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Migeera: The bustling stopover town
Growth. Part of the main street in Migeera Town Council in Nakasongola District, on the Gulu-Kampala highway. PHOTO BY DAN WANDERA
What you need to know:
- Organisation. After putting in place roads and piped water, leaders in Migeera,Nakasongola District have embarked on the implementation of a draft physical development plan, where all developers planning to put up new structures are compelled to seek authorisation from the town council. physical planning department.
- Migeera Town Council has a population estimate of about 5,750 residents, according to the 2014 National Population and Housing Census although authorities estimate the population to have shot to about 7,000 residents. Authorities claim that non-residents who come for business make the population shoot to more than 8,000 people.
NAKASONGOLA. For visitors and travellers plying the Gulu-Kampala highway, Migeera Town is one of the budding convenient stopovers for refreshments after a long drive.
Truck drivers find Migeera Town, which is about 200kms north of Kampala city on the Gulu-Kampala highway, a comforting home since the now busy town has several lodging facilities charging between Shs10,000 and Shs45,000.
Because of its ample parking space, the town has for the last two decades attracted motorists and truck drivers. It is also a hub for sex workers, who target ‘visitors’ as potential customers.
“After putting in place roads and piped water, leaders in Migeera have embarked on the implementation of a draft physical development plan, where all developers planning to put up new structures are compelled to seek authorisation from the Town Council physical planning department,” Mr Herbert Kasibante, the town clerk, said in an interview yesterday.
“Despite our meagre resources resulting from the low tax base, we have an organised town. We basically derive most of the revenue from the property tax, which is still minimal,” he said.
For a visitor possibly checking in for the first time at late evening hours, the town with well- lit streets powered by the newly installed solar security lights, gives you the first impression of an organised town despite the absence of first class recreation facilities.
Mr Kasibante is quick to point out that Migeera Town is not only a stopover for long distance truck drivers, but also an investment hub.
“We now have a meat processing factory under construction by an Asian investor and several milk coolers owing to the fact that the town is strategically located within the heart of the cattle corridor area in Nakasongola District,” he said.
Unlike other upcoming urban centres, where plots of land for commercial development projects could be expensive; at Migeera Town, a 50 ft by 100ft plot within the central business centre on the Gulu- Kampala highway costs between Shs30m and Shs45m while the same plots off the highway, but within the town centre cost between Shs15m and 25m. Some plots cost as low as Shs6m.
“This possibly explains why we have much construction for commercial buildings taking place because the plots are affordable. We now have people from outside Nakasongola District purchasing plots of land to put up commercial structures.
“wThe fact that we have electricity and piped water, the factors that many potential investors consider before settling for a particular investment, partly explains the increasing infrastructure projects,” the town clerk explained.
The town clerk. Herbert Kasibante
To boost moral behaviour and instill discipline among sex workers, who had become a nuisance and a potential danger to the young generation and visitors, Migeera Town political leaders and the technical team led by the town clerk came up with guidelines to stop the sex workers from indecent dressing. The sex workers who used to storm the town centre as early as 5pm to look for potential customers have been stopped and instructed to conduct their business at the different lodging facilities.
“The situation was running out of hand and our own children were at risk of falling prey to the evil behaviours displayed by the sex workers who used to line up the streets as early as 5pm targeting every male person passing by. They could at times use vulgar language and sometimes insult the women, including our children, who are not part of their network. We could not withstand this situation.
“We had to bring them to order by restricting their activities to particular areas, the time they operate and ensure that they stop the indecent dressing,” Mr Godfrey Kabogoza Ssengombe, the Town Council chairperson, says.
He said they still find it difficult to ban sex workers in the town since acts of prostitution are almost in every town across Uganda, but they will censure them.
“But we had to call them and brief them about the new guidelines which they have now agreed to follow. This partly explains why the sex workers who used to engage in fistfights for potential customers on streets during day time have stopped.
“You can imagine a prostitute calling you a customer in the presence of your children, wife and any other relative and friends who are possibly foreign to the evil behaviour of these unruly members of society. This was a behaviour which we had to deal with firmly as leaders,” Mr Kabogoza said.
Keeping law and order
To ensure that criminals do not take advantage of the sex workers network to terrorise residents of Migeera, the town leaders cautiously engaged the sex workers in a series of meetings coordinated by police.
“This has helped Migeera Town to be a no-go area for criminals unlike other towns,” Mr Wasswa Ssenyonga, the town council secretary for Production and Education, told Daily Monitor in an interview.
Prostitution is illegal in Uganda. However, authorities at the border town of Malaba in eastern Uganda attempted to legalise the business in 2004 and enacted a by-law as well as introducing a tax that prostitutes had to pay to operate in the area.
The prostitutes reneged on the deal, after some of their clients threatened to boycott them, arguing that the former had unnecessarily hiked the charges, which consequently forced authorities to scrap the by-law.
One of the leaders of the sex workers at Migeera who preferred to be identified as Diana (not real name) claimed that they are law abiding residents and attend all meetings convened by the town council leadership.
“We are here for survival and many of us have dependants back at home. Personally, I have two children of 8 and 14 years who stay with my mother. I have to look for school fees and promptly send this money to my mother for the children’s school fees and scholastic materials.
“These children are now in good schools because I want them to have a good future. They should not live a risky life like their mother. We are not here by choice and none of us would be here if we had paying jobs,” Diana who claims to have dropped out of high school in Senior Five after her guardian lost her job way back in 2005, says in an interview.
The struggles
Prostitution. For Christine (not real name), 29, who has engaged in prostitution for more than 12 years after dropping out of school, life remains a challenge.
“My parents passed on when I was just 16 years, but I had a guardian who was paying my school fees. I was expelled from school when I escaped to attend disco at a neighbouring town. When the school expelled me, I could not face my guardian who is a soldier and was paying my school fees in an expensive girls secondary school.
“I later got a friend who brought me to Migeera Town. I began a new life as a sex worker because life had become a nightmare. I nearly committed suicide after being expelled from school because my guardian was a disciplinarian who could not listen to any explanation about my expulsion from school,” Christine said.
Mr Shafik Kabogoza, the youth council chairperson for Migeera Town Council, said: “It is unfortunate that we have had some of the young children under the age of 16 secretly joining the sex workers network at Migeera Town. We have a fear that many girls who drop out of school could get coerced to join the sex workers network with hope of earning money.”
