A series of unfortunate events

I arrived in Uganda on Friday, March 22, 2024 and departed on April 22, 2024. During my visit,  l toured bars in Kololo and noticed that shisha was sold. In other words, served at almost every table and smoked.

I then visited the Kabalagala area, went to Capital Pub. Shisha was not sold there and the staff informed me that the bar was constantly raided and fined, therefore management decided to stop selling shisha. 

I wondered why laws are not enforced indiscriminately and the police are not held to account. It all goes back to corruption. What l saw is that one rule of law is applied to certain bars and not to other bars. No doubt the Health Ministry and police are not working together to enforce the Tobacco Control Act 2015.

Smoke from shisha has been known to cause heart disease, lung disease and cancer.  Smoke from shisha is known to be dangerous, because it contains harmful substances like carbon monoxide and toxic chemicals. I am a living example because it triggered post-nasal drip, asthma, chest tightness pain, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and prolonged months of discomfort coughing.

 Worst of all, the management of those clubs do not separate shisha smokers from non-shisha smokers. The reason is that often those operating the nightclubs are not knowledgeable enough, therefore lack the understanding of science and therefore do not designate areas to separate smokers from non-smokers.

Another experience l would like to share with you is that l booked a bed and breakfast (bnb). On arrival in Uganda, I went to stay there and noticed the following. Snails were on the walls in the shower/toilet and bedroom. Cockroaches were all over, and they had an illegal water connection. The National Water and Sewerage Corporation had cut off the water supply.

However, the person operating that place would come, remove the light blue part that connects the pipes, likely to be the meter reading, and insert a short pipe to connect the pipes. The water would flow and fill the tanks and once the tanks were full, he would fit back the water meter. The water meter had been locked by the National Water field staff.

I whistle-blew the theft practices, but it seems nothing was done. Paying tax from collected money from the premises is mandatory.  l directed the police to interrogate the culprit to prove that he was not evading paying tax in vain.

This left me wondering how the police expected to work with government bodies to track, trace, and prosecute criminals. What is the point of legislating  without the spirit to enforce the law?

I also visited a car hire company located in Nakawa. I paid to hire a vehicle to drive myself. After driving the vehicle a distance, l noticed some mechanical defects.  I drove it to a mechanic and it was found that the wipers, coils, spark plugs, brakes and brake cylinders were worn out. This explains the rampant accidents in Uganda.

On returning the vehicle, a lad began to inspect the vehicle, and after  said that l had spoilt the vehicle. I was billed  Shs1 million. That was the cost the company was to incur to repair that vehicle. I warn you that before you rent a car, take your mechanic with you for inspection. There is a foul play tactic they use of holding onto your passport and  demand money from you exceeding the agreed sum .

Uganda has several crooks, they use trickery to get money from people.

I was left traumatised when in broad daylight, four boda boda riders roughed me up. They had followed me , from a forex bureau which I had gone to to exchange money. In just seconds, l was brutally mugged. It is assumed that either the person who served me at the forex bureau is the one who alerted the thieves or they pretended to be boda boda riders, but were in fact thieves waiting to strike, in broad daylight. Watch out when you go to mobile money shops or forex bureaus.

Caxton Kasozi-Batende, legal economist sociologist,                 [email protected]