How Uganda is communicating two years after Covid pandemic

Tomorrow, all roads will lead to the twin shrines at the Minor Basilica in Namugongo for the Catholics and Anglican Shrine to celebrate Martyrs Day.

The Catholic Mass will be officiated by Fort Portal Diocese Bishop Robert Muhiirwa while the five great Ankole dioceses will lead services at  the Anglican.

Namugongo sits at the heart of the second largest municipal centre in Uganda, Kiira Municipality. The municipality has  over half a million residents, dwarfing in size and population all the regional cities created by Parliament in 2020.

Next door to Kira is Nansana Municipality the third largest  and fastest growing municipal centre with a day-time population of one million people.

This year’s pilgrimage to Namugongo  finds the country at an economic and spiritual crossroads after the shock of the pandemic.

At this time last year, the Delta variant was raging in the country choking up critical infrastructure. Taking cue from alarming statistics, the President on May 31, 2021 had declared a 42-day total lock-down whose last restrictions were lifted in January 2022.

The battering of the economy has drifted into social life. All sorts of crime, petty theft and economic malaise are pervasive. In 2020, Uganda was showered with excessive rains. In 2021, the rains were normal outside the lakeshed, while in 2022, the rains first delayed and have skipped area outside the lake region. So the drops of good news in the economy, higher coffee prices, etc. are caught up in this situation.

Communicating this sense of anxiety has been a challenge. Religious leaders attending to their flocks are battling lower Church attendances.

The last several months have been dominated by bare knuckled pugilists in the Evangelical sector partly driven by headcount challenges. Both the Catholics and Protestants at the first Martyrs Celebration will have new Archbishops presiding, Paul Ssemogerere and Steven Kazimba Mugalu. What the Christians are feeling now is probably what the Muslims have felt for a longer period, lack of an authoritative faith figure whose appeal goes beyond religious faiths. Uganda is yet to produce a figure like Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga (1914-1991), who enjoyed this appeal.

Ugandans partly a product of history have taken on a new aggressive posture especially on social media. Having conceded the political stage to the incumbent, the most memorable statements are yet to come in 2022. This year my friend Robert Mukhooli Kabushenga, a lawyer turned media actor formerly boss of the New Vision parked his guns at Parliament to strongly vocalise against the Vince Coffee deal and this week broke the internet with his own hugely personal story from the “broke” economy. Anyone who hasn’t heard of the angst in the financial sector and non-performing loans is living on the moon.

But the wittiest remark of the year as yet came from my classmate and childhood friend John Mary Sempeebwa, is “old money”, my neighbour in Kalangala.

 Johnnie lives in the alternate universe. A first rate brain and Economist, he had three tenures at the Chamber of Commerce, Private Sector Foundation and Tourism Bureau before being unfairly forced out. Johnnie for years has been a reliable Movement pundit, scrabble master recreated in a totally new profession, a pioneer in the private sector Antiquities sub-sector. From scratch he set up two (not one) museums in Kampala and Kalangala. The Ssemagulu Museum is on the family estate in Mutundwe and Ssese Museum in downtown Kalangala.

Responding to the President’s latest fireside prattle urging Ugandans to tighten their belts using two Luganda words, “okukekkereza” conservation and okwesonyiwa (“abandonment”.  Johnnie tongue in cheek was picked up by NBS tongue in cheek stating the obvious for the record, government had engaged neither gear okukkereza and okwesonyiwa.  

Kabushenga broke the internet, Sempeebwa left no internet in place. The 30 second audio was forwarded as fast as the internet could handle. He wasn’t in a hurry to make his point, yet it landed with a thud.  Happy Martyrs Day.

 Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. 

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