Uganda, as is!

Have you heard of the expression 'Ntwaala nga bwendi'?
That is where our Uganda has come to, my friends.
This morning i was driving past Banda on my way from home, and at two different spots, huge deluges of floods gushed angrily across the road post the early morning downpour. Traffic was heavy, and at the first spot, a big bus was wedged in a huge water filled crater by the side of the road. Water rushed from the opposite side of the road, and on the other side, outside a row of houses stood grief stricken men and women, you could see the pain on their faces as they futilely scooped water with tin cooking pans from their open houses, as if trying to ward off the angry brown water coming at them, stymying them.

I regarded this sight, and silently wondered how long Ugandans will have to deal with situations like these! It had only rained for three hours, a heavy downpour i know, but with the roads in the situation they are in, disaster preparedness has been defeated, hands down. Poor drainage, poor engineering, poor workmanship and a lackluster attitude by the government is what is driving this nation to the backwaters.

I remarked to a friend i was driving with 'there is no significant change in the Uganda today than that of 1993' he nodded in agreement.

This road, (Jinja road) had for a long time been a killer like no other, as a number of people perished in accidents as a result of potholes, rugged road shoulders and poor lighting. Last year when the Ministry of Roads et al decided to have mercy and put one little flimsy layer of tar on the road, which, of course, did not last given quack workmanship, deluges continue to run freely across the 'new' roads and of course more people perish!
Had the bus this morning had passengers, we would be reading about the death toll off the news tomorrow, of course it would end up as another forgotten statistic!

I wonder if common folk in this country know that all these debacles and dramas in the news about the anti-homosexuality bill etc are just meant to steer our attention away from the despair happening in our back-yards!