Security and economy questions in country linger 33 years later

On Friday, September 13, 1985, a small boy rode a Raleigh bicycle into Hoima Town to take 40kgs of maize to a mill, buy soap and gather news on the fragile security situation following the overthrow of the Obote government on July 27, 1985.
Apart from the dark nimbus clouds that often come in September, that day the town also welcomed several lorryloads of soldiers brandishing brand new AK-47 rifles. The boy had no idea that the soldiers were destined for his sub-county headquarters of Buhimba, some seven miles out of Hoima Town.
Buhimba was a humble trading centre with about a dozen buildings that doubled as shops and residences. A few youth would loiter the single street every afternoon after a hard day’s work in the gardens.

By the time the government soldiers were repulsed on October 30, 1985 by Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) guerillas, several people had been displaced, raped or murdered. The common thread in nearly every survivor’s story was the act of running across hills and valleys from villages full of guns to villages full of guns.
Escaping the guns of the government soldiers to hide behind the guns of the NRA was a desire of every man, woman and child. Ideological differences of the men with guns seemed to be the major distinction.
The small boy with a bicycle, author of this story, stayed in Buhimba to protect his home’s fragile economy against thieves who roamed the empty villages.

That was until a landmine blew up a truck of soldiers close to his home sparking a wave of kidnaps and murders. The boy fled to relative safety in Hoima Town. Though poverty was as rampant as the marauding soldiers, the disgruntled old and youth focused on resolving the security problem with some joining the guerillas.
Now 33 three years later, Buhimba is a sprawling town council with countless buildings, maize mills, private and public schools, a petrol station, a weekly market and mobile money agents. There is electricity, water and a tarmac road under construction.

The communal cattle dip has disappeared just like the efficient medical services that saw the small boy get his badly injured finger treated with regular antibiotics and antiseptics for an entire month in the mid-1970s.
Buhimba is certainly not a war zone anymore, but, like many parts of Uganda, still grapples with problems of security of person and property, poverty, inequality and diseases, given the elusiveness of the impact of the 33-year development story.
Many buildings, now made of permanent material, are either unfinished or unused as the business boom has not been sustained.

Several boda boda riders compete for the occasional customer as many prefer to walk home. Wrangles related to land grabbing, boundary disputes and family feuds have been amplified by weak institutions and corruption among government officials.
It is not clear which gun-wielding person to run to as the demystification of the gun has become a mystery given the unclear ideology of the men in uniform.

The story of Buhimba resonates across Uganda where a lot of physical development has hardly impacted the quality of life. Millions of immunised children have grown up to get poor education and no jobs.
Many youth are using the electronic media to tap social capital and beg for survival through Mobile Money or ask each other “what is up?” for us besides the dark nimbus clouds that often come in September every year.
The battle lines of 1985 have only changed form after all.

Dr Muhumuza is a development policy analyst committed to inclusive growth.
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