Mbale City: From the cleanest town, bus terminal to lost glory

Two weeks ago I opted to travel by public transport to my village, Usuk-Katakwi (UK), leaving my favourite car, which I refer to as South African Airlines. After my business in the village, I travelled back using the same means of transport via Mbale city.

A remarkable thing I noticed was a sizable number of bus companies plying the Kampala-Mbale-Soroti route. 

I left my village quite early with the intention of reaching Kampala early to beat the Mukono-Kampala traffic jam. Reaching Soroti at midday and trying to head to the recently declared bus terminal in Soroti, I was confronted by numerous bus agents of different bus companies, each eager to give a ticket before reaching the bus park.

Surprisingly all buses had abandoned the established bus park and opted to line up along the public garden area. Therefore, there was a scramble for passengers, each agent claiming to be leaving Soroti for Kampala immediately. 

Since I was eager to leave immediately, I got a ticket from an agent claiming to be from my preferred bus company, and when a bus arrived I was told to enter only to realise that the ticket belonged to a different bus. When I tried to complain and ask for  a refund of the money, the agent had long disappeared.

Nonetheless, I boarded the bus and reached Mbale city by 2pm. Just like in Soroti, there were many buses, one would only be confronted by the numerous agents of the respective bus companies hunting for passengers.

It was indeed a nasty experience I observed in the bus park of Mbale,  a once cleanest and most beautiful town in the early and mid 1970s. At that time, you would see buses arriving and departing at intervals of say, 20-30 minutes, just like the way I have seen aeroplanes arriving and leaving within specific times at airports. But this time, the bus I was aboard arrived in Mbale city at 2pm and spent six hours in the park, leaving  the terminal at 8pm!

During the six hour’s wait, I spent much of my time moving around the park, stretching my legs and keenly taking note of the level of dilapidation of the once cleanest and beautiful bus park and its surrounding. In the middle of the park was an excavation filled with all sorts of rubbish, of course, with an unwelcoming stench. 

The surrounding shops at the bus terminal appeared not to have had good planning either, with many of them incomplete. All these give a bad picture to the bus terminal and its surrounding. 

Ideally, organisations such as Bugisu Co-operative Union with magnificent real estates near this area, should lobby authorities and advocate for good infrastructural development and constant maintenance of the bus terminal. This is in a bid to protect their clientele. They could equally extend an invisible hand to avoid a negative  externality such as portrayed at the bus terminal and its surroundings.

The passenger waiting lounge has turned into a storage area, the pavements on the bus parking area have become a hawking area display, and bus companies have established tent offices for booking and keeping passengers’ merchandise. 

The concern is, where are municipal/city authorities to pronounce themselves on the use of these facilities? What are the bus and taxi associations doing in maintaining order in the operations of this transport industry? Passengers are being pulled from the boda boda cycles before they disembark.

The agents most times exchange bitter quarrels in the presence of passengers, and at times passengers end up losing track of their belongings.

In the current economic environment, as we all participate in the money economy, I urge all actors both in the public and private sector to make use of the utilitarian principle of business ethics. That whatever each of us does, should be for the good in the eyes of society. We are all customers in one way or the other. Each needs satisfaction on the goods and services provided. 

To the public/government, as you require taxes from the citizens, give in return quality goods and services that satisfy their needs. To the private sector, your profits should not be at the expense of the customers on poor quality goods and services.

The economy has grown quantitatively (increased products and services, etc.), but no quality (lack of customer care on goods and service from suppliers, poor infrastructure, etc.).

In other words, no development! For development to take place, there must be a concerted effort by the authorities to forego consumption now (corruption) for tomorrow! 

All the above mentioned aspects have a bearing on socio-economic transformation as envisioned. Therefore, in our participation in the money economy, we should be cognizant in regaining lost glory of some of our towns now elevated to city status.

Dr Fabiano Okware,  Independent Business and Management Consultant.     
[email protected]