The relief was palpable when the lockdown was partially lifted last month, until we found ourselves in traffic jams, consistent and enduring like never before.
This came as a surprise, since the pesky boda bodas and their more nefarious cousins the taxis were off the road. We blame everything on those two, even our inability to keep time.
Explanations came fast and thick – people are being forced out of the city all at once (the dusk-to-dawn curfew was not lifted), people are using their cars since there are no taxis, people are so glad to be out and about they are just driving around and it went on an and on.
In September 1996 the city traders went on strike to protest the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT). The tax which was introduced following the budget that year was too complicated to implement, they complained. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on their part believed people were complaining because was because VAT was much harder to evade than the ineffectual Sales Tax that it replaced.
But the immediate impact of the strike was that the roads were clear of traffic for the week that it happened. Suddenly we knew who drive the cars in Kampala....
This time around the arcades, which replaced the lockups that lined downtown Kampala are shut, but there is still traffic.
Schools and learning institutions another source of our snarl-ups too, are closed.
Many businesses and offices are not firing at full capacity – I can tell by how much easier it is to get parking in town.
So what then is causing all this traffic, I wonder.
It is obvious that
the rush to beat the curfew, coupled with our propensity to always do things last minute is fueling the evening traffic.
Observers say that we will be lucky this year if Uganda can manage half the 6 percent growth it showed last year.
And the evidence before our eyes – closed shops, silent factories and rotting matooke are proof enough.
The text books say that economic activity is the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. In a vibrant economy people are on the move to do their part in that equation.
So you can see why our best economists are scratching their balding pates.
In these depressed economic times where is everybody going?
Maybe the key is in the arcades. Many of the traders locked out of their shops have found a way to start delivery services. Now without passing through the more established delivery services, with a call or whatsapp you can everything from charcoal to refrigerators and everything in between delivered to your house.
This would make sense. These cars were previously parked outside the arcades or at home – for use only on the weekend maybe, but now are criss crossing the city delivering stuff...
I was told a story oncec of how a low level security informant went AWOL because his office planned to transfer him to Moroto.
“I make sh100,000 a day in Kampala by kuyiyaring, how much would I make in Moroto,” was the thought process that sealed his decision to abscond from duty.
Pressed against the wall with no job or lower pay,
people are investing in a few liters of fuel to come into town, hoping proximity to the economic machine that is Kampala – last I checked it accounted for seven in every ten shillings generated in this economy, could lead to a few crumbs falling over the steering wheel into their laps....
If the above is true, the unrelenting traffic through out the day suggests that we have a lot of cars that don’t make it to town during ordinary days. We are parking our cars at home in the hope of dodging Kampala’s growing traffic, but now with few public transport options we are pulling them out to join in the melee.
But I think the traffic is indicative of a bigger issue.
In all the experts’ projections they have put a premium on closed shops, mothballed factories and the quiet at our airport as a measure of how badly the economy will be hit.
Clearly we did not factor in that in the face of hardship Ugandans are not going to just rollover and die. They are going to hustle. They are going to push. They are going to scrap and scratch....
There is hope for us. Clearly most Ugandans are not moaners and groaners.
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