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Uncovering the story behind Boston village in Kampala
An aerial view showing some of the houses in Boston. The village was originally well-known for robberies and waylaying people. PHOTO BY Christine Katende
Kampala- It is Thursday mid-morning and I decide to get a boda boda to Boston.
And by this, I do not mean the big city on America’s east coast, but a place I had just learnt about in one of Kampala suburbs.
We ride through dusty roads, lined with storeyed buildings and bungalows on either side.
The irresistible doubt whether we are really heading to ‘Boston’ strikes me.
Finally we are in Boston, which passes for a trading centre of no remote similarity to that American coastal town.
The first person of contact is Ms Ida Busingye, a secretary for women on the area local council.
She does tailoring for a living and is too engrossed in her work to attend to me or direct me to the right person.
She wears suspicion on her smiley face and the fact that I did not have my press identification tag aggravated the situation and dimmed my chances of extracting from her the information I wanted.
My initial excitement is beginning to fade when the local youth secretary, Mr Fred Monday, comes in. He was born and bred in the area.
He knows every bit of the village’s history. He gladly takes me through the history of the area and how it earned the name Boston.
The 30-year-old youth and father of three says that in the past, Boston was so risky a village that outsiders feared to buy land or rent houses there.
The residents feared to move at night because of insecurity.
Unemployment drove the idle village youth into crime and playing cards. “Our village was pretty well-known, but for weird acts, like beating up people and theft. The village was a no-man’s land; it had no local council leaders, no police post, nothing. It was like an ignored island without rules to govern it. Local Council chairpersons from other areas could not confront us, due to fear of being attacked,” Mr Monday narrates his village’s checkered history.
Another resident Maria Nantubwe says Boston would be an attractive place to live in but it is still paying a high price due to its dark history. There were many thieves and killer gangs.
“Transport was hard to come by. We could move a long distance before reaching Luwaffu-Makindye where we would get a taxi to take us to town. But now, it is a reformed place with security and freedom of movement,” Nantumbwe says.
Renaming the place
“So how is all this related to the name Boston?” I ask with impatience, which helped bring Monday straight to the point of our conversation.
“It was one morning around 1998 when we heard on the radio that Ntege Sebaggala had been arrested in Boston, a city in the USA. We got so touched, given that he was Kampala’s mayor then. Later, we gathered for a discussion on what we could do to atone for what had befallen “our man”. Naming our village Boston was the best solution in remembrance of Sebaggala then in jail in the United States. It is from then that we made banners reading “Welcome to Boston”.
The banners were hanged all around the village to promote the new name,” Monday recounts.
The village was called Nakinyuguzi before Sebaggala’s arrest in the United States.
The next step was to get a taxi stage in the taxi park now that the area had a new name.
The local youth then proceeded to the taxi park to ask for taxis that would ply through Boston and ease transport in the area.
But the taxi park guides snubbed them. “We tried so much to explain to these people but they couldn’t understand. The only way out was to do it by force.” “We confiscated a taxi, started calling passengers heading to the area, saying, ‘Boston- Lukuli- Nanganda.’ Good enough the taxi owner knew us and did not stop us. It was through force that Boston Stage was born. It solved the problem of transport,” he adds.
This was followed by ensuring security in the area.
Residents organised an operation which saw many suspected criminals in the area arrested.
Monday says their efforts were reinforced by the police anti-armed robbery campaign dubbed ‘Operation Wembley,’ which rid the area of criminals through a search-and–arrest operation.
“Those arrested under Wembley Operation received harsh treatment. They would receive 90 strokes of the cane every day. Some even died. I was among the people who were being tracked down and I was preparing for my UACE exams at Crested SS in Makindye. But I later settled after my parents intervened,” Monday recounts his ordeal.
By 2005, about three years after formation of Operation Wembley, robberies and insecurity in the area ceased.
Sanity returned and Mr Monday was able to join politics.
He says he wanted to help the youth. He organised the youth into groups and started different projects such as bricklaying and savings and credit organisations for them.
Today, the village has a police post, Local Council (LC) and youth offices, clinics, schools and a wide range of businesses including restaurants and shops.
“We curbed the high rate of crime by tightening security in the area. There are many youths who have been trained in enforcement of law and order and they help the police to ensure security.
Boston is no longer an insecure area it used to be,” says Ssalongo Edward Lugemwa, general secretary Boston local council board.
Boston is now a posh residential area and rent is relatively higher than in most neighbouring villages.
A single room without electricity goes for between Shs100,000 and Shs150,000. A plot of 100ftx50ft costs Shs30m, up from Shs10m or Shs15m about 12 years ago. Value of housing has gone up, churches are being erected and the place is becoming urbanised.
That’s how Nakinyuguzi village became Boston.
