Open letter to Jennifer Musisi and the
KCCA
A good breeze finally seems to
be blowing over the dusty and swampy city once called the ‘city of 7 hills’.
Kampala is now in hands of able people who actually seem to know what they are
doing. Thankfully money follows function and Kampala City Council Authority is
getting funding to do its work. I would like to add my voice to many others
looking at other fields and arenas to take of, and request the KCCA to plan not
only for the projects on vehicular traffic but also focus more energy on the
marginalized sectors in the city such as the public arts centres in general,
libraries, sports facilities and roads for pedestrian traffic.
The Local Government Act (Cap
243), 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2008, page 5414 states thus: “Functions and services
for which urban councils are responsible include but are not limited to—
Establish, acquire, erect,
maintain, promote, assist or control with the participation of the citizens—
h)public halls, libraries, art
galleries, and museums….
l)public baths and swimming
pools;…….
v) public monuments….
z) maintenance of roads”.
Why are there no ambitious
projects to get the urban poor to engage in reading by building at least TWO
state- of the-art public library the size of a large shopping mall on either
side of the city’s fringes just for the underpriviledged of Kampalans to get
their skills in reading harnessed?
Where are the public swimming
pools, public children’s centres, public parks?
It is not logical or fair to
leave the future of the country’s talent development and creation in the hands
of profit driven private entities.
Why is the KCCA not involved
in setting up serious Art spaces for the harnessing of the artistic talent that
we have in Kampala? Large public amphitheatres, Art galleries, Museums, etc are
urgently needed in Kampala. Yes, a few private individuals see the lack of
spaces and put small alternatives which it must be said only serve arbitrarily
but are also short term solutions. Kampala needs 20 National theatre size locations
and buildings to house each individual art; Contemporary dance, Contemporary
Music, Contemporary Visual Art, Contemporary drama, Classical European music,
Classical dance, classical drama/ theatre, classical visual art, indigenous
music, art, drama, et cetera.
Moreover, all the roads
leading the traffic to or by these Art centres, swimming pools, libraries, etc
should be built in order to ensure a steady flow of people to them and avoid
the toxic traffic jams of Kampala.
How much time and opportunity
has been lost for Kampala to bring our artists, musicians, sportspeople, and
others into global limelight simply because our city is not ready for such
lofty heights?
It is high time we focusing on making our city
not only a haven for foreign tourists but also a centre that gives
opportunities for the locals of the communities within its reach to discover
and develop their artistic, sports, and
literary talents. We cannot ignore the needs of the poor because when we do
then as opportunities shrivel, crime shoots up as the under privileged take
matters into their own hands by trying to take some of the wealth from the rich
in attempts to create more social balance. And besides, the more facilities we
build for art and sport, the more international events Uganda will be able to
host. Of course, the other regional local councils in the country need wise
heads to focus on the untapped goldmines of art and sport.
It would be quite a
breakthrough if the Authority can graduate from position of singularly ‘cleaning
up a big mess’ to becoming a centre for creativity and innovation in solving
our problems. ‘Maintenance of roads’ has become limited to simply filling
potholes and tarmacking murram roads. It is good to tarmac roads, but some
creativity is needed to getting the fringe roads of the city without focusing
on massive budgets for ‘one million dollar- per-kilometre roads’. If the
Engineers were to think with more creativity, but also with more ambition for
the city, other materials for building roads should have been considered to
solve the cerebral bad roads, and focus energy and planning on bigger projects.
Think how stone paved roads have kept Europe ‘out of the mud.’ Since the times
of the Roman empire more than 2000 years ago, stones have successfully been
used for roads. Why have we not used the many stones that we have in plenty for
our roads? We should not be only talking of just 72 kilometres of tarmacked
roads but 300 or more kilometers of tarmac, stone paved roads and others.
Moreover, it is my view that
the KCCA should have some small roads and drainage built and maintained by the
house owners of these roads that do not have that much traffic to foster
community based problem solving.
Without the communities
becoming involved, our city’s problems cannot be fully solved.
How about building roads for
pedestrians who can ride bicycles, jog, or walk their ways to health, work, or home
in a cheaper and more sustainable way. Kampala is not a mega city and its
problems do not require the earthmoving ideas needed for Mexico City or Lagos
and on foot or on a bicycle, one can easily make their way from one end to
another, bar the sheer volume of humans and cars. Nevertheless, most of the
urban dwellers of Kampala and its environs are migrants from rural parts all
over Uganda. Many of them spend big budgets of their meagre incomes if at all
on public transportation. It should be obvious that building dedicated roads
for pedestrians moving to and from the city centre would help ease the pressure
on the few tarmac roads we have, reduce the pressure on the pockets of the city
dwellers, help to reduce the noise and air pollution that vehicle fumes
produce, and improve the health of motorized vehicle users who are not doing
much exercise because most time is spent in cars in the vehicular traffic.
I dream about being able to
ride a bicycle into Kampala, not only for the exercise, and ease to my pocket,
but also to feel that this city is thinking about the little guy riding a bike
in the city without feeling like one is riding in the valley of the shadow of
death.
The Local Government Act (Cap
243), 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2008, page 5412 further declares that the: “Functions
and services for which district councils are responsible include—
7. Aiding and supporting the
establishment and maintenance of …libraries, libraries, art galleries,
museums,…and sports organizations.”
It is clear that our own laws
provide for the development of sports organizations, museums, art galleries,
libraries and other activities that develop and nurture the gifts of the people
in the community. But where is the budget for these things in the KCCA and
indeed the National Budget?
ERIA NSUBUGA ‘SANE’
Visual Artist/ Lecturer
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