MICHAEL ABONEKA: Can we have better services beyond the Summits?

Kampala has been a hive of activities since the last quarter of 2023 because it dawned on us that we were to host three big summits/conferences-the Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Common Wealth, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit and the G77 3RD South Summit all to take place in January. We have never leant from doing last minute planning and implementation-up to January 14^th, we were painting roads, placing rubbish bins and doing last minute stuff including “planting” grown tress among others. Then come to communication about the traffic updates and the confusion it has caused-the “rescuing” of street children-which literally was like kidnapping them to Kampiligisa and the same had been done previously when we had “serious” visitors –after the visitors were gone, the street children were back happily smiling and begging from those who had made the decision.

In record time, lights have been fixed at the Kampala Entebbe Expressway-after we have long demanded for lighting of the expressway and the northern bypass and the government simply told us off-that they do not have the money to fix the lights and that we should use our car head lights-so one wonders, where did they get the money to fix the lights this time? Were the lights fixed for us Ugandans or for the visitors? As if that is not enough, we have cried about the potholes in the city and there was no response even after various exhibitions on the same-again, those responsible did not have the money-but alas, somehow, they have been able to get money and fix the potholes over night because some visitors are coming-again-had it not been for the visitors, we would still be wallowing in our dirty and potholed city.

To understand how some delivery is conducted in Uganda, one does not need to look farther than the events preceding to the above events. It seems, we can only get better services when we expect visitors-for the roads will be cleaned, painted and lit, boda boda stages will be swept away, somehow KCCA will remember that some people have been residing and conducting business in a wetland and drainage channels and that the Ministry of works will also remember that they actually passed a statutory instrument which forbids vending on road walkways! It seems, everyone has been awakened to do their job simply because we have visitor. It may look a good thing to beautify and clean our home before our visitors come, but the events preceding to this point to hypocrisy. As children of the home, we have time and again demanded for better services including a clean and organized city but our pleas have landed on deaf ears.

In the first place, it is unfortunate that tax payers need to beg first for services to be delivered-for we give government two things-taxes and mandate through the votes and what we expect is timely, efficient and adequate service delivery. I bet that if it had not been for the conference and summits Uganda is hosting, the status quo of our city would be the same and those responsible would evoke the same song-no money to fix this and that- yet we continue to pay our taxes unabated.

Now that the leaders have shown us that it is impossible to build a new passenger terminal in record time, sweep roads clean, provide street and highway lighting, build conference centers in less than 12 months, paint road pavements overnight, evict wetland encroachers without compromise, why doesn’t the same spirit continue elsewhere? We expect that roads across he country will still be worked on, that the street lights will be fixed ad those fixed will be maintained, that the beauty in Kampala city will be maintained, that broken bridges will be fixed in one day, schools whose roofs have be blown away by storms will be fixed in one night; that hospitals with no medicine and facilities will receive attention and response in the same record time and that police rescues services will be a minute away and that crime will overall drop as we shall continue having the same security vigilance within the city and across the country!

We do not want to pretend-that after the visitors are gone, we are back to square one-the leaders must prove that they do not just work overnight to impress the visitors and the world but that they respect the tax payers who sweat to keep them in power and also pay for the services. May the same speed used in preparing for the conferences and summits run through the entire service delivery chain and may Kampala remain clean, safe without beggars thereafter.