Why social order is collapsing and the law of the jungle is returning

It was a public holiday May 1, 2017. The weather dominated by grey skies, a light drizzle. The mood inside Christ the King Church frosty. The Chief Justice had given his speech and departed. Our law school classmate Maudah Atuzazirwe lay asleep in a casket at just 42 years of age. Even by its standards, the church was packed to capacity by a spillover congregation that filled every possible seats and mobile receptacles outside the church.

Then the deceased’s brother Nicholas took to the podium to narrate the circumstances of her sister’s death. The crowd in grief turned glum, congregants began to weep quietly. His sister was still alive after the accident, she was still breathing and conscious, but they were overwhelmed by the circumstances in Katovu-Lwengo, one of the deadly climbing lanes on Mbarara-Masaka highway. This is the area where the hills of West Buganda stretch for miles and begin giving way to the Ankole plateau a design challenge resulting in sharp lanes on the highway.
In Lwengo, the narrative went, was one of the worst places to have such a kind of emergency. Nicholas and the driver unsuccessfully sought help from the locals save for one good Samaritan, who reluctantly allowed him to charge his phone so he could communicate with family and friends to get help.

Because of the distances and time involved, it was more than one hour and a half before they could get any help. Maudah unfortunately could not make it.
But mostly she could not make it because of what turned out to be fatal internal injuries, a ruptured liver pierced by ribs and haemorrhagic shock; internal bleeding.
It was clear that some first aid to position the deceased to allow her to breathe in a safe place could have done something. But instead the villagers offered a very mean form of first aid, the customary ransacking of accident victims of any valuables in their possession. It did not matter that her driver was watching over her. That lack of respect for life and property is now becoming the order of the day.

We have spent a long time toiling in these columns decrying glorification of violence. Lwengo has become a hub of gory crimes, the use of machetes and axes to commit violent crimes like robbery. Further west, worse has been reported like cannibalism.
Lwengo like the proverbial wild west; is a very large district stretching nearly 80 miles from Masaka-Mbarara highway to the plains of Kabula, cattle country in Rakai District and another 70 miles to Lyantonde District at the border of Buganda and Ankole.
It is governed by a charismatic, almost cleric chairperson Godfrey Mutabazi. The Lwengo chair does not hesitate caning people, including women and children in public, fighting what he sees as human morals gone amok.
Another wave east in Bukomansimbi dominated by robbers on appointment has sprouted turning the Masaka region into a grave pitch of panic.

It was shameful seeing that the police in Masaka are still wasting public funds on non-priorities clobbering innocent unarmed Ugandans assembling for a political rally in Masaka the other day.
For our Maudah, a self- contained story of hard work; a trailblazer it was a brutal end.
The massive fright and her shock on her face with which she met her creator and the circumstances will remain fresh on our minds for a very long time. The casual use of public violence is creating animals out of human beings. Maudah you slept too early with too much life ahead of you. Rest in peace!

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]