INSIDE SOURCE: When disaster in form of water, mud, and rock comes rushing in

Without dealing with these issues, we will keep having Ugandans getting buried without ceremony 8-12 feet under instead of the standard 6. We will also continue having MPs engaging in gimmickry by passing resolutions to contribute Shs100,000 to help survivors.

Most of Uganda’s mountains and hills are green and enchanting. Until they turn ugly and bring death, destruction, displacement, and disease. Nature gives life; nature takes life. The people of Bududa have something to say about this subject. But that will be after they have mourned their dead and began to put their lives back together.

Early on Monday night, nature got fiery. The continuing heavy rains eventually unleashed a flow of mud, water, and rock that thundered down Mt Elgon burying people, animals, houses, plants, and everything else in its path. About 300 residents will have lost their lives across three villages when the final count is done.

To its credit, the government’s response to the Bududa mudslide was an improvement from the way it has acted before, say to the recent Teso floods. By Tuesday morning, ministers and soldiers were on the ground – hoes and shovels in hand – with military helicopters buzzing about in the rainy skies ready to save lives. There appeared to be some co-ordination in the response. With Uganda, however, there is always the other side of the story.

Natural disasters will always strike whether in Haiti or Chile. Or Uganda. They, however, need not be that deadly. Accumulated human experience has made sure that to a great extent, the damage can be contained. What is striking about the Bududa tragedy is that it came as no surprise to the government. We know that from the comments made by public officials. And also because this part of Bugisu is no stranger to soils and rocks gone mad – although at a lesser magnitude until this week.

“…we have always told the government that there is a serious problem there,” said Mr Fred Bukeni, the MP for Bubulo, a constituency also found in Bugisu. “We have told the government before to buy land and relocate these people especially those who live in the national parks who cut down trees which are used to hold the soils.”

While touring the affected areas, President Museveni (oddly clad in military uniform with an AK 47 assault rifle resting across his chest) blamed the people for living on, and cultivating, the slopes of Mt Elgon. The farming activities left the slopes without adequate vegetation cover that would have slowed down the speed of the mudslide and prevented widespread damage. It is probable that things could have been far worse if the Uganda Wildlife Authority had not doggedly replanted the Mt Elgon National Park over the years.

If the government knew of the danger swirling about in the dark clouds, why did it not act to prevent the loss of life and property on the scale we are seeing now? Answer: failure of leadership. Institutions such as Uganda Wildlife Authority, National Forestry Authority, and National Environment Management Authority get their powers undercut all the time by self-serving politicians. We have seen the President stop the NFA from evicting people who have encroached on forest reserves even when proper procedures such as issuing appropriate notices, sometimes even throwing in compensation, have been followed. That is a bad example self-seeking local politicians, happy to pander and not to lead (with MP Bukeni possibly excepted), have happily followed. To them, leadership means standing by the voters even when voters’ long term interests and livelihoods could be better served if, for example, they moved from areas such as mountain slopes that may eventually bring loss and tears.

In the case of Bududa and other mudslide-prone areas such as Kapchorwa, Bundibugyo, and parts of greater Kigezi, if the people cannot move because they must live forever close to the graves of their grandfathers and grandmothers as Mbale District Chairman Bernard Mujasi would say, what stops the authorities from seriously supporting and enforcing safer settlement and agricultural practices? What stops them demanding that people must plant trees, that they must use terraces, that they must build houses using materials better-suited to resisting mudslides?

Without dealing with these issues, we will keep having Ugandans getting buried without ceremony 8-12 feet under instead of the standard 6. We will also continue having MPs engaging in gimmickry by passing resolutions to contribute Shs100,000 to help survivors. Whatever happened to the so-called Contingency Fund? If MPs, like the rest of us, must contribute money to help fellow Ugandans, it should be a matter of personal conscience and ubuntu. There should be no formal attempt to subsidise the government for its repeated display of egregious incompetence.

Mr Tabaire is a media trainer and consultant with the African Centre for Media Excellence
bentab@hotmail.com