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Know your hood: Kunya, Little known place, tucked between suburbs
The road that goes through Kunya to Kireka. This road has facilitated development and has also led to a few accidents. PHOTO BY Ismail Kezaala.
What you need to know:
If one did not know any better, they would think that Kunya is another nondescript area, however, it is a thriving hub of development, is affordable and very accessible
Just four-miles from the city centre of Kampala is a place called Kunya. Kunya is mostly a residential area; it is only one big zone and one chairman leading a team of youthful leaders, though it is not a small area. It’s a place with a low, though increasing population. It’s located in Nakawa division and is bordered by Kinawataka and Banda to the north, Kireka to the northeast, Mutungo to the east, Butabika and Biina to the south, Kitintale, Mbuya and Bugolobi to the southwest.
According to Abdu Mohammed, the youth chairman of the place, Kunya is one of the villages in Mbuya and they acquire most of their amenities from the neighboring places of Mbuya, Bugolobi, Kinawataka, Nakawa and Luzira. Kunya is a Luganda word meaning four (4). According to a 60-year-old resident, Zaria Nalweyiso, “back then, people around this place decided to name this place Kunya (4) just because of the four miles from Kampala town to the place.”
According to Lubuuka Jjuuko, the LC1 Chairman of Kunya town, “Development is on-going and we believe as time goes on, the whole town will have got most of the services that we lack currently. 10-years back, Kunya had only dusty roads without any tarmacked road in the place, but we got our main road worked on because it’s the route Kabaka Mutebi uses when going to his palace in Kireka.”
Area welfare improved
The chairperson also said a few big buildings and the population increase in Kunya also denote the ongoing development.
“We had a low population, but currently as I speak, the population is high, many people are coming in and a lot kids are born every day, though we have barely any services in the area to match the increasing number of people in the area.”
Mohammed says the standard of living has improved, though many people in the area are poor and cannot access loans to start up different businesses that would help fight poverty mainly due to the strict loans requirements; however he also asserts that a few residents have started-up small-scale businesses that help them.
Service provision gap
Lubuuka adds; “A few years back, we also had load shedding and no clean water for domestic use, those two amenities are now in place. We lack many services that are basic though, we have no banking facilities nor a market of our own though KCCA has always promised to build one for us.”
The area also barely has schools, Kunya has no government school, the few that are there are privately owned. The whole area has about two primary schools, about one nursery school and lacks a secondary school. Children are forced to go to long distanced schools which makes some lazy thus dropping out of school. This, Lubuuka adds, is why government should intervene.
Mohammed says there is a health crisis in the area. “Though we have a few clinics, we have no hospital in the whole area of Kunya, we are however, forced to move to Bugoolobi for any health problem that the clinics cannot handle. We are also facing a problem of road accidents. Lubuuka however, praised KCCA for having helped them dig the access roads. “We thank KCCA for having helped us widen the access roads and watering of a few dusty ones”.
Transport
Since transport by road has been made easier, Patrick Ocheng a boda boda cyclist asserts that taxis pass through the place and may charge Shs2,000 to and from town during peak hours, but if one strongly bargains, they would use Shs1,500 for the same distance.
Security
Security is important in every one’s life. The defence personnel, Juma Kitunzi says, security in the place is fair. “We have a few iron bar hit men; unfortunately a few of our youth are sometimes grabbed from the surrounding areas. We have a problem of theft; most women passing on the access roads at late hours have either their property stolen or are raped by goons, so it iskey to avoid such areas”.
He also adds, “We have got many cases of theft of motorcycles from boda boda cyclists. They have often come to report to us that their boda bodas have been stolen.” Kunya lacks a police post, however, they the Kinawataka Police Station in case there is a big case that cannot be resolved in the area.
However Kitunzi says the lack of a police post in the area is unsettling, “we are not happy because imagine if a mob unjustly tries to pounce on an individual, we could lose some one because of lack of police reinforcement in the area.”
Economic activities
The people of Kunya have tried to engage themselves in different kinds of activities that have helped raise income for them and improve on their standard of living. Lubuuka says people here do a lot of things to keep them busy and earn income. Kunya has one mosque and a few churches. People engage themselves in fabrication, carpentry, boda boda business, saloons have been set-up, retail shops are also increasingly cropping up as are roadside sellers who mostly operate at night.
