Some of the men who tussled it out in the Rwewnzori Marathon last Saturday. PHOTO/www.rwenzorimarathon.com/for-athletes/photos
The Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon 2024 happened in Kasese Town on August 24, exactly one week ago. And as one would expect, the after party was fire.
By 3pm, a few hours after the last marathoner had crossed the finish line, if you listened really carefully, you could hear footsteps of people descending on the town from the foothills of Mt Rwenzori. There was an after party later that evening and many people could not afford to miss it.
As the marathoners slept their soreness away that hot Saturday afternoon, town people walked about the streets with wide smiles, shopping and waiting to enter the street party on the whole length of Stanley Street. There was this vibrating energy that was reminiscent of childhood Christmas.
A few hours earlier, Stanley Street had been barricaded with iron bars to ensure patrons do not enter through any other way other than the designated entrance in front of Sandton Hotel.
All the alleys that open into this street were blocked and soldiers deployed to guard against all un-vetted entry. Kasese is one of those few towns in Uganda that must be thoroughly secured, especially in times like these, so this was both expected and commendable.
But the marathon organisers did something extra this year that really pissed off pub owners along the host street. Stanley Street is known as the party street. Anyone who knows Kasese knows that it has more bars than any other street in Kasese. It is a wide street with bars and lodges on both sides.
And it is known for street food too. It just has the right vibes, kinda like Kampala’s 1st Street in Industrial Area in the days of Ange Nior, Club Silk and T1. If Kasese was in Western country, it would be the town’s red light district. So one can see why it was chosen to be both the marathon’s finish line and the venue of the after-party.
When the first marathon came to town in 2022, the after-party was like Christmas for these pubs. They sold alcohol and all kinds of barbeque all day and all night and smiled to the bank the next day. They were very happy with the marathon and thanked their gods for being fortunate enough to host it. When the second marathon came to town last year, they made even more money.
While the first marathon had only brought 700 runners into their town, the second one attracted over 2,000. These numbers translated into astronomical alcohol sales for the bars on Stanley Street, a good reason to look forward to this year’s marathon.
But this year, the honeymoon seems to have ended. The organisers decided to erect a metallic fence in front of all the bars, hotels and lodges on the street that hosted them so that the patrons could only get their drinks from the event sponsor’s stall.
A visitor from out of town had set up a street party in their midst and prohibited them from attending. The pubs that hosted the party were cut off from the juicy boon that made the marathon so loved by the people of Kasese. This left many upset with the organisers.
“We thought the marathon was here to benefit us, the people of Kasese, but if the sponsor is the only one allowed to make a sale, how is that helping Kasese?” one bar owner was seen shouting at the guards.
A young pub manager exclaimed standing in his empty pub saying, “By this time (8pm) last year, this bar was full of people. We had people sitting at the veranda for lack of space inside. But look at this place now.”
“This is the worst night ever. They made sure we do not make any sales not only by blocking people from entering our bars, they have also slashed the prices of their beers to Shs3,500,” another said.
As the pub owners were complaining, loud music was blaring from the public address system in the street, neon lights outshinning their upset faces. The party-goers, many of whom were visitors into the town, were having a great time on the street, while the townspeople were frowning from their fenced off verandas one metre outside the happiness bubble.
One of the pub owners we talked to is a politician that worked hard to make sure the marathon was welcomed into the town. He felt back-stubbed. He said this would have to be changed back to how it was for the first two years for better relations with the host population. The after-party was fire, but the host street was left in dire straits. And that was the problem with the Rwenzori Marathon this year.
