ARIAKA

Kampala was on fire yesterday.  The parking yard for Nakivubo war memorial Stadium caught fire in the wee hours of yesterday morning and raged for six hours.  According to press reports, millions worth of goods and more millions in cash was lost in the inferno.  The government has now instituted a cabinet subcommittee to look into the cause of the fire.  They will await the police report after investigations into the causes of the fire.

When we awoke to TV news of this fire, the anguish on the faces of the traders was to much to bear. Lost livelihood is what ringed loudly.  The risks to our economy, our country when finally computed, will ring in to billions of lost revenues, but the ramification is skin deep.

Lost Livelihoods …and Revenue

With close to 1000 people out of jobs, in this era of the credit crunch, the country stands to loose billions in revenues.  Many of the traders lived out of Uganda and contibuted significanlty to their local economies.  Therefore, the risk to educatFire disaster ill-preparedness

This fire comes two weeks after Nakumatt and Molo fires killed more than 150 Kenyans. The The EastAfrican joint report on the region’s ability to fight fires makes a sombre reading. Uganda is not prepared for an inferno.  Woe betides us if any fires flared in our city.  Well, the story was vindicated as the Nakivubo fire as affirmed.

The head quarters of the fire fighting institution, the police fire brigade happens to be a stone’s throw away from the Nakivubo scene.  They arrived at the scene 90 minutes late according to press reports.  At the snail pace of 5 centimeters per second the fire truck took forever to arrive.  Yet when they did, there was no water or foam or both, and the trucks were too few to be of any importance to put out the fire.  So they called for reinforcement. Firefighters were to be the knight in shining armour. Unfortunately, the fire company could only look angazi in the face of a fire out of control.  There is no access road, there is no water, too many crowds, the fire fighters claimed. Like the police, they were toothless as the fire was beyond their control.  According to the police spokeswoman, speaking to CBS radio, some action took place and some goods were salvaged.  The looters were stopped from having a field day. That response came a little too late to stop the fire.

Conspiracy theorising

So what caused the fire?  Tongues begun to wag.  A bus company has been given the Kirussia side of Nakivubo stadium to redevelop into a terminal, in a four year UGX 12,000,000 a month deal by the stadium management committee.  Having no access to the parking yard, some people are now claiming that the bus company could have started the fire to rid the place of the traders and create the important entrance.  The bus company deny this claim. A picture in the New Vision showed a police officer pointing at a hole in concrete, suspected to be the point where the fire was introduced.  It was a blackened hole, apparently recently blasted through the concrete walls of Nakivubo stadium. Was this arson? Who could have done it?  Then the claims that a blust was heard before the fire begun.  Could it have been a grenade lobed through the hole? Kampala does not go o sleep these days.  The night life around the city is alive 24hrs, again with improved security around the country, buses travel aroun the clock.  It is therefore possible to hear a loud bang at night. But the explosion could also have been the result of power outage.  Enough said.

We have to go back in time to understand the suspicions of the traders.  A decade ago, I used to shop for my wardrobe at a shop on Luwum Street. Maurice, the shop owner one day told me of the threat to his business.  The landlord had asked them to vacate the building.  However, the shop owners needed more time to relocate.  One Monday morning, the traders awoke to a grim sight.  The building was razing to the ground; and there was nothing to do to save the merchandize.  Maurice had luckily, taken the threat seriously and had got a shop on Wilson road.  A short while later, trucks ferried materials on the sight and construction work commenced in earnest.  Alarmingly, there was no police investigation as to cause of this fire, well, at least no reports were published.

In the years that followed, many dilapidated buildings on the street met the same fate; tenants asked to leave then an inferno.  Does that ring a bell?  The police will investigate the causes of the Owino fire, if to assuage the public anger, but as the traders are licking their wounds, we will wait for the report.

In the wrong place at the wrong time

In the late 30’s, the British Colonial government gazetted a swamp at the foot of Old Kampala, Nakasero confluence into a National Stadium, to welcome the veterans of the first world war.  It was called Nakivubo war memorial Stadium.  It was the only one of its kind in Uganda and would offer the avenue for the locals to cool off their steam.

The stadium sat on five acres of wetland and would comprise the complex and the parking areas around it; for the population of the city estimated at 10,000 at the time, would fit in nicely and the upper class would not have trouble parking their cars.  When Idi Amin Dada took power, the area around the stadium was an inviting place for hawkers and vendors of merchandise.

