Kigali’s cleanliness: Can Kampala learn some lessons from them?
A pedestrian crosses a road in downtown Kigali, Rwanda, on March 22, 2020. PHOTO/FILE/NMG
What you need to know:
- One evening, I was seated near a woman in a taxi who after eating sugarcane, threw the husks through the window. I told her what she had done was wrong, and asked if she would throw that rubbish in her house? Looking at me with shock, she asked what wrong she had done.
Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, has earned itself a worldwide recognition as one of the top cleanest cities in Africa, what a pride. In 2018, UN Environment Programme Head, Eric Solheim referred to Kigali as the “cleanest city on the planet” Other African cities that have featured on the top list of the cleanest are Cape Town (South Africa), Tunis (Tunisia), Port Louis – Mauritius, Johannesburg – South Africa, Gaborone – Botswana, Windhoek – Namibia, Nairobi – Kenya, Kumasi – Ghana, Dar es Salaam – Tanzania.
Every time I visit this beautiful land of a thousand hills (Rwanda), I can’t stop but admire how clean every part of the country is, and deeply wish it was the same story in Uganda, especially the capital-Kampala.
My recent visit was mid-this month with a group of Rotary Peace Fellows from 17 different countries globally. As part of the fellowship programme to study issues such as mass atrocities, identity, ethnicity, indigenous methods of conflict resolution, particularly the Gacaca System, and to understand how media and ethnicity can fuel conflict, we went to different genocide memorial sites in the northern, southern, and eastern provinces, and they were mesmerised by how clean the city was compared to Uganda.
From the city to the outskirts of these provinces, all roads and streets are very clean. And to add icing on the cake, they deliberately planted trees on most streets and highways, making the country greener and more beautiful.
But more so, studies show that trees in cities offer numerous benefits including improved air and water quality, reduced urban heat, and positive impacts on mental and physical health. Kigali’s cleanliness always leaves me asking myself, do our leaders including those in charge of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) visit such countries? If yes, what have they learnt regarding proper waste management and sanitation? If not, can they start exchange visits, learn, plan and implement policies, actively engage citizens in urban hygiene promotion.
Cleanliness is one of the key elements of a city’s image. But sometimes when I look at Kampala, I wonder whether it is the country’s capital city. When you go down town, it is very common to see women seated on top of garbage heaps selling foodstuffs like vegetables, fruits, boiled maize, and some people are buying and eating from there. It is unbelievable how some people don’t care about their health.
Drainages are clogged with all sorts of rubbish including polythene bags, stagnant water. These have contributed to air pollution. There are parts of town I pass hurriedly to avoid the stench, and I keep asking myself, how did we get here?
I have seen many Ugandans intentionally throw rubbish anywhere, and say KCCA workers will clean them up. One evening, I was seated near a woman in a taxi who after eating sugarcane, threw the husks through the window. I told her what she had done was wrong, and asked if she would throw that rubbish in her house? Looking at me with shock, she asked what wrong she had done. After I explained to her the negative consequences of littering, she apologised and said she didn’t know.
Does that mean that Ugandans who throw rubbish any where are ignorant of the consequences such as air and water pollution, spread of diseases and economic impacts, among others. If that is the case, there is a need for mass sensitisation of the general public about the dangers of littering garbage in their respective communities and workplaces. This can contribute towards behaviour change.
Speaking of behaviour change, I asked a Rwandan friend who is also a rotary peace fellow how Rwanda became successful in this regard. He acknowledged that it is combination of different factors including effective governance, strict supervision of orders for adherence, strict policies on waste management and environmental protection, including a ban on plastic bags, community general cleaning of every end of Saturday of each month, an initiative known as Umuganda etc.
With such initiatives, he said it became a culture, and now, government no longer puts in more effort than locals’ initiatives.
These are some of the initiatives Uganda can learn from Kigali. With serious policy implementation, intentional citizen involvement, political will from the central government to provide sufficient funding for KCCA to effectively carry out its mandate, we shall see a better city.
Ugandans deserve to live and work in a better, clean city and country.
Vivian Agaba, journalist, editor, and current Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University.
