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| KCCA ED Jennifer S. Musisi |
There has been two disturbing pieces of news about Kampala
in the previous few days: The Sunrise article of March 14, 2014, “KCCA in Spotlight over Security at Park” reveals how
vagabonds have turned the gardens at Centenary Park into their den. This was
followed by a story in the Daily Monitor
“City fountains dry up as street lights vandalized” published on March 18, 2014
– this one tells how just a year after they were installed, city fountains have
stopped working and street lights have been vandalized.
These developments must be very frustrating for the people
at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). When they entered office three years
ago, their dream was to turn Kampala into a shining city we had never seen
before: Clear the garbage and keep the city neat (they have scored high here);
plant grass, flowers and trees along the streets (done very well); let some
toilets be free to the public (probably more needed); free-up public parks and
road reserves (still in progress), the list of their dreams must be big.
It is disheartening that before we can get to see what a
beautiful city looks like, some people are destroying what the authority is
putting up—this can be as annoying as someone pouring rubbish where you have
just swept. Like Jose Chameleon sings: Ozimba
bazimbulula (you build they dismantle; opanga
bapangulula (you arrange they disarrange)! This state of affairs raises
very important questions: 1) Are we ready for modernization? 2) Jennifer Musisi
has been strict when it comes to orderliness, what will happen when she leaves
the KCCA top office? Shall we sustain her legacy? At the moment we are looking
at what Musisi indents to be permanent as temporary developments.
The problem is; we are failing to appreciate that Kampala is
a city. Because most of us are rural-urban migrants, we have retained with us our
villageism, except for using money to
buy food as opposed to picking it from the garden: When we have rubbish we want
to throw it anywhere as if we are throwing it in a bush, wherever we see grass
is a urinal, so even when we see beautiful gardens we think they are not for
us, maybe for Bazungu.
In reference to The
Sunrise story, KCCA opened up these beautiful gardens for us to go enjoy
them free of charge: You could buy some ice cream and popcorn and go to
Centenary Park with your girlfriend to enjoy a quiet and peaceful time there;
you could carry a novel, with your little flask of tea in the bag, or a bottle
of soda, and you enjoy some good reading there. Because we are not using the
gardens, vagabonds have taken them over. How would they get there if we had
occupied our gardens? They fear to stay near orderly people.
The little park at Watoto Church looks beautiful with its fountain
(when functional), why not go there and enjoy a photo-shoot? It may be very
open and directly under the sun but even when the sun is not strong people are
hardly there. Are we criminal that we fear to be seen because of the heavy
traffic around this little park? Ok, if that is too open then why are we not in
the Centenary Park?
Some people claim that public parks pose security threats
and should therefore be given to developers to construct buildings there. If
our government can secure the whole of northern Uganda from Kony then how can
it fail to secure these few metres of space for us to enjoy our nature? In
Nairobi, apart from public leisure parks (which are very popular by the way),
there is even a whole National Park (with animals) within the city. The people
of Nairobi are not saying “let-us remove the national park and build there
shopping malls.”
In drawing its plans KCCA might have underestimated our villageism, but it is not too late. We
might just need a campaign to educate us on how to use free open spaces in the
city –. Naye tufa ekyaalo!
