Monitor, RwandAir clean Kampala

Left-Right: Kawempe Division Mayor Emmanuel Sserunjoji, NTV managing director Aggie Konde Asimwe, Monitor Publications Limited managing director Tony Glencross participate in cleaning parts of Banda, Kampala at the weekend. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA.

What you need to know:

The agenda. The clean up campaign code-named “Kampala Goes Green” seeks to protect the environment as well as keeping Kampala clean.

Kampala. Monitor Publications Limited (MPL) staff at the weekend replaced their note books and pens with hoes, spades and brooms to clean-up parts of Kampala City in a campaign dubbed “Kampala Goes Green” that seeks to clean-up Kampala, starting with Kasenyi at Banda Trading Centre in Nakawa Division with more clean-ups to be organised in other city suburbs.

MPL managing director Tony Glencross said the habit of throwing rubbish anyhow should be stopped because cleaning “the suburbs is treating the symptoms and we need to get to the cause and change the culture of throwing rubbish anyhow”.
“This could take 20-years but we need a generational change. We should tell our children to throw rubbish in bins so as to conserve our environment and have clean city,” he said, highlighting that residents had already dumped rubbish as the team cleaned.
Ms Agnes Konde Asimwe, the NTV managing director, offered to spearhead the “Kampala Goes Green” campaign, supported through NTV as a way of educating Ugandans not to litter the environment.

The clean-up was supported by RwandAir, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), MPL, NTV, Spark TV, pupils of St Paul Primary School Banda, and residents.
Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago said Umuganda (community service) widely practiced in Rwanda is the Ugandan version of bulungibwansi where citizens work together to fix problems affecting communities they live in.
“We are not importing Umuganda to Uganda but partnering with Rwandair and other corporate companies to work in unison to make sure that we maintain our city clean and keep it green,” he said.

Nakawa Division Mayor Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga said it was a rare opportunity to pull together corporate organisations for such a noble cause and Nakawa Division would “come up with a by-law to prosecute people who do not clean the environment and litter”.
“We shall also sensitise communities of their responsibilities”, by adopting modern technology to recycle waste that is generated into useful products, he said.
Mr Frank Mugambage, the Rwandan Ambassador to Uganda, said Umuganda is a collective effort geared towards achieving a common good, it is not for Rwandans alone “but a human culture we all own in order to deliver to community”.

“This common good is every person’s responsibility, we as human beings should recognise everything we do in life since one cannot do everything alone but rather seek some ones help to achieve a common good,” he said.
According to him, through Umuganda programme, schools have been built by people after identifying the problems in their communities and they address it.

The initiative
The cleanup initiative of RwandAir and Monitor Publications Limited supported by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), NTV and Spark TV.

Targeted areas
The campaign mainly targets slum areas and will spread to others parts of Kampala after cleaning up parts Kasenyi at Banda Trading Centre in Nakawa Division.

Working groups
The campaign’s main work force is mainly composed of residents who live in the areas that are targeted for the clean ups.

Umuganda model
The campaign dubbed “Kampala Goes Green” is replicated from a Rwanda community service model - Umuganda, which according to Mr Erias Lukwago would be called bulungibwansi.