We must act and be present, for we are the ones we have been waiting for

A few months ago residents in our tranquil village in Kira, Wakiso, woke up to find half the road gone. People with earthmoving equipment had turned up in the wee hours and started digging up half the road.

The trench was deeper than the ones usually dug to lay water pipes, and it was too far inside the road – in fact almost in the middle – to be a storm drain. More importantly, there had been no prior warning, and no consultation of area residents.

Eventually someone mentioned that they were laying an underground power cable. By this time the road had been turned into a one-way dirt track. There was no one to manage the traffic, so cars piled up. Tempers flared.

On the second day whoever was digging up the road responded to this growing frustration of area residents by – wait for it – deploying armed soldiers to protect their diggers. Some residents would wake up and find that they could not drive out of their homes because the road had been dug up. Others left but could not drive back in when they returned.

There was nothing to do. The armed soldiers made sure that the unlawfulness and disorderliness was maintained. The contractor did not have any signage or provide any information about how they could be contacted. When a local official was asked whether the road works had been authorised, he responded, in a tone marinated in arrogance and dripping with condescension, that it was a confidential contract that could only be accessed by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

To this day no one really knows who the contractor was. The road that was dug up had been tarmacked through a fundraising effort led by local residents. It has never been repaired. Some of the areas that were dug up were not compacted in properly and cars have been known to sink into the soft ground, especially after heavy rain.

In any civilised society the contractor and the local elected leaders would have given prior warning to residents about the impending roads works and associated inconveniences. This warning would have indicated what the project was about, how long it would take, and who was responsible for what. There should have been traffic control including alternative routes. The dust should have been managed.

They would also have been required to restore the road to its previous condition, or improve it as some form of restitution to the community. None of that happened. The power distributor Umeme, which must be the beneficial owner of the underground cable, has said absolutely nothing about the matter.

Shouldn’t companies, particularly those that are listed, be considerate about the environmental, social and governance impacts of the work they do, including that done on their behalf by independent contractors?

 Does Umeme know about this particular nuisance? Do major shareholders like NSSF, Allan Gray, Kimberlite Frontier Africa and even the International Finance Corporation hold it to any level of good corporate governance?

One would have hoped that the opposition NUP party, which runs our municipality, would have used the few areas it controls to demonstrate more consultative and accountable governance, in order to be trusted with bigger responsibilities. Instead they now find themselves in the remarkable position of having destroyed a road that a previous NRM-leaning mayor helped to build!

If we are to build a better country we must start with community-level mobilisation. Next week I intend to file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out who the contractor was, who approved the works, and what obligations and conditions they had to fulfil.

Seeking accountability should start from the community, and from the lower elected leaders, whether in government or in opposition. I encourage you, Dear Reader, to do your part. Visit the local school and find out if the teacher has turned up, and if they are really teaching. Visit the local health centre and see if the doctor is in. If someone jumps the queue call them out and, if it is safe to do so, drag them back. If someone lights a cigarette in a no-smoking zone politely ask them to step outside. If someone litters, ask them to pick it up.

We must be present and participate in community. Our quest for big changes must start small. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and  poor man’s freedom fighter. 

[email protected] 

Twitter: @Kalinaki