On Crossroads
Time check, 7.00am; and the traffic on Makerere road is grounding to a halt. Exaspirating delay is flaring tempers. Motorist are eager to make it to work on time. But for a a grim faced traffic officer and an enthusiastic UTODA (Uganda Taxi Operators Association) traffic warden, you can only turn left. Left onto Makerere Hill road down to Kisekka market, onto Kyagwe road, up onto Bombo road and finally city centre.
Tuning in to 88.8 CBS FM the Ngoma Ssagala agalamide morning show is on. …and Abe Mukiibi is reading a call from the Bataka to Bazzukulu ba Buganda to converge at Lubiri for a march to Parliament to protest the proposed regional tier government. More specifically, their displeasure with the notion of an elected Katikiro.
So why the unusual jam? It is 8.00 am and Radio One says in the morning news bulletin that Makerere University students are on rampage, demanding the withdrawal of the hiked retake fees.
Now it is clearer that you can not proceed on Makerere Road, past the university main gate to town. We’ll endure the delay and symphasise with the students on their cause. Having to pay fees revised by well over 2000% is surely incorrigible and to add unfathomable to the campusers.
It is about 10.00pm and the news is grim. The riot has escalated, one student dead, killed by a blood-thirsty riot police? Or is it the physical conditions on Sir Apollo Kagwa road?. Meanwhile the environ is hostile, smoky skies from teargas canisters, teary people; lost merchandise, vandalised and burnt cars, foods in Wandegeya eaten by force. Perhaps the University should improve on the menu.
Back to Mengo, the Bataka march on onto the city. On the last approach, riot police was anticipating them. The police rather cutting a robotic posture in their gears, then proceeded to disperse the approaching human mass leaving a misty and smoky Parliament avenue.
All is well that ends well, the state would say but the ensuing weekend would only offer a temporary reprieve. Come Monday 14th and the riot saga would rear its uglier head again. Only that this time, with a reinvigorated vegeance..
Whereas the day started on on bright note; bright skies, clear skies and, with the main stories in the dailies emphasising the impending NRMO delegates conference in Namboole, covering in detail the assemblage’s chorus for the Head of State to stand for party presedency, we were prepared for nothing less than the usual bewilderment that is associates with praise-singing.
The Daily Monitor had carried a picture of the a lady supporter of retired Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye in Rukingiri wearing a creative hat: about one foot high, decorated with a vote Dr. Kizza Besigye poster. Quite an enthusiast you may say, but giving a welcome contrast to the New Vision
Little did we know that a mega story was to break. Remember our one-foot-hat lady? Well, she was attending an Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) rally of Dr. Kizza Besigye at his home town of Rukungiri in western Uganda. The retired Colonel was to return on Monday 14th. But it would turn to be a Monday etched in the collective minds of Ugandans.
On reaching Busega; the Black Mamba, that had been trailing him, from Nyendo Masaka, finally stopped the retired Colonel’s convoy and arrested him. The series of events that followed is now in the realm of the world press.
Dr. Kizza Besigye was huttled to CPS to begin a journey to Luzira prison. In the ensuing hours, Central Kampala had metamorphosised from a tranquil city centre to a besieged one. FDC supporters and their imitators had cordoned city center and were now running battles with riot police.
Kampala once again had deteriorate into a semblance of anarchy. Think smoky airs, teary and sneezy faces and a mass of angry demonstrators mobilized in a jiffy. Well thanks to telecommunication and the world wide web, Kampala was reaping the rewards of innovation with emotive application.
Counting the fruits: looting on William and Luwum etc.. Streets - Giant eagle loosing a shopful of merchandise, a couple of government vehicles reduced to ashes, one or two people dead, a freadful shopping centres and a bewildered country.
You can call it fear, anger, anxiety or plain impudence, but an exodus of biblical proportion was eminent by four o’clock. People fleeing from work, Kamunyes shunning town centre and a mass on foot; retreating to their homes.
The jams, jams my God. Jams everywhere. Vehicles moving at snail pace. A very typical example - Kitante road. That access road enjoining Mulago roundabout and Jinja road roundabout. Orndinarily, it is adual carriage that flows smoothly save for jams on some Fridays.
But on this Monday, the dual carriage is conveniently one-way with deliberate lane switching. Motorists running over flowerbeds and rutting the well mowed lawns. Fear is one thing, but with it recklessness and lawlessness, surely something is amiss in our psychs. You have to ask. Are we at the threshhold again. The Crossroads that eventually usher in a new attitude, a new beginning? As the day bore on you prayed and slept and hoped that by morning you realised it was a bad dream.
