Why is Kampala such a disorganised city?

In what might be a first in Ugandan media history, in this Sunday Monitor, February 12, I’ve submitted a column but with a twist: It is co-written by a “chatbot” with the new software generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
ChatGPT, developed by an American company OpenAI, has taken the world by storm since it was released to the public in November 2022, for its ability to write almost as naturally and logically as a human being.
So, here we go. First to the chatbot’s explanation for why Kampala is so disorganised.

READ: We all want a smart City, but what kind of ‘cityzens’ 

How govt plans to turn Kampala into a smart city

Chatbot:
Kampala is the capital city of Uganda and has a population of more than four million people. It is one of Africa’s largest cities and one of the largest cities in East Africa.
The city is very organised and has good infrastructure, but it suffers from disorganisation due to its high population.
This includes both the physical and mental health of the citizens.
Public services in Kampala are insufficient due to its high population.
There are not enough doctors or hospitals to meet everyone’s needs, so people have to travel miles to receive medical attention.
This leads to higher costs and lower quality of care. In addition, garbage collection is inadequate; piles of trash accumulate in every neighbourhood.
Furthermore, there is a severe water shortage, so people can only afford to drink water from wells.

Transportation in Kampala is also disorganised due to the city’s high population. The government does not have enough buses or vans to transport everyone daily. This leads to people walking long distances and waiting weeks for buses – which are rarely on time.
People also drive their cars when they can, which increases air pollution and vehicle wear and tear. In addition, people must carry everything they need because no one else has brought these things into the city.
The natural resources in Kampala are also being lost due to disorganisation between the government and the citizens.

Many trees have been cut down in recent years due to poor government regulations. This leaves streets dangerous and unappealing for citizens and business owners alike.
There is also frequent garbage disposal; piles of trash accumulate in every neighbourhood. This makes Kampala unattractive for businesses and creates a health hazard for the citizens.
Despite its good infrastructure, Kampala faces several issues due to its high population. There are not enough doctors or hospitals to meet everyone’s needs, nor are there enough transportation options for such a large city.
In addition, resources are being lost due to disorganisation between the government and the citizens- which makes Kampala less attractive for business owners and less safe for citizens.
That was the chatbot. Now to my response.

Timothy Kalyegira:
In the above submission by the chatbot, one gets a generally workable overview of Kampala.
The opening paragraph describing Kampala is accurate, but it would suit more a primary or secondary school essay or homework than an article in Sunday Monitor.
For those who know Kampala, the first line of the second paragraph (“The city is very organised and has good infrastructure...”) is obviously a joke.
There’s a hint of truth when the chatbot mentions the “mental health” issues facing Kampala residents, something I discussed at length in the Christmas Day edition of Sunday Monitor, December 25, 2022.

The chatbot doesn’t describe the detail and seriousness of this mental health crisis, and so future writers, students, and policy planners will be able to produce better work than the new AI-powered software if they can show a grasp of local, lived experience in detail.
When the chatbot says public services are insufficient in Kampala due to the high population, it overlooks the fact that mega-cities like Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, and Seoul have many times more people than Kampala but their public services are world-class.

The chatbot is spot on when it notes that many trees have been cut down in Kampala due to poor government regulation, and nothing further needs to be added to that.
The chatbot states that there are not enough doctors and hospitals in Kampala to meet everyone’s needs.
That’s partly true, but the more accurate thing would be that there are enough hospitals and health centres; what is lacking in most of them, as anyone who knows Kampala is aware of, is a sufficient supply of drugs, especially in the health centres.

As for the chatbot’s observation that there are not enough “transportation options for such a large city”, I think the problem might be the opposite: There are too many options, from taxi vans to private cars, government vehicles and buses, bicycles, and of course the boda boda.
The problem is the lack of order and regulation in the city to create a cohesive transport system.
My verdict is that ChatGPT and other auto-generative AI technology are good at creating overviews, general summaries.

But, like newspaper horoscopes, they are short on specifics.
So, analysts, secondary school and university students, project writers, and book authors will have to give granular specifics, naming places, people, events, institutions, and so on.
You can’t discuss Kampala City’s many problems without mentioning the specifics of the power struggle between State House and the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, the vested interests in the boda boda and taxi businesses, the wrangles over Kisekka, Owino, and Nakasero markets, the lack of sufficient tax collection to run the city, and the government’s lack of will or interest in enforcing discipline on the city residents.
So in summary, ChatGPT will take the jobs of random freelance newspaper or TV news bulletin writers.

It will certainly make most social media influencers and social media users irrelevant because of its excellent grammar and punctuation, which few on social media are good at.
But top writers and analysts have nothing to worry about.
My advice for the media, universities, the civil service, business corporations, is to start recruiting people with in-depth subject matter knowledge. People who really know their stuff and people who write fluently, intelligently, masterfully.