Presidential guards, Entebbe residents feud over public roads, green spaces

To people raised in Entebbe and visitors, Muzinga Square is an important attraction. Muzinga, historians say, is a Krupp canon captured from the Germans during the First World War.
Muzinga has statues of two gun-wielding soldiers pointing in the direction of the Entebbe Municipal Council building and imposingly staring down visitors in the recreational park.
The famous square, however, is getting derelict and is no longer accessible to most residents of Entebbe and tourists. A water fountain in front of the Muzinga monument has since gone dry. The tiles covering the walls of its basin have started to fall off.
This is mainly because the road between the main gate to State House Entebbe and Muzinga Square is now closed. And this is just one of four roads that the Special Forces Command (SFC), which among other things guards President Museveni, has closed to the public in a period of less than two years.

Reports show that SFC is in advanced stages of taking over one of the two major public hospitals in the area – Entebbe Grade A Hospital – a move which was abandoned in 2012 due to protests by residents.
The reason given for closing the roads and taking over of public spaces is the security of the President. Local leaders and residents ascribe other motives for the actions.
Entebbe Mayor Vincent Kayanja DePaul and Wakiso district chairman Matiya Lwanga Bwanika in separate interviews said their respective councils were not consulted before the spaces were taken over.
“We only heard it was for security reasons,” Mr Kayanja said. “There is no justification to close roads to residents.”
Mr Bwanika put the blame on President Museveni, who he says “is scared of the people”.

“If you overstay in power you begin to fear your shadows. If they closed roads after building new ones that would be fine but they are destroying even the ones they found (in place),” Mr Bwanika says.

But Maj Chris Magezi, the SFC spokesperson, seems to see something Mr Bwanika and Mr Kayanja don’t.
“This is not rocket science, the threat of terrorism has been on the rise and that is why all countries have taken up preventive measures to deter terrorism,” Mr Magezi says.
He adds: “As far as I know, those roads can be used by the public but there must be checkpoints. Some people may find it hard to explain themselves to soldiers but if you tell them I need to go to this point and it is the only road, they will allow you. It is for the issues of security.”
Residents we talked to for this article say they now have to seek alternative, longer routes to get to their different destinations.
At the area neighbouring Muzinga Park, the SFC soldiers also enforce a ban on photography. Previously, the park was open to the members of the public to rest, hold parties, meetings and take photos.
Couples would while away the evenings in the park as they took in the sites of the beautiful Entebbe Golf Course scenery and Lake Victoria. Now an orange cable tightly holds the park’s rusty black gate. Reports of cameras being confiscated from the tourists and other passersby are common.

These days, residents say, those who risk getting a photo do so only in their moving cars or on top of nearby buildings, and still at the risk of being lashed by the soldiers should they be spotted.
Vehicles are not allowed to park anywhere outside the double-fenced State House and if one is caught they are lucky to leave with some thrashing as a taxi driver arrested loading a passenger opposite St John’s Church told this reporter of what happened to him and his conductor.
The same rule is strictly enforced at the nearby SFC headquarters housed at part of the former Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) offices in Entebbe.
Growing up in Entebbe, we would play in the park and “fire” the “powerful” gun mimicking the soldier statues.
We were told many stories about the monument including an ongoing search for the unique pin, dropped by former President Idi Amin in Lake Victoria as he escaped the advancing Tanzanian troops, which could get the powerful gun to work again.
Since the re-opening of the magnificent State House after its refurbishing, the section between the main Entebbe road and Entebbe Chief Magistrates Court would temporarily be closed to motorists when State House had “important” visitors. Pedestrians would be allowed through all the time nonetheless. All this changed early this year when SFC soldiers sealed off the road.
Pedestrians and motorists from the Entebbe International Airport and the surrounding towns and trading centers wishing to access facilities like Entebbe Chief Magistrates Court, Entebbe General Hospital both Grade A and B, banks, offices of utility companies and other business have to go through other alternative routes.
The move, business owners we talked to say, has cost the town in economic terms. Taxis that used to pass through the main town now drop passengers along the main road and only a few pass through the town, costing the businesses within the town potential customers.

