Airport Covid-19 tests and  other Ugandan nightmares

This week I had a guest arriving at Entebbe International Airport from a neighbouring country. 

Like all travellers arriving at Entebbe airport as per the latest rules, my guest had to undergo a Covid-19 test and wait for the results. I had sent a driver to the airport to pick them up. It was a four-hour wait for the driver and the incoming guest. 

Throughout the four hours, I was on the phone monitoring the situation, inside and outside the arrival lounge. My guest was trapped inside, where he had to remain until the Covid-19 results were returned. 

Outside, the driver’s phone battery was running out, not less because of all the calls back and forth. I could only imagine the hardship both guest and driver were going through. Had they even eaten, I wondered. 

When they finally left the airport just before dark, I was beyond feeling relieved. I was more than a little annoyed. Why do we keep setting up systems for which we lack the competence to manage? The incompetence is everywhere and it permeates almost every sector. A public service that works well seems to be the exception rather than the norm.

Do we just have a knack of employing the incompetents to manage our public services or do they learn these special skills of poor management on the job? Not too long ago, when getting a passport was still an analogue exercise, I went to apply for a passport renewal. 

I took a day off work on the day of application. The queues were long but I got through and then when I was finally at the desk of the clearing officer, I had to watch him pass my application over as he worked on other apparently urgent files which were being slotted in ahead of me as I sat at the officer’s desk. All this was happening on my work time. This official was unapologetically wasting my time. 

Since I didn’t want to kick up a storm and annoy Mr High & Mighty and probably spend another day on this task, I kept mum and put up with the mistreatment. At least I got through the application in one day.

Then came the time of collection and for several weeks after my application, I would come, sit in a queue for several hours only to be told: Come back Monday. Come back Friday. Come back Wednesday. When I got tired of repeating this, I decided to give the passport a rest. I had applied for it and maybe I would get it someday. 

On the day I got my passport, the official at the final desk first sent me off to another office to get a translation of the bad handwriting on the pink slip which one of their own staff had written on completing my passport application. I still think the only reason I got my passport that day was because the officer saw my media ID. 

I won’t even start on the process of getting an academic transcript from Makerere University at the time I went there. If proving my abilities was dependent on displaying my transcript, I would have been jobless for years. 

I could go on and on; from officials who extort citizens to merely certify their details in public records to those who absent themselves from public office, leaving people waiting for crucial decisions and signatures, Ugandan public offices just seem to transform their occupants into incompetent demi gods who hold everyone at ransom as if they are serving in family businesses handed down by their grandparents.

Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant     
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