The city is beautiful, competing narratives of Kampala's growth

There are many signs the city is growing elsewhere. Driving in the city’s northern neighborhoods, requires google maps. Traffic lights have improved traffic flows. There is perhaps one man at City Hall, Jacob Byamukama, the city’s traffic manager, himself born and bred in the city’s core central business district fresh from his studies in the United Kingdom who has seen the growth in traffic light inventory from just three sets of traffic lights to the scores of traffic lights we have in Uganda today. 

There was a time, when it was big news, when Sembule Electronic added two sets of lights to the single one that used to operate at Entebbe Road in the 1980s. Visitors to Uganda at night are tempted to believe, Uganda has already reached middle income status. Neat rows of street lights welcome you from the airport, marching you up to the expressway before you reach conference hub- Munyonyo. 

On your way you encounter roadworks, but not the potholes. Potholes are still associated with the older Kampala where ruinous practices like exorbitant taxes, unfavourable business environments, preference to foreigners drove the old names out of the city.

At night the city’s true beauty comes out. All the dusty roads are no more, bright neon lights light up commercial buildings. Streetside markets, some of which operate past midnight are on the go. Kampala does not have a weekend. Young people routinely go out, every day. The brewers, have been contributing massively to the country’s coffers in increasing terms year after year. 

Another feature of the city; petty theft and petty crime is also growing. Travelers on one of its biggest innovations, the Kampala Northern By pass that connects the southern tip of the city, Busega to its eastern tip, Namboole Stadium and in some cases, the longer expressway routinely confront criminal gangs who steal and effortlessly disappear on foot. 

One end the bypass cuts across the vast Lubigi wetland. As operation clean up the city, continue, cleaning up sidewalks, pavements etc., these youngsters are executing more menacing steals, jacking off car accessories in Kampala’s notorious traffic jams. In the outer-lying areas, several other trades are very hot. Stealing car registration plates, barbed wire/wire mesh, aided by the get-away car of choice, the boda-boda. 

The city is also silent to a growing problem in its midst, the use of illegal narcotics. Drugs are impairing schools, the workplace and taken with alcohol are creating a new kind of city resident. Inconsiderate use of alcohol is handled at the cell level, streetfighters give and receive punishment in kind, but with drugs, they are often left for the dead. Systemic alcohol abuse is also reflecting on the medical ledgers, multiple organ failure in the younger population. Cheap liquor, consumed in low volumes with very high alcohol content damages the liver, kidney, and pancreas. 

Metropolitan Kampala is growing, maybe slowly but it’s on the upward trajectory. A young energetic population in search of economic opportunities and a slowly fading away generation of veteran users of the services of the old city. People who came to the city to conduct banking, meet key medical appointments, the occasional drink and the visit to key shops to buy luxuries or essentials. 

The city of old names like Suzie Fashions at Uganda House or the Hajatis selling busuutis is no more.  So was the end of entities like Ugantico, the supermarket operated by Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala later elected Mayor of Kampala. The auto showrooms on Bombo Road including Afro Motors owned by Patrick Okumu Ringa, or even state-owned Uganda Motors are no more. Something seems to have scratched the city’s old buildings even more, less business downtown. How then could a big building like the former UCB headquarters in Cham Towers fail to host a single bank? 

There are many signs the city is growing elsewhere. Driving in the city’s northern neighborhoods, requires google maps. Traffic lights have improved traffic flows. There is perhaps one man at City Hall, Jacob Byamukama, the city’s traffic manager, himself born and bred in the city’s core central business district fresh from his studies in the United Kingdom who has seen the growth in traffic light inventory from just three sets of traffic lights to the scores of traffic lights we have in Uganda today. 

There was a time, when it was big news, when Sembule Electronic added two sets of lights to the single one that used to operate at Entebbe Road in the 1980s. Visitors to Uganda at night are tempted to believe, Uganda has already reached middle income status. Neat rows of street lights welcome you from the airport, marching you up to the expressway before you reach conference hub- Munyonyo. 

On your way you encounter roadworks, but not the potholes. Potholes are still associated with the older Kampala where ruinous practices like exorbitant taxes, unfavourable business environments, preference to foreigners drove the old names out of the city.

At night the city’s true beauty comes out. All the dusty roads are no more, bright neon lights light up commercial buildings. Streetside markets, some of which operate past midnight are on the go. Kampala does not have a weekend. Young people routinely go out, every day. The brewers, have been contributing massively to the country’s coffers in increasing terms year after year. 

Another feature of the city; petty theft and petty crime is also growing. Travelers on one of its biggest innovations, the Kampala Northern By pass that connects the southern tip of the city, Busega to its eastern tip, Namboole Stadium and in some cases, the longer expressway routinely confront criminal gangs who steal and effortlessly disappear on foot. 

One end the bypass cuts across the vast Lubigi wetland. As operation clean up the city, continue, cleaning up sidewalks, pavements etc., these youngsters are executing more menacing steals, jacking off car accessories in Kampala’s notorious traffic jams. In the outer-lying areas, several other trades are very hot. Stealing car registration plates, barbed wire/wire mesh, aided by the get-away car of choice, the boda-boda. 

The city is also silent to a growing problem in its midst, the use of illegal narcotics. Drugs are impairing schools, the workplace and taken with alcohol are creating a new kind of city resident. Inconsiderate use of alcohol is handled at the cell level, streetfighters give and receive punishment in kind, but with drugs, they are often left for the dead. Systemic alcohol abuse is also reflecting on the medical ledgers, multiple organ failure in the younger population. Cheap liquor, consumed in low volumes with very high alcohol content damages the liver, kidney, and pancreas. 

Karoli Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]