Nsamizi view road
The use of Nsamizi View Road near the home of former Entebbe Municipality MP, Dr David Byatike Matovu, has also since been restricted from public use by SFC guards at the gate heading to SFC’s Dr Ronald Bata Medical Center.
Some of the residents we spoke to say they have since created shortcuts to access their homes. When our reporter tried to use the road under the guise of being lost on a boda boda, he was quickly repelled and told to go back without explanation by the mean-looking guards.
Other residents in the area we approached declined to speak to us. One resident said the reporter was an operative of the State “looking for information to use against us”. Similar concerns were raised by residents in the nearby villages of Banga and Busambaga where SFC has too taken over public roads.

Busambaga Crescent
Located off Busambaga Road near Winners’ Chapel International, Entebbe church, the road which connects to Entebbe Town via Entebbe Mayors Garden was according to residents closed late 2015.
Concrete barricades and poles were mounted near the gate of the Special Forces Command Service Battalion, blocking motorists and unauthorised pedestrians from using the road.
The major activity in the area occupied by the Force is the repair of SFC and State House vehicles, says a resident who asked not to be named for security reasons. Like in all the other places, stopping around the area is strictly prohibited.
Residents fear SFC may yet block more roads especially near the force’s barracks housed at the Force’s Marine Barracks.

Living in harmony
The residents of Entebbe have for many years lived in harmony with members of the armed forces. The Uganda Air Force, now Uganda People’s Defence Air Forces (UPDAF), has been headquartered in Entebbe since the early 1960s when it was formed and has had a harmonious co-existence with the population.
It has bases and barracks within the municipality and it has, according to our information, never locked out the members of the public.
Bulime Road, for example, passes in the middle of the quarters for senior UPDAF officers located on either side of the road. The road has, however, been used by both the residents and the air force officers for decades without reported conflict.
Air force also has a barracks in Katabi Sub-county which has a secondary school, among other things, accessible to the public. Barricades are only mounted at the barracks gate with both the forces and the public sharing the nearby roads.

Dustan Nsubuga Road
Banga, an area that once bustled with motorists and pedestrians heading to the nearby Banga football pitch and to various residences, is now deserted as Dustan Nsubuga road is shut off.
The 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Special Forces Group 1, which has headquarters and barracks in the area, closed the road for “security reasons”. On both ends of the road, soldiers without notice, according to Mr Ramathan Wakholi, a resident, erected used car tyres and poles, leaving the residents to create short cuts to the pitch and their homes.
“You don’t dare pass there unless you want to be beaten,” Mr Wakholi says. “Initially it was hard to move about after the closure, but we now find our way about.”
Ms Rebecca Nansamba, the area councillor, says she and other local leaders approached the commander of the barracks about the closed road, but the commander told them the move was prompted by “white terrorists” arrested near the barracks.
“They promised they would re-open the road by the end of December,” Ms Nansamba says, but added that the residents are still waiting.
Nakiwogo Close (Kanagwa), which had previously been closed by SFC, is the only road that has since been re-opened following pressure from the residents.

Grade A Hospital

It is not clear why SFC and the local leaders and people have been in conflict for the relatively shorter period the Force has been in Entebe.
In 2011 residents led by Wakiso district chairman, Mr Bwanika and other local leaders opposed the takeover of Entebbe Grade A hospital by SFC. The move is reportedly back on table.
Like in the case of the roads, SFC officials cite “security reasons” to support their plans to take over the hospital, which sits on a four-acre piece of land with a State House gate in between it and the Magistrates court on the other end.
The hospital, which used to serve more than 5,000 patients, has since been abandoned with the colonial building set up in 1904 rotting away. The only development is a temporary iron sheet structure erected at the hospital to serve patients during the renovation of the nearby Entebbe Grade B Hospital.
“They are trying to intimidate our technocrats to sign away the hospital. As far as we are concerned, that is a district hospital and it will remain so until they give us an alternative,” Mr Bwanika alleges.
Mr Bwanika argues that SFC and State House officials are interested in the prime land, the hospital sits on and not building a facility to benefit Entebbe residents.
For a compromise, Mr Bwanika says they (SFC and State House) should set up a health facility on a similar or bigger piece of land in the area before taking over the land where Grade A hospital is currently situated.
No such negotiations are going on for now. The bad blood between SFC and the residents continues.