Slum dwellers in Mbale resort to eating rats as Covid-19 lockdown hunger bites (VIDEO)
As times gets tough amidst the lockdown, communities are devising different means of surviving.
In Mbale, there is a community of slum dwellers that has resorted to eating rats to go through the tough time.
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These are people mainly comprising Karamajongs who relied on offering casual labour and hawking in Mbale town but are now struggling to sustain their families during the Covid-19 induced lockdown..
Most of them reside in Muvule cell, Kikaramoja zone in, Namatala ward, the biggest slum in Mbale municipality.
Every morning, groups of youths and men go hunting for the wild rats.
The groups starts its day with a prayer to ask for God's blessings before embarking on their journey.
Their hunting expedition takes them to Namabasa sub county, three kilometers from their home area.
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Using their skills, the group identifies an isolated habitat for their target and lays traps after which they go on destabilizing the grasses until the rats begin moving.
Within minutes, the first rat runs into the trap.
One of the rat hunters, Paul Lemokol, told us that he used to work at one of the hardware shops in Mbale municipality where he used to do casual work.
Without a job now, he said he had to devise new means of survival.
On a good day, the team gathers between 30-50 rats.
Upon completion of their expedition, they remove the intestines and roast their hunt.
They told us that wild rats do not pose any health hazard and are different from domestic rats.
However, experts warned that eating wild rats could expose human beings to the risk of contracting animal related diseases such as Ebola.
Lemokol said that this practice will come to an end once business resumes.
He appealed to government to give them relief food.
