Rider who survived pride of lions in park speaks out

Peter Nkabigabwa is a staunch Catholic and believes whatever happens in life is preordained. His faith was strengthened when he survived a pride of prowling lions in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda.

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“I used to pass through the park on foot, but I only gave my life to God since it was always a risk to walk through the park and God has been leading me,”

 Nkabigabwa hustles

Nkabigabwa's struggles to make his life better in a short time led him to different ventures, including beekeeping, which he abandoned after his swarm of bees attacked his neighbours’ cows.

“That is when I moved out on April 14, 2002, to try my luck in Kampala. I worked as a newspaper vendor for some eight years. I built my first house without any loan. First, I saved Shs800,000, then another Shs1m,” Nkabigabwa says.

“After getting married, I couldn’t sustain vending the newspapers anymore. So, I moved into the boda boda taxi business in 2013. I later got a motorcycle on loan. But with only Shs800,000 left to repay, the motorcycle was stolen,” Nkabigabwa adds.

He secured yet another motorcycle for which he would remit Shs10,000 everyday but the bike was soon stolen.

“As I rode back from Kyambogo University at 10pm, a passenger heading to Mbuya waved me down, and all of a sudden he gripped my neck. We fought until we fell off the bike as his colleagues grabbed my bike and rode off into the night.

These drove him back to embrace of his village where he began growing, tomatoes to fend for his nuclear family. They fruited but without yielding enough cash. So, he changed to bananas for higher proceeds, essentially returning him to where he started; vending matooke at the landing site.

“I carried matooke on a bicycle to Kasenyi in Kasese, some 40 kilometres away. I made friends who asked me to supply them,” he says.

Nkabigabwa found the road to Kasenyi smooth and faced no obstacle or encountered wild animals in the national park on the two occasions he rode through.

First lion

“On the third day, as I left Kasenyi, I found a vehicle also driving out of the landing site. It stopped all of a sudden and someone in the vehicle directed me to slow down, warning there was a lion crossing. I had never seen a lion. I stopped as the lion crossed into the bush. We both continued our journey,” he says.

The incident scared him and he stopped supplying customers deep in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and resorted to the nearby and safer market at Katunguru Landing Site.

“But I had a child with a disability and needed extra care. So, I went back to Kasenyi since they were offering higher prices. I was fighting to raise Shs2m to buy a wheelchair for my daughter, Maria Blessing, who has failed to walk,” he says.

On July 9, 2023, Nkabigabwa received a call from a customer at Kasenyi Landing Site, asking for supply of 10 bunches of matooke the following day at Shs15,000 per bunch.

Nkabigabwa left home the following day at 9.20am to supply the bunch.

Six more lions

But on his way to Kasenyi, he encountered some 20 tourist vehicles parked in the middle of the road.

“I tried to negotiate through and ride onto Kasenyi to continue with my journey. But I soon realised there was no way through,” he says.

“One of the drivers ordered me: ‘Park and enter the vehicle; there are lions under the vehicle! I froze,” he recounts.

He fumbled with the bike that was weighed down by eight bunches of matooke, but managed to park and scale up the tourist vehicle.

“[Within] only two seconds, the lions descended on the motorcycle,” he says.

“The driver told me I should’ve been dead. I had not realized that some six lions were prowling around the vehicles as I parked. I only saw them after jumping into the vehicle,” Nkabigabwa recalls.

The lions clambered onto the matooke as they bit away the ropes before weighing down the motorcycle.

“The tourists were busy clicking away their cameras as they took pictures for nearly two hours. After a while, the lions dozed off near the motorcycle. So I called my customer who had made an order and informed him that I found tourists in the middle of the road and lions were about to eat me, but the tourists saved me. He sympathised with me and promised to wait until I returned,” he says.

As the lions slept, the tourists wanted to leave, but Nkabigabwa could not leave his motorcycle and matooke behind. He asked the drivers to shield him as he raised his bike.

“They brought their vehicles together and put me in the middle. They asked me to get out before they could help me raise my motorcycle. But I was all trembling. I failed to kick start it as the fuel had all collected on one side. After the motorcycle started, the vehicles opened the way and I drove off to Kasenyi Landing Site,” he says.

Three more lions

Two bunches of my matooke fell off the motorcycle and Nkabigabwa was able to deliver only six. “I found my customer waiting and he paid Shs90,000 for the six bunches. I came back through the same route at around 3pm and I found another tourist vehicle in the road with three lions sleeping under the vehicle. At this point, I decided to pass through the grasslands in the park until I reached the main road,” he says.

“I would not want to ride through the park alone but at times we set off at different times and cannot wait for others because in most cases we go to different landing sites. It is rare that you can have another person to accompany you,” he said.

“I thought lions only ambushed. We fear them but we have nothing to do. If I had another business that could give me income and support my family on a daily basis, I would not be going there,” he says.

Nkabigabwa is not the only one who has survived the lions. Bernard Naturinda, 29, of Katanda Sub-county in Ryamatuma Parish, faced a similar scenario.

“It had rained and the road was bad so a path that was looking better, but only after only a few minutes, I came face-to-face with a lion eating an animal. I panicked and my engine went off suddenly,” he recalls.

“I dropped the motorcycle and fled into the park. The lion roared as I clambered up a tree,” Naturinda says.

Naturinda was only saved by the villagers who responded to his cries.

“It is normal to meet lions because I have met them on several occasions. They do not usually attack me,” he says. He said there are about 50 people in Katanda Sub-county who eke out a living riding through the park.

Mr Bashir Hangi, the manager of communication and public relations at Uganda Wildlife Authority, advises the locals to avoid moving alone in the park despite it being a protected area.

“When you are alone you become more vulnerable. In the case of this gentleman, our guides warned him of the lions ahead but they could not stop him because he was on a public road,” he says.

Mr Hangi was happy that Nkabigabwa survived the lions.

“Imagine if the lions had killed that gentleman, the reaction would have been very bad. They would continue to hate lions, they would continue to hate us and you never know what they could have done when one of their own has been killed by a lion,” he said.