Kiteezi: What are all leaders in Kampala and govt doing?

At the  weekend, Kiteezi landfill in Wakiso District, where all the garbage from Kampala is dumped, collapsed on several houses leading to deaths of more than 20 people, injuries and destruction of property.

This devastating tragedy is certainly a reflection of incompetence and carelessness of those who manage public affairs in our country.

I am surprised that nobody has resigned from office, as a way of taking responsibility for this tragedy, nor has the government cracked the whip against those who didn’t do their job right.

There is no doubt that Ugandans have come to terms with such catastrophes where the ordinary Ugandans find themselves helpless. If it’s not hundreds being evicted from Nansana or Kasokoso for encroaching on wetlands, then there will be some market caught by fire or an eviction of hundreds of homesteads from a piece of land in some remote part of Uganda.

All you will hear are people crying for help from the government or politicians crying crocodile tears when such disasters happen and pretending to care for the vulnerable when all they want is to pose for photos to gain cheap political capital.

Therefore the most fundamental question you keep asking yourself is whether we have a government in place or whether it went on leave.

When people were constructing in or near the landfill which apart from being a health risk area should be public land, where was the government? Where was the government when people were encroaching on these wetlands where they are being chased now? Where is the government if hundreds can be ruthlessly evicted from land by one wealthy man?

All this mess happens when Uganda has over a million elected leaders all claiming to be planning for the country. This is not to mention the cultural leaders, religious leaders, civil society leaders, political party leaders etc all who claim to be fighting for a better Uganda.

The Kiteezi landfill tragedy has exposed us as a country. If this can happen in Kampala, which has two ministers , a minister for Urban Planning, a Lord Mayor and his Council, an executive director with other technical staff and presidential appointees,  what is the justification for having all these offices?

The gist of the matter is that everyone seems to be scavenging on Uganda without caring about its future. Some bishops are scheming for brown envelopes or fuel guzzlers from the President while some pastors are manipulating their followers by extracting money in form of tithe, seed money etc to procure miracles for them. Many Opposition politicians are selling their souls to the highest bidder or at least securing their political seat in the next election, the public servants are busy looting. Afterall, nobody will punish them, in any case theirs is a ‘permanent and pensionable job’ while some cultural leaders went into hibernation the day they were enrolled on government payroll, etc.

The puzzle that Uganda faces is that those who control power gave up and joined the lamentation club, that’s why the President recently asked Col Edith Nakalema to organise a walk /demonstration against corruption. He thinks he can’t do much except demonstrating like others.

On the other hand, the ordinary Ugandans think that someone is fighting for them; if they don’t cry out to the compromised Opposition leaders (mutulwanilile/ fight for us), they will cry for Gen Museveni or his government officials to help them (government etuyambe) yet none of those is genuinely bothered about helping them. What a fallacy!

We are unfortunately headed for a disaster if the trend doesn’t change; imagine the recent census put Uganda’s population at 45.9 million. At the population growth rate of 3 percent per year, it is projected that by 2050 we shall hit a population of 100 million. But with the current rate of environmental degradation and the potential climate change effects, does Uganda have the capacity to feed this population?

With our education system which produces semi or non-skilled job seekers shall we have the capacity to create jobs for these people? With the growing trend of technology and use of artificial intelligence, shall we be still lucky to export maids to the Middle East? With the poor housing facilities and growing slums in the so-called urban centers, shall we have safe housing for this population? Who will pay the ever swelling public debt now in billion dollars?

It’s high time Ugandans got a new consensus on how to liberate themselves, short of which Uganda will keep sinking deeper into the mess!

George Muhimbise, Political analyst

[email protected], 0787836515.