The thought of eating ants sends shivers to most people but not for the residents of Maseno Mabungo, Kisumu County.
The locals who call it ‘Ngwen’ have mastered the art of harvesting the black ants and making a meal out of them.
They, however, attribute the habit to their ancestors.
“We have been eating this since I was born and I found those people eating and I wonder how people find it strange especially the Varsity students whom we live with,” said Gilbert Omondi.
They said the ants are rich in fat and proteins adding that they are either eaten raw or fried.
“It is a simple meal rich in especially fats carried in the abdomen and proteins that can be eaten raw from the field or fried and mixed with vegetables and taken as a rich diet,”James Ogoti noted.
The insects mostly appear during specific seasons of the year especially at the onset of the rains.
“They appear during the beginning of the rainy seasons and especially the beginning of March. We collect as much as we can and store them, however, over the past few years they have been decreasing in numbers which I suspect is as a result of climate change,”Priscilla Amollo narrated.
The Mabungo residents noted they are lucky since the insects live by the Hill Side during the rainy seasons and are not found in the lower regions.
Insect eating is not a new phenomenon in Kenya with the government pumping millions into research industries to produce the insects in large quantities for consumption.