline but this had been delayed.
Kaberuka, therefore, has assured residents who live and do agriculture near the park that the fence construction will begin soon and the residents will be relieved from being attacked by wild animals.
He further asked every person near the park to open up a bank account, especially those whose gardens are always affected by wild animals because the government will only pay them through bank accounts not hand to cash as it was previously.
Previously a section of residents of Kihihi sub-county in Kanungu district whose survival depended on poaching had called upon the government to fulfill its promise of erecting an electric fence along Queen Elizabeth National Park if the human-wildlife conflict was to be resolved.
The Kameme reformed poachers association chairperson Julius Tumushabe Muhoozi- revealed that the electric fence is their only hope if they are to live happily along the park, growing and harvesting their gardens in peace.