More than 85 percent of children in Uganda's Busia district are staying home from school due primarily to the menace caused by the baboons, which are attacking gardens and farms to feast on fruits and vegetables grown there.

"This has forced many parents to deploy their children to guard and scare away the animals instead of sending them to school," Busia district council chairman Stephen Wanyama Oundo told AFP.

He said the parents' actions were affecting the Ugandan government's program to provide free primary education to all children as an estimated six out of seven elementary school-age children were not going to classes.

The speaker of Busia's local legislature, John Mulimba, was quoted in the local press as saying teachers were also staying at home to guard their crops against the creatures.

Oundo said the district was seeking help from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in dealing with the unruly and often menacing baboons.

But UWA spokeswoman, Lillian Nsibuga, said the animals are categorized as vermin and could be managed by local authorities.

Oundo said this was of little comfort in Busia because the district does not have enough manpower to deal with the pests and animal control officers invited from neighboring districts could offer only questionable advice on the matter.

Busia's farmers were told they should protect their crops by planting thorny trees around gardens and fields, according to Oundo, who said that remedy had yet to work.