My trip to Kampala city and what we can learn from the Founders of Mount Saint Mary’s College Namagunga – by Edward M

My trip to Kampala city and what we can learn from the Founders of Mount Saint Mary’s College Namagunga – by Edward M

Yesterday I drove to Kampala to buy some stuff, on the way and while there, I observed a few things that I would like to share with you.

First I drove past the new Jinja Bridge. It still looks very nice though there are some rumours that it has again developed cracks barely a few months after it was repaired. Hopefully it can be fixed with no extra drama.
Anyone who knows a thing about Uganda, knows that any public works that goes beyond one Billion shillings would not easy for many Ugandans or Chinese based in Uganda to manage. There will be stories of corruption, accusations, counter accusations, requests for time extensions, requests for extra money, petitions to IGG, CID, Parliament, Courts of law, State house, etc. That’s the direction the Jinja main street road took.

The Central Business district of Kampala is the most challenging place  for me to drive in, no sense of order at all by motorists, traffic hold up lasts for hours. Since many Ugandans including top policy makers have little appreciation for time keeping, nobody seems to be in a hurry to solve the Uganda traffic problem, so we may be in for a long wait until someone one day wakes up from sleep, put politics aside then get a solution. Dar es Salaam city in Tanzania has somehow found a solution to their traffic Jams, last year I was there and found them abit organized. If we were serous, all it would take would be a visit to Dar es Salaam ,interact with their city policy makers and technical people, learn lessons then come back to Kampala and apply/implement them.

Almost every shop you enter in, in Kampala, just like it is in Jinja and much of Uganda is stocked with foreign/imported products. Even the stuff I bought yesterday was imported; I actually found when the lady had just received the shipment, that means I just exported a portion of my earnings to a foreign country. Much of the stuff (fuel,shoes,pens,car,computer,phone,clothes,etc) I use on a daily basis is imported. So assuming I earn 200,000/- a month, about three quarters (150,000/-) of my salary would be going into buying foreign/imported products. This in my opinion would mean that am indirectly supporting the creation of Jobs not in Uganda but in another country. The more we buy imported stuff, the more we are exporting our earnings and the poorer we are becoming, although we may not see that. I don’t know why are we are so much fascinated by foreign stuff.

At the leadership institute, one of the requirements for gradation is writing a book. These people are encouraging us to re-claim our pens and author the story of our lives, which I like so much. Why should we all the time be buying foreign books to learn what to do? We need as many Ugandan authors as possible to write our own stories, if we don’t, other people will. Otherwise what will happen if we eat foreign/imported food, read foreign books, use foreign clothes, use foreign cars,use foreign languages,use foreign aid money, use foreign pens, shoes, or even may be have a foreign imposed leader who claim to have people power, yet at a closer look, it’s actually foreign powers propelling him,etc ? Then we take on thought patterns of those people? No wonder unnecessary foreign cultures are gaining root in Uganda. And pastors are very busy continuously “fighting” the devil.

The solution according to me would be to engage in some sort of production, say large scale agriculture and agro processing. So farmers in Busoga who are engaged in large scale sugar cane growing shouldn’t be blamed by anyone, at least they are engaging in some form of production which is contributing to national development/GDP. Anyone who is utilizing their land for commercial purposes and local productions should be applauded. I hear some fellas whom I suspect to be ignorant claiming that sugar cane growing in Busoga is causing poverty, I wonder how? Many districts in Acholi sub-region have huge chunks of idle fertile land, I don’t hear of food abundance there, I only hear of WFP feeding them, while at the same time vast chunks of fertile land lay idle next to their dwelling hats.

At our leadership Institute, we were asked to write a 2029 letter to our assessors,probably to help us develop a vision/clear mental picture of what we plan and expect to accomplish in ten years time. Good exercise. It’s always good to plan long-term.

Now as I travel to Kampala, I pass by Mount Saint Mary’s College Namagunga which is located on the Jinja –Kampala highway, its is approximately 44 kilometres east of Kampala and about 5 kilometres west of Lugazi town. The college was founded in February 1942 by Mother Mary Kevin of the Franciscan Sisters for Africa.
It seems this idea of seeing far away in the future is what the founders of this school had in mind when they decided to build this wonderful school far away from the city. Remember during the time when this school was built, colonialists where still in charge of Uganda, there was plenty of land in down town Kampala, but because of probably the foresighted of these guys,foreseeing that in the future the city would expand, these guys built as far away from the capital city as possible. Lesson learnt:-It’s always good to plan long term, today land may be cheaper in your village but ten years from now, it could cost triple than what its costing today.

Blessings- Edward