Ghetto President Bobi Wine

People getting poorer

Chairman Mulyamenvu agrees with Bobi.

“People are getting poorer,” he says, “The local leaders do not serve people, when they are given money, they just eat it.”

“We last saw development projects meant to serve the people 10 years ago,” he adds.

He says any development in the area is by some local politicians and philanthropists who use their own money. Some buy a few iron sheets for one or two community toilets and construct walkways above the open sewers. Others constructed storm drains but most of the drainage channels have not been worked on at all.

Mulyamenvu points at the small kiosks that sell cigarettes, small packets of sugar and salt and other knickknacks as a clear sign that these urban poor are resilient and determined to eke a living in these tough conditions.

“But instead of uplifting them and supporting them to defeat poverty as Sebataka says, the authorities just make them poorer by taxing them heavily,” he says.

The story of Kisenyi I is the story of the many slums that have sprouted around Kampala city and accommodate about a million of the urban poor.

Even though he says he supports the ruling NRM party of President Yoweri Museveni, the LC chairman says the triumph of opposition candidates in the recent election was a protest vote against the government.

In another Kampala suburb of Kyebando, which is right next to Kamwokya, angry residents even set voting materials on fire in angry protests. The election results showed a clear pattern and trend. Most urban dwellers voted for the opposition, especially FDC’s Besigye.

Across the slums, Museveni’s votes averaged 25% and he managed between 30-40% in Kampala, Wakiso and the other 14 urban districts, in which his four time challenger Kizza Besigye emerged the victor.

A January poll by a local firm, Research World International, had showed that Museveni’s biggest support base was amongst poor rural dwellers and the richest in society. Besigye was most popular among the urban dwellers and working class middle income earners. Some of Kampala’s richest people; tycoons like Tom Mugenga, Apollo Nyegamahe, Charles Mbiire, Patrick Bitature, Robert Mwesigwa and Kellen Kayonga all heavily funded the Museveni’s campaign in their home regions. Besigye, on the other hand, was picking contributions from peasants on the campaign trail.

Even the campaigning planks differed. Museveni campaigned more on the big infrastructure investments while his closest rivals, Amama Mbabazi and especially Kizza Besigye, focused on down-to-earth survival issues. Besigye while surfing the wave of disgruntlement exposed the poor state of hospitals and schools, and promised teachers better salaries and jobs for the urban unemployed youth.

Museveni’s infrastructure projects were music in the rural areas where opening of access roads eases transport and trade.

In urban areas like Kampala and Wakiso, it is a different story. Every road expansion or new hospital displaces many urban poor and comforts the rich.

In the end, Besigye grew his votes from 2 million in the 2011 elections to 3.5 million in the just concluded election. Museveni only added slightly over 700,000 votes.

Apart from Kampala and Wakiso, Besigye beat Museveni in Masaka, Kasese, Arua Gulu, Soroti, Tororo, and Rukungiri, which all have major towns.