 An idea was then mooted in 1972 to turn it into a market.  An obscure Adhola man, common at the place gave it the name; Owino market.  So Owino as we fondly called it grew into an amorphous establishment that came to define the life on the fringes; a microcosm of the national character of Uganda. 

An unplanned business settlement where the rules of the jungle reigned supreme over establishment.  Pickpockets, vagrants, hawkers and vendors and prostitutes and… a kaleidoscope of cultures and character, all seeking a livelihood thrived.  But people were happy as everyone got something in this market. The pick pocket, the bargain seeker, the discount seller.  Anything from agricultural produce, clothings, upholstery to electronic goods mostly second, pirated and stolen found a ready market.

(coming soon, why burning the market is a blessing in disguise)

In the last two weeks, two momentous events happened in Uganda.  The leading parties started what many people now view as political manouvuering  to capture or retain power in 2011 Ugandan elections.  First off the block was, Forum for Democratic Change FDC), whose name suggests that no change of democratic credentials has come to Uganda.  Indeed its leadership is composed of leaders of NRM who have jumped ship.

FDC held a delegates conference in Mandela National Stadium east of Kampala where the party Col.  Dr.  Kizza Besigye defeated Lt. General Mugisha Muntu, former army commander of the UPDF to retain the party presidency.  With over 800 delegates attendinjg this function, it is not lost on political watchers FDC has a powerful mobilization machinery.

Takinfg the cue, H.E President Yoweri  finally made the cabinet reshuffle that had lingered in the grapvine for over six months.  And what a reshuffle. We saw the appointment of a first lady, also MP for Ruhama county of Ntungamo district to the Karamoja portfolio.  We saw Syda Bumba, transfered from Labour to the all important Finance docket.  It is the first time in Uganda that a first lady is a Minister, forget that hers is a junior portfolio.  It is also the first time that a women has been appointed a finance Minister.

These are not simple appointments.  It is a political chess game where the master has his eye set on victory.   There has been a lot of realighnment in this reshuffle.  The removal of ex-officio MPs from cabinet vis  Salim Saleh, Dr. Ham Mulira and Dr.  Suruma; the demotion of vocal local government minister Lt.General Otafiire to Trade and Industry from Local government etc. The retention of Vice President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya and security minister Amama Mbabazi means that an electoral cabinet is complete.

The president has created a formidable machinery for other FDC, DP, UPC, JEEMA, PPP and other parties to contend with.  And yet in the last two years, the present has promoted young officers in UPDF, and the police.  There is yet another story on army reshuffles in today’s issue of The Daily Monitor . Whereas these are routine exercises that should not excite anybody, as the army spokesman has from time to time reaffirmed, a clear trend is forming.  The older, tried if tired officers are not supple enough for the political dispensation.  You need young and vigorous men who are in sync with the needs of the future.

The President could not allow FDC glow in the victory of a successful election.  So in terms of the media capital, he has quickly placed NMRo in the limelight.  Every talk show, newspaper, TV stations, bimeeza is giving the president valuable mileage over competition.  This is important for sustaining the the momentum for the 2011 election and stifling the voices of espexcially FDC which had attempted to steal the show.

In some quarters, the first lady is expected to bring investment to Karamoja in a manner her predecessors could, She has the eyes and ears of the big man remember. That expectation has the potential of returning a huger Karamoja vote for the movement.  But Karamoja has always voted movement, what could now be different? It is unclear now, though beyond the mystery, The EastAfrican’s magazine artcle this week by David Kaiza suggests - Keep the old lady in tow.  She is known to defy her husband especially regarding her ambition to run for MP.  She is also known to offer ideas on touchy topics contrary to the guidelines set by the party. 

The most telling of all the appointment is the elevation of Syda Bumba to the powerful finance ministry.  This move is a winner for the women vote.  IT is a first in Uganda.  This move will also change the mindset in Buganda.  Buganda has more cabinet bost than any other region other than the west. To give the powerful post to a Muganda, coupled with improving relation between Museveni over the land bill, we are expecting  a more favourable Buganda attitude to the movement.

It is important to win Buganda to win the country.  To appoint Mrs Bumba, thought to be a sister to Ahmed Seguya, the bush war army commander of NRM will heal the haemorrhage and bring the region back in the NRMO fold, an important move to win any national election in the country.

Where is UPC, DP and others?