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Mbale town: Plunged in a mess and paying the price
A view of Mbale Town. Despite efforts of the authorities to put things right, there are still a lot to be done. PHOTO BY FRED WAMBEDE
What you need to know:
After a botched stint in textile business, he came to Mbale in 1993 where he started a supermarket. He describes it as largely successful then but now he is no as upbeat but hopes the situation will be better.
After a brief argument, the two squared up and started throwing punches. After a few seconds, they were disengaged. The two, taxi touts, were fighting over a passenger, who had turned them down and opted for a bus instead.
Then there is businessman, Patel Vishnu. He came to Uganda in 1988. After a botched stint in textile business, he came to Mbale in 1993 where he started a supermarket. He describes it as largely successful then but now he is no as upbeat but hopes the situation will be better.
He cannot trace, with precision, when business started slowing down but what he can attest to is that things are not as they used to be.
Rukia Sera, a Master’s student of development studies, is not happy with the state of affairs in her home town. “The cost of living is high—it is costly to live in Mbale these days,” she says. “Look at the roads and then the state of the town. It is dirty and unplanned. There are too many boda-bodas, buildings are mushrooming illegally. This is not how things were.”
The mess
The touts’ fight, Sera’s story and Vishnu’s experience is a tale of how Mbale, once the darling town in East Africa, has degenerated as those in authority were either clueless or looked on helplessly. When did it start falling apart?
John Mushomi, a lecturer at Makerere University’s Centre for Population and Applied Statistics, points out that it starts with lack of definition of what is urban.
“We should note that what is urban today in Uganda does not conform to any standard but reflects a selfish creation of the political hegemony (control) that has engulfed Uganda over the years,” he states. “Even the urbanisation yardsticks, statistics and indicators are in a helpless situation. We can only talk about ruralite expansion into a sort of towns.”
When did it start?
This comes as a result of government ceding its responsibility for political consolidation rather than development.
In an interview, Hakim Khaukah, an auditor and a researcher, traces Mbale’s deterioration to the 1970s after expulsion of Asians by President Idi Amin in an attempt to empower Ugandans economically.
He explains: “With Asians gone, Ugandans took up their businesses but they were not well exposed to town life. They (indigenous people) generated a lot of garbage. Banana leaves and peelings were a common sight. Gardens that were well-maintained were neglected. As if that was not enough they started rearing animals and farming in the town. So, the cows and goats roaming in towns didn’t start today. It started when Africans took charge of the town way back in the 70s.”
But, according to Dr Gidale Muiri Mupalya, who was born and grew up in Mbale, it started in the early 1980s and by the 1990s, Mbale was a shadow of its former self. “Potholes were all over the roads. Streetlights were not working. Nobody was maintaining the town gardens. People started putting up structures. Anything green was replaced with concrete.”
The likes of Mushomi also argue that town development is determined, implemented, guided and owned by government. To put things into perspective, Mushomi raises several rhetoric questions. “Could it be that Mbale was handed over to the unprepared and ill-equipped in the name of decentralisation? Could it be a result of World Bank and IMF policies which shifted the focus from urban to rural development?”
Many questions, few answers
He continues: “Could it be explained from the lens of institutional breakdown and therefore likened to the death of other institutions like hospitals, schools and so forth? Could it be a political question where resources and emphasis go where the ruling governments have bloc support?”
Mushomi wonders whether it is the mindset and actions of the people themselves that explains the situation or it is a question of an unproductive population. “Could the war in Northern Uganda have contributed to the mess in a sense that Mbale paid the cost for Gulu and Lira’s development as result of war?” he adds stating that all the aforementioned are all possible if viewed in context.
Joy Manana, deputy town clerk, Mbale, admits that challenges are huge though not insurmountable. She argued that the decay of most facilities such as power and roads, and financial resources, let alone political instabilities in the 1970s and 1980s, largely explain the current state of affairs.
She says: “Most of the infrastructures we have were done 30 or 50 years ago. That means that they are overused. We have to overhaul them and replace them with new ones.”
The mayor, Mutwalib Zandiya Mafabi, is also candid about the challenges. He is aware about the mess that the town has since became, and “sober enough” to understand that the chaos cannot be sorted in flash. It will take a hard shift, some dangerous, like in an incident earlier in the year where a pistol was pointed at him.
The scuffle ensued when the town’s leaders were enforcing a court injunction stopping a construction along a sewer line.
The proprietor of the building, Alii Boto, drew a pistol and threaten to shoot Mafabi before the municipal law enforcement officers brought him to order. Mafabi says he forgave Boto after the latter apologised to him.
Deserve better
A report by Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development shows mismanagement and corruption has bedeviled operations of the municipality. For long, Mbale has been dogged by corruption scandals and, as a result, it is one of the most difficult towns the ministry has to work with.
In 2013, Daily Monitor reported that then mayor, Richard Masaba, was interdicted and arrested. But reports of financial impropriety persisted. It was not long before then town clerk, Norbert Turihikayo, was interdicted for the fraudulent purchase of 1,200 acres of land in Bulambuli District in which the municipal council lost Shs950m.
Thus far, Mbale residents have paid a heavy price for the mess created by those entrusted with responsibility to do the right thing. The youth, who are the majority, are struggling to get employment. The cost of living is high. The town dwellers have been reduced to survivors though they should be thriving.
From the interaction with several people, this is a heavy price to pay, considering that the people deserve better. The good news is that their spirit is unshaken, their resolve only gets stronger.
About Mbale town
Mbale town is nearly 110 years old. It was declared a township by the colonial government on June 26, 1906. By 1951, Mbale had established itself as the hub for business and was the neatest in East Africa. It was the first town to be granted the status of an urban authority after independence.
