ARIAKA

Yesterday, my Bureau Chief, Michael brought news to the effect that Kisekka market was on fire. This news came in at about midday.  It can not be a very bad news as Kisekka market is known to be a troublesome spot, where riotings can happen spontaneously.  Later it emerged from news on the FM stations that this small problem at Kisekka market had conflagrated and that rioting had spread across downtown Kampala where roads were being blocked by rioters, bon fires were being lit.

At 3.30 pm I decided it was time to pick my little angel Elizabeth from School and take her home before night fall, and to evade the situation as rioting had now engulfed the entire city, save the central business district area.  My colleagues advised against driving, but suggested that I use boda boda (motor cycle taxis) instead.

I take the advice and pick Laban from the stage and proceed to pick the little angel. Laban was at first unwilling to make the trip to Nansana. It took a bit of haggling and finally, we set off.  The first sign of trouble was at Central police station, vehicles were being diverted off Buganda road to George way.  We finally make it to the school and pick Aiikoru.

Then we started off onto Bombo road and onto Makerere Hill road. At the Kobil petrol station, fire is smoldering on the road, but police has cleared the road and traffic flows smoothly.  A few metres, away, we hear teargas canister expode. When we reached Nakulabye, the Hoima road has been sealed off.  So we continue along Mutesa II road onto the Nabulagala road and proceed towards the Masiro.  At Kasubi, the road is sealed off by locals, lined by amused onlookers, some boys singing the Buganda anthem.  No vehicles can move at all.  Boda Boda must stop, dismount and walk past the erected barricades.

After 10 metres of walking, we mount the motor cycle and edge slowly to Namungoona.  At the stage, rioters have blocked the road.  You can see that the road has been blocked all the way from Kasubi.  At Namungoona stage, youths have blocked the road and are collecting used lorry tyres to light a born fire.  Looking beyond the stage, fire is raging across the road through the Lubigi swamp all the  way to Jenina stage.  The swamp and the areas around is engulfed in plums of dark smoke, releasing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) into the sky.  Laban stops and implores me to release him as he is afraid, he can not make the journey anymore.  I pay him and join the multitude walking home.

We pass hordes of youths chanting the Buganda anthem, some collecting tyres, and all sorts of fuel to pile on the embers flaring on the road.  This scenario is repeated every 20 metres.  The youths are angry.   Angry, at the government refusal the landlord (the Kabaka) from visiting his land. At some point, after Jenina, youths are exhorting money from boda boda riders, asking for road toll.

We walk passed several blockades, plums of smoke, chanting and excited youths, walking masses and anxious onlookers.  We get news of people walking home in Kampala, children stranded at schools and that some people, for fear of going home are going instead to Mulago Hospital Complex for the night.  We meet mothers fearing for their children who are stranded at school.  It is 5.00 pm and with transport paralyzed, it is truly scary.

Before we reach home, on the advice of a policeman at Nansana police post, we take a detour from the main road and emerge at the Shell at Masitowa and slope home, after sidestepping the many barricades that characterize the road now.  Rioters are shouting xenophobic utterances.  We want to see a Munyala now, we want the ones with long noses.  Very scary, if you consider what happened in Rwanda.  It becomes very very scary.  The profile of the youth is also telling.  They are mainly in their teens or twenties, a few in the thirties, they speak and act as if they are high on some substance.  I saw some children, ten to 15 year olds waving twigs and jumping on the road, they should be at school.  Sometimes they accost you, requiring of you to sing the Buganda anthem as a password.

On reaching home, I quickly tune the radio to find out what is going on.  The news is bad.  Trouble in Natete, Bwaise, Kibuye, Masaka, Kyengera, Jinja road, Ntinda, Nakulabye, Kasubi, literally all over Kampala.  Mubende, Mpigi and Kayunga is tense as rioters had emerged in those areas.   All the road leading into the city is sealed off and travelers from upcountry are stranded outside the city.  There is no movement of cars in the suburbs.  The BBC has a news bulletin on the incident.  But their story is shallow as it is limited to the city only and a sound bite of excited rioters. 

At about 700 pm, lights are switched off.  Then the bullets start.  The  army had arrived to disperse the youths and the sporadic firing could tell the tense situation.  People scamper for their homes and the roads cleared.  Radio Uganda has the President on, addressing the Nation.  He recounts the history of this conflict.  From the unprincipled partnership between Kabaka Yekka party and UPC, to the land bill, insights into the restoration of Kingdoms and how they could operate, rebuffing federalism for Uganda as being a panacea for corruption and mismanagement, to giving us a glimpse into his relationship with the Kabaka.

The president says that the Kabaka refused to pick his calls, nor return his missed calls for two years.  That despite the concerted efforts of the National Security to meet with Mengo to resolve this impasse, nothing had happened.  When he finally spoke to his Highness, the discussion is not conclusive as regards resolving many outstanding issues.  And that the Katikkiro (Prime Minister of Buganda) had snubbed the minister of internal affairs in a scheduled meeting.

When sleep weighed heavily on the eye lids, sporadic fire aroused me to attention.

Nansana went to bed very tense. By 7.00 pm, horrified people had closed their doors, the shops had closed by 2.00 pm and the thought of the bad days of childhood, of people sleeping in the forests became alive.  Surely Uganda can not afford to relive the bad days.