Buganda�s giant tortoise is dead ![]()
INVALUABLE A man feeds one of the surviving tortoise at Bulange, Mengo yesterday
By Gerald Tenywa
ONE of three Buganda�s oldest giant tortoises has died. The tortoises are a tourist attraction at Bulange, Mengo, a Kampala suburb.
The treasured tortoises, which are natives of Seychelles, were estimated at 300 years before they were imported into the country about half a century ago.
Sources said the tortoises were a gift to Stanley Kisingiri Kitaka, heir to Zakaria Kisingiri, one of the three reagents of Daudi Chwa who was a king of Buganda at the turn of the last century.
�We treat them like pets and when we call them, they respond. It was a sad moment to lose one of them,�� said Pastor Grace Kitaka, a descendant of Kisin giri.
Kitaka said it took about 100 men to bury the bulky reptile that was estimated at about one tonne.
He said Brian, a male tortoise, suffered injuries on its shell after it was cut by a flying iron sheet.
He said they treated the reptile for four months but in vain.
Ye sterday, The New Vision found two of the survivors, Cissy and Ronnie, being washed.
Kitaka said former president Idi Amin�s soldiers thought the tortoises were symbols of witchcraft and kept on giving them biscuits and beef �to appease divine power.��New Vision: Tuesday, 8th February, 2005
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