{UAH} WHY ARCADES, CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED BUT KIKUUBO IS OPEN

WHY ARCADES, CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED BUT KIKUUBO IS OPEN

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CHANGE OF GUARDS - There is an ongoing public debate as to the rationale of Museveni allowing the overcrowded Kikuubo to operate but continues to deny churches, schools, arcades, Kiseka Market and others from operating.  It should be noted that breaking the back of the politically hostile urban residents, and in particular, those in Kampala city was one of the motives behind Museveni's arbitrary COVID-19 lockdown.  Historically, urban residents have openly been opposed to his hold on power and are at the forefront of what he perceives as the greatest threat; mass street uprising.  He closed all shops, street vending, hawking and public transport.  His aim was to economically cripple the economic livelihoods of these people so that they either migrate to the rural areas or demonstrate political loyalty  to him.

Going by the trend of past street protests, there are known geographic strongholds like the spare parts dealers at Kiseka Market, taxi parks, Boda Boda stages, specific market places like Kalerwe, Kibuye and streets like Nkurumah and Nasser Roads, not to mention Bwaise slums.  A close look at these places and traders reveals that they are predominantly ethnic Baganda.  He had left his Chinese and Indian dominated factories operating.  Sustainable production required continued supply of some of the raw materials that had to be imported.  The finished products needed to reach the market within the country and beyond the borders. That is why he allowed cross-border trucks to continue operating.  In order to help these factories sell their construction material products, he allowed hardware shops to operate.  Also at hand, was the popular Kikubo which is the distribution centre of the locally manufactured goods from his Indian and Chinese owned factories.

A quick research reveals that the traders in Kikuubo are predominantly people from Kigezi and Ankole sub-region. The same goes for the thousands of youth who do the loading and offloading of goods.  For obvious reasons, Kikuubo traders don't involve themselves in protests of any form and are rated as being loyal to the Museveni regime.  It's for these two reasons that, despite its being overcrowded with a beehive of activities, Kikuubo has been allowed to operate. On the other hand, trade in the shopping arcades is dominated by imported products mostly apparels, electronics, mobile phones, cosmetics, decorations, fabrics etc and is predominantly run by ethnic Baganda. The few Westerners who operate in arcades have family members in other sectors of government from where they can economically survive even out of business. Moreover, the regime has deliberately connived with the arcade owners to compel the tenants to pay rent arrears for the time their shops were closed.

In order to isolate arcades from shopping malls and supermarkets, the regime defined a shopping arcades as crowded shops that sell general merchandise. It went ahead to identify malls as Acacia Village Mall, Imperial Mall, Metroplex Mall, Oasis Mall, Garden City, Kingdom Kampala, Shoprite Lugogo,Victoria Mall and Marigold Mall. The arcades were identified with Nabukeera, Nalubwama, Kizito, Ggaliraya, Mutaasa Kafeero, Energy Centres, Qualicel and Are Park.  Museveni allowed shopping malls to operate but closed shopping arcades.  He went ahead to set stringent conditions for the reopening of shopping arcades - only 3 occupants per shop, 2 metre distance between shop attendants, no operations of business in corridors, on stair cases, on doors and other makeshift structures, demarcation and marking of points where the buyer will stop, to serve one customer at ago and to increase the number of guards who are to manage temperature guns, hand washing and sanitizing gates Among other measures.

If you didn't know, you now know.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM

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Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:Assalamu Alaikum

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