City Dude – Surely, Kigali Is Not Kampala!

I have always heard about Rwanda’s Umuganda community service. Rwandese get up every last Saturday of the month to clean their country. What a great cause!

That is the secret behind Kigali’s cleanliness, besides the fact that you can get arrested for littering. We need that in Uganda. Imagine a scenario where all city dwellers wake up once every month to clean up this city!
Kampala would not be as filthy as it is now. City authority workers wake up early to clean, and even hang around all day but it seems like we are overwhelmingly dirty. If we took part in the cleaning process, chances are we would not actively litter as is the case. It’s like cleaning your own house, and throwing in rubbish later. You would be out of your mind to do that.

In Kigali and Rwanda in general, nobody is exempted from community service. Even President Paul Kagame rolls his sleeves, and with family goes to work.

So, the rest of the wananchi have no reason to dodge. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined one day I would be cleaning the streets of Kigali.

For someone who last took part in community work during my boarding school days, this was a major throw back. I was not happy. I was very tired after over eight hours on the road.

The bus entered the town and for some reason, the roads were empty. I overheard my neigbours speak, but I don’t know the language. I just heard the word Umuganda. I then knew my first experience had arrived.

The police waited for the bus to enter its station. I stood up to pick my luggage, but my neighbor advised me to stay put. Everyone else was seated like they had not yet arrived at their final destination. So, I sat and continued playing my Don Moen until I was rudely interrupted by a loud voice followed by sudden movement from my seatmate.

There was a police man at the entrance ordering everyone to get out. I waited to see the reaction of the people. One by one, they started getting out. He looked at me and said some words. I asked if he spoke English.

He explained to me that we needed to come out of the bus, and go do community work. Meanwhile, the roads were empty. Nobody was walking. Not even a single boda boda was in sight. Only one or two cars passed, and were stopped for questioning.

The lorries collecting garbage owned the road up to around midday. Immediately after arriving at the spot we were supposed to clean, another bus was impounded and passengers headed to Bujumbura moved out to clean.

There were no guns, tear gas and armored cars in sight. Surely, Kigali is not Kampala.

By Samson Baranga

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Source: The Observer

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