Residents of Kenya’s central Kiambu district are calling on the government and the Kenya Wildlife Service to do more to contain the invasion by the porcupines, or “nungunungu” as they are called in Swahili.
The farmers say that their maize crops have been so badly damaged by the spiky pests that they can only use it to feed cattle.
They no longer have the crops that they expected to eat, and neither do they have the crops they hoped to sell.
Ruined
Senior Nairobi National Park warden, Mr Amboga, told the BBC that the KWS was carrying out night patrols to halt the porcupine infestations.
However, he said that the porcupines were not really a big problem.
Porcupines represent strength in some Ghanaian cultures. Remember the Porcupine Warriors (Asante Kotoko) football club?
Andy Asamoah, Ghana
“The big problem in Kiambu is elephants which come and destroy the farms,” he said.
Kiambu residents, however, are not reassured. They say the pests are reproducing at a rapid rate and no-one has figured out how to stop them.
They have tried digging ditches and trenches around their fields to stop the pillagers.
One said: “They cannot go through trenches but because of the general area that we live in; we cannot have the trenches everywhere – the trenches are a danger risk to our children.
Delicacy or disease?
“And so they come. And when they do, they destroy all of our crops.
“We have not harvested much for two years.”
The spiky rodents haven’t stopped there though.
They have started burrowing in local graveyards and as they dig holes to live in, they are also exhuming human remains, causing great distress.
“The porcupines are against our culture – once someone dies we just want them to rest peacefully,” one man said.
For some in the area though, the creatures have not been received with anger.
They are the new delicacy.
This worries doctors and local councillor Alfred Thiarara.
“Knowing very well if you have seen a porcupine, you will know that they are covered with fleas – I worry there will be an outbreak of disease,” he said.
Following the broadcast of this story on the BBC’s Network Africa programme, several text messages were received proving that one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
After reading the messages, apparently they are a great delicacy and people eat them all over the world