Uganda’s Rich Rat History

Agriculture is the backbone of Africa, let alone the back born of Uganda. Numerous stories have been told of Ugandan citizens amassing large amounts of wealth through Agriculture, with even our dear president constantly hinting at his herdsmanship prowess.

Families are constantly encouraged to carry out some sort of farming, if not commercial then some substance urban farming with vegetables in hanging polythene bags and what note.

One of the most infamous stories of agriculture in this beloved motherland is that of Muhangas goats, but that is a story for another day. Goats, Cows, and then there were rats.

The alarm has recently been raised about rat’s and these rarely feature in the agriculture column of our country, mostly featuring in our daily struggles as an analogy “The rat race!”

This time rather, social media have been awash with all kinds of memes concerning rats with some individuals quickly churning up price lists, invoices, company profiles, potential business opportunities, after a member of the cabinet reportedly cost a lab rat at 8 million Ugandan shillings only.

This isn’t the first time that Rats have featured nor is it the first time, that they have made headlines.

Man Eats Rat In front of President Museveni:

In 2005, a disgruntled former LC3 chairperson of Osukuru sub-county by the names of Gerald Omaset, surprised the country by eating a live rat in the presence of President Yoweri Museveni. Gerald’s acts were in protest and demand for a new district.

Omaset, a well-spoken, dark-skinned man in his early 50s at the time, lives a quiet life in Osukuru. His home is full of happy sounds of a dotting wife, children and their friends playing in the compound. Omaset is generally mild-mannered until he is asked about Tororo district. This is when he becomes very passionate. Omaset says he will not rest until the establishment of a new district.

Omaset and other Itesot leaders claim that they have been marginalized by the Japadhola in what they claim is their own land. They argue that it is imperative that they are given their own district in order to ensure that vital public services are more accessible to all people in the Tororo.

Omaset, who encouraged other Itesots to join hands in the fight for the district, insists that nothing will stop him from eating the live rats. He also dismisses earlier reports that he died after eating the rats in 2005. He says the report was just a concoction by those against their fights to discourage them.

The major sticking point in the division of Tororo district concerns where to place Tororo County. The Jophadhola, who largely populate Kisoko, say Tororo is their traditional heritage.

They argue that since the new Mukujju district will incorporate Malaba border town and other large trading centers in the district, Tororo County should be given to Kisoko.

The Iteso also lay claim to Tororo County, arguing that the large rock that overlooks the county is named after their ancestor.

President Museveni had suggested that Tororo could be turned into a city. That way Mukujju and Kisoko would be curved out their current boundaries.

But the Emorimor has since insisted that there is no question as to where Tororo County should be located because the boundaries were drawn up as early as 1947. He insists that President Museveni should prevail upon the Jophadhola to abide by the colonial boundaries and to give Tororo County to the Iteso.

Omaset threatened to repeat the same incidence four years later, in 2009 when the president visited Tororo.

Audio Recordings of Omaset Explaining His Actions below: 

Hunger kills 28 Ugandans, forces some to eat rats. 20 May 2008.

Another similar encounter happened in 2008, and it was due to too global price rises and floods in the previous year which caused severe food shortages in northeast Uganda, where nearly 30 people have died and some were reduced to eating rats, officials stated.

The deaths occurred in the remote Karamoja region, an impoverished semi-arid area bordering Kenya and Sudan that is notorious for fighting over the livestock and scant resources.

‘From data we have collected, 28 people have died in the region as a result of an acute hunger situation, and the government seems less than bothered,’ said Peter Lakodo, a member of parliament from Karamoja.

He said the people had died over the past six weeks.

Government officials acknowledged hunger had claimed lives and led to a desperate situation but did not give figures.

‘There are reports of people being seen with rats pierced on sticks. This shows that the hunger situation has worsened,’ Aston Kajara, minister in charge of Karamoja, told reporters.

Uganda’s minister for disaster preparedness at the time, Musa Ecweru, said the global food crisis, combined with the impact of 2007 floods in the region, had hit Karamoja badly.

‘There are two things that have conspired here — the floods of last year which destroyed crops and the fact that the competition for food regionally has gone high,’ Ecweru said.

The U.N. World Food Programme says 700,000 people in the region could need food aid in the coming months. The problem was later resolved.

MUCH EARLIER

There were programs much earlier in the country, where citizens were involved in rat trapping, in order to avoid and counter diseases at the time, like the plague amongst others.

Financial incentives were put in place by the authorities at the time, amounts of money were paid out depending on how many tails were delivered to the various Gombolola headquarters.  Homesteads enjoyed an extra source of income from this exercise.

Even in neighboring Kenya reports of rat trouble weren’t so uncommon. On January 4, 2005, mass “rat executions” were carried out, with reports indicating over 6,000 rats had been killed in a massive clean-up exercise of the Nairobi Market, while an equal number is said to have made a good escape.

The fascinating rat stories are not only limited to the African continent but go as far as Europe and Amsterdam in particular, which against a rich background of an exciting age of painters, there also lived a numerous number of renowned rat catchers.

Therefore rats have featured in the history of humanity and mankind, living side by side, through the generations world over, let alone the history of Uganda as a country, and this time round popping up in grandeur gesture. This may be attributed to several years of self-rule and independence, inflation, capitalism, high standards of living, the evolution of the internet(5G), and the changing times! Or do we still smell a rat?